Rio 2016 Day 12 Review

With no medals and no Colin we bring you our shortest episode yet, which although may sound like a bad thing actually really isn't as it's always fun, right? We talk up basketball, talk down wrestling, cry over no sailing happening and discover the most boring Canadian athlete so far. Get clicking and get listening!

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EPISODE TRANSCRIPT

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

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BEN WATERWORTH: Good afternoon, evening, and good night once again from Off The Podium Olympics Podcast as we get into our 14th episode, continuing on our coverage of the 2016 Rio Olympic Games. Day 12 is over. Day 13 is about to make its appearance, but we're going to talk about day 12 because we don't know the future. And if we did, I probably wouldn't be hosting a podcast. I would be rich. But anyway, my name is Ben, excited to be back here. And it's just me and an Australian, no Canadians today. That Australian, of course, is Jarrod Loobeek. Jarrod, welcome back to Off The Podium.

JARROD LOOBEEK: Good to be back. Love talking about the Olympics.

BEN WATERWORTH: It's fascinating that Colin always seems to make an appearance when gold is won, or metal, I should say at least, and then buggers off when they don't win anything. I mean, if that was the case, there'd be no episode at all today, because neither of us won medals. No Australia, no Canadians. You know, did you feel like pulling a Colin and just be like, nothing to talk about, no medals? But you're committed, it seems.

JARROD LOOBEEK: Yeah, I mean, you've just got to talk about it. There's always something to talk about. I mean, I'm just going to blame today on the fact that the sailing got cancelled. I mean, clearly, we would have won medals, so we may as well talk about it anyway.

BEN WATERWORTH: Well, we guaranteed a medal in the sailing. But again, yes, you're exactly right, nothing, the wind, the weather, you know, bloody Rio, they make the water green, and then they can't control the weather, you know. I mean, if this was in Hobart, it would be controlled, but that's another story. But yeah, sadly, no medals for either Australia or Canada today. So we don't have a whole lot to talk about there. So we can pretty much get straight into the other results that weren't medal results, mainly for Australia. I've got like two here for Canada. Sorry, Colin, if you're listening to this, or all the Canadians wanting to know all about your results. But athletics, obviously, that's the big one going still at the moment. Decent-ish day for the Aussies. We had Brett Robinson qualify for the 5,000-metre final. Good on you, Robbo. Sadly, though, Patrick Tiernan and Sam McEntee, Paula Campbell did not make the final in the 800-metres women's Selma Kajan. Didn't qualify either for the final. Brooke Stratton, seventh in the women's long jump. And in the decathlon, your favourite event, Jarrod, Cedric Dubler is 12th. And Hamish Peacock and Josh Robinson missed out on the final of the javelin. Were you intrigued by the decathlon? Were you cheering on our man, Cedric?

JARROD LOOBEEK: I was. I mean, I said it yesterday. It's the athletes who are kind of average in everything and weren't world class in an individual sport, but seem to just be just okay to kind of compete in the decathlon and have a little bit of a go at everything. So yeah, it's an interesting sport. It's an interesting scoring system. And yeah, it was fun to watch having an Aussie there amongst the field.

BEN WATERWORTH: No repper charges in the decathlon. So when you get like eliminated, then you've got to come back 800 times before finally being eliminated?

JARROD LOOBEEK: Fortunately not, because yeah, it's bad enough in everything else. But could you imagine having to do 10 events all over again and again and again?

BEN WATERWORTH: Yes, I could imagine that would be quite tiring. The big news for us today, though, huge news. Basketball, the Boomers have broken the quarterfinal curse. They show Australian teams how they do it. They're through to their first semifinals in the Olympics for 16 years in Sydney 2000. And of course, in Sydney 2000 and in Atlanta, they both lost their semifinals and went on to lose the bronze medal match to Lithuania. And we've whooped Lithuania today. It's 90 to 64. We'll move on to the semifinals to play Serbia, who we beat already in this tournament. They knocked out Croatia. The Boomers doing is proud, though, Jarrod. We talked about this. We said it was all up to them. But we've already beaten Serbia. We can beat them again. And then we could be very much guaranteed, not only our first ever medal, but guaranteed a shot at gold, taking on the dream team again.

JARROD LOOBEEK: Yeah, it's exciting. Probably not the team. I mean, there are expectations for them to do well. But for a team that's never met before in the men's basketball, probably not the team that everybody was expecting to get themselves that far. So it's exciting. I mean, we had some great results earlier. Already beating Serbia. I mean, that's going to be a big boost. Our close match against the USA earlier in the Olympics. I think there's a lot of expectations on this team, and I think they can really do well.

BEN WATERWORTH: And Delevoe Dover is still playing. How would that sound? Delevoe Dover with a medal.

JARROD LOOBEEK: Oh, even better. I mean, he's the only person who's going to be interviewed post-game. The more things he can do, the better. So I'm hoping that he's soaring from everywhere. That he's on the bench, he's off the bench. Just the usual commentary about Delevoe Dover would be great to see more of it.

BEN WATERWORTH: Absolutely. And the other one, we're kind of jumping ahead of ourselves. So USA are playing Spain in the other semi-final after obviously both moved through. Now on the canoe kayak sprint, boy oh boy do we love this sport. Particularly when we've actually got a decent medal shot tomorrow. Kenny Wallace is already a gold medallist in this sport, and his new buddy bestie, Lachlan Tame, second fastest qualifier for the K2 1000 metre final. Decent effort there, Jarrod. Did you see Kenny and Lachy, boy?

JARROD LOOBEEK: I did not get to see them, but I'll definitely get to watch them in the finals. I mean, that's good. I mean, that's what you want for an athlete, an athlete who you miss in the semis, but they give you another chance to watch them in the finals.

BEN WATERWORTH: Right, provided us with one of our biggest shock gold medals from London four years ago. I think it was a K4, whatever it was. So you know, never count them out. We're kind of sitting back and really maybe not expecting to win any more medals at this point, at least gold. So yes, never know. Also in the other events, Jordan Wood and Daniel Balka, six in their semi of the K2, 200 metres. Why is that an event? Will be in the B final. Naomi Flood also in the B final of the K1, 500 metres. And Ferenc Cesekasadi will be in the B final of the C1. So lots of B finals, you know, come on people, BBB. Diving, Brittany O'Brien and Melissa Wu, both into the semi finals of the 10 metre platform. Good result there. The Equestrian. You might need to get back on top of this, Jarrod, because we're doing okay. Edwina Topps, Alexander and Matt Williams, both qualified for the individual show jumping final on Friday. Are you maybe rethinking your boycott of the sport ahead of this final in a couple of days?

JARROD LOOBEEK: It's a possibility just because we're running low on sports, so there is not a whole lot to watch at the tail end of the Olympics. And I do kind of miss Vicky's commentary, to be fair, so that might get me over the line.

BEN WATERWORTH: Don't we all? Golf, the women's golf started, woohoo! Minji Lee, four shots off the lead after round one. She had a birdie blitz again. I think that's the AOC's go-to phrase with anything to do with golf. And Su Oh, 26th place currently in that. Sailing cancelled, what a shame. Taekwondo started, yay! Maybe that's what Colin is. He's off trying to get back into Taekwondo. He's actually competing in his reverse sport climbing event yesterday and managed to meet a couple of Olympians. You can check out the pictures on our website. He got to hold a couple of silver medals and didn't put them around his neck. So that's generally what you do with them, Colin, but next time. Yeah, so in the 58 kilogram division, our Aussie Safwan Khalil lost 4-0 in the repacharge to Tae-Hoon Kim of Korea. So they even have repacharge in Taekwondo now. I didn't even know that.

JARROD LOOBEEK: Yeah, I mean, it's frustrating to me that the sports that, I mean, we'd like a repacharge in, we don't get them in. I mean, where's the repacharge in the women's basketball? The BMX, I think it's straight to semis, and then a final, one race in each. I mean, where's the repacharge there? I mean, any sport that we're good at, there doesn't seem to be repacharges in. So I mean, it's a little bit frustrating.

BEN WATERWORTH: Very much so. Water polo, well, I mean, we're not in it with the medal, but this is again one of these stupid sports where they've got to play off of positions. I mean, I think when the Opels lost, they were just like, the Opels are fifth, because they had the best, you know, pre-finals record, so they will finish fifth. But water polo, no, you've got to play off for fifth. The Stingers beat Brazil 11-4 and will now play either China or Spain to finish fifth. I mean, honestly, if I was in one of these team sports, and you get eliminated in the quarters, you're emotional, you're distraught, you're upset. You want to kind of just like relax. Your Olympics should be over. You can go and watch like a sane bolt or something like that. But like, no, you've got to regroup and come out and battle and put your wits on end to finish fifth. Do you really give a shit about that?

JARROD LOOBEEK: I don't think, well, I personally wouldn't. I think it's kind of a waste of time. Obviously, I've got to get a little bit more use out of the green pool. The water polo players probably having their eyes stung. I mean, they probably don't really want to play anymore. Yeah, I think surely once you lose in the knockout rounds, that should be it, unless there is a rep charge to get back in. But I mean, this is just counting to placings. What's the point? Just toss a coin and save some time.

BEN WATERWORTH: Can you imagine if they did this in like the Australian Open? Like, you know, 128 people, what, 64 move through. So then those 64 losers have to keep playing. No, hang on a minute, you've got to decide who finishes 116th. You just wouldn't care. You mentioned the BMX. That obviously got underway today. It's exciting sport, BMX. Definitely appealing to the kiddies, but I like watching it. So in the men's, it was a rankings round basically. So they all came out, tried to post the fastest time to see what they would be. And I think you've got quarterfinals in the men's, but the women's only had the semi-finals. So women get to skip around. So Sam Willoughby, second in the men's. Anthony Dean, 20th. And for some reason, I've just written the word Turner here in 12th. So somebody with a name Turner. Let's call him Bill. Bill Turner, 12th. And in the women's, Carolyn Buchanan, second, and Lauren Reynolds, 10th. So looking good for a couple of silver medals there, perhaps in the BMX in a couple of days when the medals are decided. That's basically Australia's results. Canada, again, I've only written here, they lost the volleyball quarterfinals. And Andre De Grasse, well, this was a very interesting little event. I don't know if you saw this one, Jarrod, but of course they had the semi-finals of the 200 metres. De Grasse was in Bolt's semi. Bolt obviously does what he does best, and gets a big enough lead that he just kind of turns it off and waltzes across the line. But De Grasse was basically like, no, I'm gonna try and beat you. He picked up the speed. Bolt's kind of looked over to him and went, what the hell are you doing, mate? And still beat him by very, very little. Apparently it was the fastest ever semi-final time Bolt's ever run. He kind of had a bit of a chuckle and a chat with him as he crossed the line, pointed at his finger and was like, you naughty boy. And then in all the post-race interviews, Bolt's kind of like, well, he shouldn't have done that. He didn't need to do that in the semi-finals. And De Grasse was just like, well, I wanted to try and beat him. I mean, did you see it? Jarrod, what did you think of it?

JARROD LOOBEEK: I did see it. I thought this was a fun moment. Just kind of to athletes having a laugh, I think. I mean, obviously, there's a little bit of a psychological advantage if you can beat Bolt in the semi-final. But really, I mean, he's not used to it, but he had plenty of time. He did his usual look around, and like you said, he just sped up a little bit when he needed to. Plenty left in the tank. Obviously, he was probably a little bit annoyed. He had to go a little bit harder at the end and not conserve that energy for the final, but it was just funny, and it was just good to see the camaraderie between the two.

BEN WATERWORTH: Big news out of that one is that Justin Gatlin didn't make the final, and neither did Johan Blake, so two big names not there. And I reckon Colin's probably quite excited about Degrass because the 19.8 that he ran was the Canadian national record, and he might be in the box seat for a silver medal. So we know he's gonna win the gold, but box seat for a silver, that's pretty decent there for him. But if we take a look outside the other results, still in sprinting and running, Elaine Thompson from Jamaica became the first ever Jamaican woman to win the 100 and 200 metres in the same Olympics. She beat out Daphne Shippers, who was a big favourite coming into that event, the Dutch woman, the reigning world champion. And Tori Bowie, I always think that's Bowie. I always think she's related to David Bowie, but no, never mind. That was the women's 200 metres. That was exciting. Also in the athletics, the US took a clean sweep in Sally's event, the women's 100 metre hurdle. See, you said this yesterday, didn't you, Jarrod? Without Sally, they come in here and they do it and the Americans dominate. Breonna Rollins took the gold medal for that one, took Sally's gold, let's be honest.

JARROD LOOBEEK: Yeah, exactly. Like I said yesterday, a hollow victory for her. Probably not much celebration going on. And really, I mean, she could just post that gold medal in the mail to Sally when she gets a chance.

BEN WATERWORTH: I'm surprised we didn't get Channel 7's blanket coverage of Sally watching it back home in the Gold Coast. Like, what's your reactions, Sally Pearson? Oh, I'm very disappointed. Okay, thanks, Sally, for your expert advice. Similar to when they had to interview Jarrod Hayne after watching Fiji win the gold medal. Duh, they're disappointed. They weren't there. What are they gonna be like? Oh, I'm actually really happy that she won the gold. I didn't want it. She's gonna post it to me anyway. That's what Jarrod said on Off The Podium. So, yeah, anyway. What else happened? We'll go over some of the other athletic ones after. The men's football. Brazil are through to the gold medal match. This is kind of what they expected. Six nil thrashing of Honduras. Neymar got a couple of golds there. One of their overage players. They're gonna play the Germans, my team. They beat Nigeria 2-0. Now, the interesting fact, these two countries are pretty much the greatest countries in the world when it comes to the World Cup. They've won the most World Cups between them, dominated the World Cup for now getting on to close to 100 years. But neither of these sides have won an Olympic gold medal. I believe Germany won it as East Germany, but for the most part, they classify West Germany results in the soccer for them at least. And Brazil, yes. Obviously, five World Cups they've won. They've been the best football side in the world in the history of football. Never won a gold medal either. So you kind of got these two great nations in world football that have never won the Olympic gold medal, Jarrod. Whose team are you on here? Team Brazil or Team Germany?

JARROD LOOBEEK: I'd have to say Team Germany. It's a little bit slack, but I just think it's kind of funny if Brazil doesn't win this and they've put so much heart into it and they want to win so badly. And that's really cruel of me. But I don't know, there's just something, I think more exciting to the story of Brazil failing at home and that gold medal in the soccer still eluding them.

BEN WATERWORTH: Well, two years ago, when the World Cup was in Brazil, we of course remember Brazil played Germany in the semi-final, and the Germans won that, a lazy 7-1. So history might repeat itself, who knows? I think the real big story of the day, I don't know how much this kind of seeped through other channels and that, but I found it very interesting in the wrestling. Kaori Itcho of Japan became the first woman in the history of the Olympics to win four individual gold medals in four consecutive Olympics. She won the women's freestyle 58 kilogram, one of my favourite categories in the wrestling, Jarrod. It was the first time she said that she must have lost a bit of weight in between now and London, because her three previous gold medals in Athens, Beijing, and London came in the 63 kilogram division. But she's obviously lost at least five kilos, because now she's in the 58 kilo division. But I mean, this is pretty amazing. Four individual gold medals in a row. She's still not that old either. She's only 32, so it looks like I can see her coming back for her home games in Tokyo. Why not? And apparently, she lost earlier this year in the Golden Grand Prix. I didn't know there was such a thing in wrestling, which was her first loss in about 12 years at all in the sport in general, not just like the Olympics. So clearly, she's the Michael Phelps of women's wrestling, but I mean, pretty big. Four individual gold in a row.

JARROD LOOBEEK: Yeah, that's impressive. I think, I mean, she probably lost on purpose at the Grand Prix to just catch her opponents a little bit off guard at the Olympics to make them underestimate her. So obviously, she's strategic, too. I mean, that's really impressive to have four individual golds.

BEN WATERWORTH: I reckon she'd be stupid not to go to Tokyo. Why retire? Like your home Olympics, like as if you wouldn't go on a little bit longer there. So they're kind of the main ones of the day. So other meta results across it. So athletics in the 3000-metre steeplechase, the men's Konselis Kiproto for Kenya in an Olympic record. Congratulations there. We already mentioned the women's 200 and the women's 100-metre hurdles. Women's long jump went to Tiana Barilato... I can't even say her name. Barilato. Tiana won it there. USA went gold and silver. Brittany Reese, second. Serbia got the bronze there. Badminton, sad that Australia didn't make it this far, but Indonesia wasn't a surprise. They always win this. Tontoi Ahmed and Liliana Natsia beat the Malaysian pairing of Chen Peng Sun and Go Li Yong. Boxing, the men's welterweight, Kazakhstan, Daniil Yelisov beat the great Uzbek boxer of Shakhram Gyasov. Equestrian team jumping, France took the gold. Disgusting that was. We don't even mention their names on this show. Table tennis, the men's team went to China, Ma Long, Zhang Zhaiq, and Zhu Xin won that one. Taekwondo, also to China, they had a decent day in China. Britain didn't win any medals today, so China caught up from a little bit. Zhao Shui won the men's 58 kilogram, and the women's 49 kilogram, sorry, went to Kim So Hui of South Korea. Volleyball, big upset here in the beach volleyball. This is basically a lock for Brazil to win this one, but they lost the final. Laura Ludwig and Kira Volkenhorst of Germany beat the Brazilians. I didn't realise Germans in beaches went well there, Jarrod.

JARROD LOOBEEK: I mean, yeah, this is obviously an omen for the men's football match. I mean, it's happened once. History will repeat itself, and they'll probably lose again.

BEN WATERWORTH: It was very nearly.

JARROD LOOBEEK: And I mean, we could get a war between Brazil and Germany. Who knows?

BEN WATERWORTH: It was very nearly women's Germany versus Brazil, because Brazil got beaten by Sweden. Where the Germans could go gold, gold in women's and men's football. So, yes, speaking of sweeping and going dominant, though, we mentioned Kari Itcho in the wrestling. It was a sweep for the Japanese in all the wrestling events today. They love their freestyle wrestling in Japan. And why wouldn't you? Better than that Greco-Roman crap. I don't even know the difference. Women's freestyle, 48 kilogram. Eri Tosaka, gold for Japan. We mentioned Kari Itcho. And in the 69 kilogram division, Sara Doshou of Japan, gold there. Two of those events, Japanese wrestlers beat Russians. Ooh, what are the Russians gonna do there, Jarrod? This could be another war.

JARROD LOOBEEK: Yeah, I mean, you can see from this why I suppose Japan probably petitioned to get wrestling back in the Olympics. Obviously, that's where they're gonna win all their medals at their home games. So no surprise that after being kicked out, it was added back into 2020.

BEN WATERWORTH: Well, if you look at the medal tally now, after 12 days, Australia languishing in 10th. We wanted a top five. We might even struggle to get top 10 here at the moment. We talk about this pre-Olympics here, and we've got South Korea, the Hungarians breathing down our neck. We've got seven gold, eight silver, nine bronze, 24 in total. So the top five, the US, I think we're just gonna call this right now, aren't we, Jarrod? They've won the Olympics, the USA.

JARROD LOOBEEK: Yeah, I mean, no surprises there. I mean, you could have put money on this beforehand, bet your house on it. I mean, bet your kayak on it, bet your raft on it, and you'd be safe with all three of them.

BEN WATERWORTH: Well, you wouldn't want to lose your raft. I mean, come on now. But yeah, unless Britain and China can win another 11 more gold and America win nothing, it's really not looking good for anyone else but America. 30 gold, 32 silver, 31 bronze, 93 in total. Britain still just in second. They've won the same amount of gold as the Chinese, 19 apiece, but they've got those four extra silver medals, which is helping them out. 19 silver, 12 bronze, 50 in total. With the Chinese, 15 silver, 20 bronze, 54 in total. Russia in fourth. Germany have had a good couple of days. They're up into fifth. And France still in seventh. You know, come on, Australia. We've got to get at least two more gold to go ahead of the French. New Zealand didn't win a medal, thankfully, today. They're on three gold, six silver, one bronze, 10 in total. The host nation, Brazil, also three gold, five silver, four bronze. I mean, come on, the host nation can't get beaten by New Zealand. I mean, it's embarrassing that Canada are getting beaten by, not the host nation.

JARROD LOOBEEK: Yeah, I mean, that's just plain embarrassing. Luckily, they've got at least that silver medal locked up in the men's football. So, I mean, there's another medal there that could tie things up. I mean, if they get that, and New Zealand doesn't medal in anything else, then they go ahead of them based on their bronze medal count. So, they're gonna be counting on that.

BEN WATERWORTH: Exactly, and Canada, well, look, I think they're gonna be happy with the top 20. I'm gonna call it now, Canada should finish top 20, three gold, two silver, nine bronze. I mean, they should get a silver tomorrow with DeGrasse. So that, if they do that, will put them ahead of Kazakhstan based on the number of silver. So, yes, go Canada. And I'm just looking here at some random countries. Not really anything interesting going on down the bottom. I see here the United Arab Emirates are on the bottom of the table with one bronze, based purely, I think, on the fact that they start with the letter U, and they've got a whole bunch of other nations with bronze, including India, India not having a very good game, so they usually want more medals than that. It's not like Andrew Gays, don't I? Oh, I'm a bit surprised about that. So anyway, that's the medal tally. News, not really a whole lot of news. I don't know if you caught much of the fact that police are questioning Ryan Lochte now. They're kind of putting doubts over the fact if he was held up by Gunpoint. I think maybe they listened to Off The Podium and realised how much of an idiot the guy is.

JARROD LOOBEEK: Yeah, I mean, it's a possibility. I did hear that and got a good laugh out of it. I love the fact that they wanted to suspend the passports of the other people involved in the incident, and Lochte had already made it back to the US. I mean, maybe he was running from the law.

BEN WATERWORTH: He was just so sulky, the fact that he didn't win a gold. He's like, oh, everyone's talking about Phil, someone's talking about me. Oh, I was held up by gunpoint. But as we discovered the other day, it takes four to six weeks for anything to get through with Ryan Lochte, so yeah, not sure how that's going on. What did you watch, Jarrod? Again, we always kind of go over a little bit about what you watched. Was there anything else that you watched today that we haven't talked about?

JARROD LOOBEEK: Really, I did get to watch the gymnastics gala or the exhibition gymnastics, which I kind of questioned why this was happening. It's a bit like the fifth to 100th playoff, pointless in a way. They did have some, there were some interesting events that could potentially be added at later games. There was a whole tumbling routine where you just kind of run down a runway and tumble from one side to the other. That would be a tough one to score. And they had, for the floor routines, they had triples. And then the trampolining, they had synchronised trampolining. Which I just, they weren't, the problem was they weren't on the same trampoline. They were on two separate trampolines. There was no possibility of a collision or anything interesting. So obviously a few more tweaks to be made there. And if that wants to get the green light for flint flint.

BEN WATERWORTH: Well, I definitely feel that if that's the case, I mean, synchronised swimming clearly should be in separate swimming pools. Just a swimmer in each pool, put them all around each other. That could work if that's how they're doing. But this is similar. They only, I think, implemented this maybe in London, I want to say, because I mean, this is like what they do in the figure skating, obviously, at the end of the figure skating, the Winter Olympics. They get all the medallists and the stars together just to basically show off. Look how good we are. We're awesome. Bit of a show for the crowd. I mean, entertainment, fantastic. If you're gonna do this, do this in all the sports. Get the dressage people out there. Look how good this horse was at lifting its knee up. Ooh, let's put on an exhibition of all this. You know, like the sailing exhibition. Could you imagine that? The judo, you know, combine them all.

JARROD LOOBEEK: That would be impressive.

BEN WATERWORTH: Combine all the sports.

JARROD LOOBEEK: I would like, I would love to see the pairs in the equestrian. I don't know why that's not a thing. Two people on the same horse. I think that could be a winner.

BEN WATERWORTH: Synchronised dressage. There's a sport idea that could work. I didn't see any of it. The only bit I saw was that Channel 7 posted something on their Facebook. It said, Squad Goals. Trying to be all hip, and it looked like a bunch of Chinese gymnasts doing something on the floor. Channel 7, like Jarrod showed us in our group, that hair one that you were talking about yesterday. I mean, I don't know what they're trying to, we're jumping ahead of ourselves. This isn't the Channel 7 segment. Yeah, I watched the athletics, a lot of that, the basketball go, the boomers, watched a bit of the football, watched Brazil against Honduras, the wrestling again, you know, as always, still trying to work out what the hell's going on. Well, if you had to watch, if you got tickets right now to Flynn Fline, and you could only choose between wrestling and judo, what are you gonna go watch?

JARROD LOOBEEK: Judo.

BEN WATERWORTH: Judo.

JARROD LOOBEEK: I mean, that's a no-brainer. I mean, I don't get the scoring for it, but I doubt I get the scoring for wrestling either, and I just want to see an Uchimata.

BEN WATERWORTH: You could be there, and you could be home in four minutes. All the events are gone in five seconds each. Dun, dun, dun, dun, gold. All right, you can go home now. So I guess it's...

JARROD LOOBEEK: Although, if Flynn Flynn is using the throw-in mascot for the challenge system, I mean, that throws a spanner in the works, because that's just so good, and I can't get over it, so maybe it would be wrestling just to see that.

BEN WATERWORTH: I reckon that's the case. I mean, what if the crowd gets rowdy in a wrestling match and starts throwing in the mascot? Do they get confused? Who threw that? Was that the coach, or was that I'll be one?

JARROD LOOBEEK: Yeah, and we have to go to the slow motion replay in the video ref, and I mean, it's really, they're asking for trouble with this system, but obviously, that's the standard practice.

BEN WATERWORTH: Indeed, and what if they run out of mascots? They have to start showing those little Rio logos that they're giving out the medallists. I actually, I read an article about that the other day, because somebody posted it, like, what are those little things that they're giving the athletes? Apparently, it was decided, I don't know if it was an IOC decision or if it was a Rio decision, that giving out flowers is not sustainable anymore, so therefore, they need to give something out. Like, you're so used to seeing them with flowers. That's what they get. Like, is this the case now that we're running out of flowers in the world? You can't give them to Olympians?

JARROD LOOBEEK: I mean, you think they could just plant some more or cultivate some more? Just make some, I mean, fold some origami flowers. It's not that hard.

BEN WATERWORTH: Let's not do that in Tokyo.

JARROD LOOBEEK: I mean, the positive here is for the people with hay fever. I mean, those athletes have got to be cheering that the flowers are gone. But apart from them, I think everyone else is disappointed.

BEN WATERWORTH: Well, I mean, is this the case now for the world when it's like, you know, you got, you know, a romantic date with someone? Like, instead of giving them flowers, you give them a little Rio logo? Like, oh, I love you. Here's a Rio logo. It's not the same, right? Gosh, you're going to go to Royal Botanical Gardens instead of flowers? It's just a bunch of Rio logos stacked on top of each other. Oh, people aren't thinking about these things, are they? Athlete of the day, I'm just going to jump in here and just say it's Kary Itcho, you know, four gold in a row in wrestling. Didn't know it could be done. Good on her. I'm giving it to her. No questions asked for me. What about you, Jarrod?

JARROD LOOBEEK: I'm going to have to go with Neymar from the Brazilian football team. I think he scored the fastest goal, I think, in Olympic history, 15 seconds in or something or other. And then, I mean, we got this whole theatrics of him. Somehow he hurt himself in the celebration, but didn't kind of realise until a little bit later. And then he was up and he was down. And he really kind of pushed the envelope of footballers pretending that they have injuries. They took him off, and then five seconds later, he was back on and limping around. Then they stretched him off, and then he was back on again. I mean, he couldn't make up his mind whether he was faking or not. And obviously, he'd left his script at home and didn't know exactly what he was meant to be doing. But eventually, he decided to play on. So good for him for pushing through that terrible injury.

BEN WATERWORTH: Maybe he should have been in the exhibition gala for the gymnastics, perhaps. That way he would have gotten some extra points. I saw bits of it when he got the penalty right at the end, obviously. But he's the biggest football star in Brazil since Ronaldo, I think. Clearly, they say a large portion of why they got thrashed by Germany 7-1 in the World Cups, because he was injured in the quarters, didn't play for the rest of the tournament. They said, well, if Neymar was playing, we wouldn't have lost. But yeah, clearly, one of the stars of the Olympics, and they just love him. And actually, it was the first time I had seen a stadium full at these Olympics, was watching that semi-final. So clearly, the Brazilians still only care about their football, so. And I believe that French, the pole vaulter was there and going, oh, what is this, football? Why are you booing? Oh, wait, I meant the football. So, did you see the news came out about that? They've got the shot of him on the podium crying, and they're saying, oh, we feel sorry for this French pole vaulter because he's crying, because he got booed. I say, suck it up, mate. You should have jumped higher.

JARROD LOOBEEK: Yeah, I mean, it's a professional sport. It's not a Saturday event or training practice. So it's just looking for excuses is what it is, and that doesn't really fly with me.

BEN WATERWORTH: Yeah, exactly. And again, he's French. As you said the other day, he's used to being booed. Well, after the day, I don't really have a new one today. I mean, I've got a pretty decent list to choose from. Still no reply from Britt, sorry to say. Check the Snap story again, though, today. She was at the exhibition gala, Jarrod. So look, that would have been a good date. Come on, Britt, let's go watch some people achieve squad goals according to Channel 7. So, sadly didn't quite make it to Rio in time last night for that, but I hope you had a good time there, Britt. Channel 7, this is a really quick episode today. There's nothing going on for Australia or Canada. I don't have a whole lot for Channel 7. I don't know if you've got any. The one that I like, though, is, I mean, we talked a little bit earlier on about constant promotion. After the Olympics, zumbos just dessert, and the big music quiz. I don't know if you've seen much of the advertising for the Durrells, Jarrod. But I love it when they actually get the commentators to advertise it. I think Channel 9 started doing this years ago on the cricket, you know, in the middle of a ball. It's like Richie Benner will be talking about the upcoming season of 60 Minutes or something along those lines. But I love how they've got this one with Bruce McEvaney, and he's like, if there was a gold medal for dysfunctional families, it would easily go to the Durrells this Wednesday after the Olympics on Channel 7. Can you imagine Bruce McEvaney before he's gotten on the plane to Rio? Okay, Bruce, just a couple of promotions for you. Can you talk up how good you are at the Olympics? Talk up our medal hopes. Oh, and can you just read this script about the Durrells? I want to see. Do you think Bruce is a bit of a diva in that moment? Do you think he has to call his manager and say, this isn't in my contract?

JARROD LOOBEEK: Yeah, I think that's one of the ones that they get the intern to sort out what he's gonna say. I mean, they do the same thing in the tennis when everything's after the tennis. And they all talk about the shows, and oh yes, I'm really looking forward to watching this, and oh, that's great, I can't believe we're in the fifth season of this, blah, blah, blah. And you can tell that they have absolutely no idea what they're talking about. Never watch the show, never plan to, because they're sane people. It's just, I don't know, just let the show talk for itself and cut down the ads. I mean, it just gets to the point where you're like, I feel like I've already watched the show, it hasn't been on yet, and I'm not gonna bother when it gets around to it.

BEN WATERWORTH: That is so true, and Channel 7 are the kings of over-advertising their shows. Like, you know, I mean, they always win the ratings every year. I think it's basically because they count the fact that people watch the ads. I don't think people actually watch it. As you said, you feel like you've already seen the show before it comes on TV, because you're so sick of it. But I mean, what would you imagine Bruce McEvaney watches? Like, what does he sit home on a Monday night with? You know, I mean, is he a My Kitchen Rules fan, a MasterChef? Does he prefer something a bit edgy? Does he watch like Insight on SBS, Q&A on ABC? I mean, I don't know what Bruce would watch.

JARROD LOOBEEK: Um, I get the feeling he probably doesn't stray too far away from Channel 7. It's probably in his contract that he can only watch that channel. Um, I think he could be a fan of The Chase. I think he might be a kind of quiz show type of guy, because I feel like he'd know a lot of the answers to the questions. And then, yeah, I could see him also watching My Kitchen Rules, like you said. I think Bruce, he could be a bit of a chef. We don't know a whole lot about his home life, but hopefully there'll be some documentary that they put on about him during the middle of a sporting event at the Olympics, where we're about to win a medal, and they cut away to a documentary.

BEN WATERWORTH: Now, if I just put a bit of paprika in this, it's really a good spice, this one, isn't it? Um, just pops it in. It would be fun to go around Bruce's house on the weekend. I mean, he'd have a nice wall of memorabilia, probably, you know. Here's a picture of me interviewing Kathy. Here's a picture of me and Kathy going to the shops. I'm just like, his bookshelf is probably just filled with, like, random, you know, stats book, all this sort of stuff. I was actually putting... I found a bunch of my Olympics... Colin and I talked about at the beginning how we like to record the Olympics. And I found a bunch of my tapes from the Salt Lake 2002 ones, and I was putting them onto my computer, watching a bit of the highlights. Could not remember the fact that Bruce McEvaney was commentating Alpine skiing. So, if you ever want to wonder what Bruce is not, and actually, he's pretty decent. He knew a lot about the Croatian skiers and all these sort of people, so I didn't know if you knew Bruce was too good at the skiing there, Jarrod.

JARROD LOOBEEK: I did not know, but Bruce is just... He's the guy who does his homework. Obviously, not on the Durrells, he got someone else to do that for him. But when it comes to sport, he does his homework, he puts the hard yards in. I mean, he commentates the tennis well, he commentates... I don't think I've ever seen him commentate anything badly. Maybe the opening ceremony was kind of the exception there. But apart from that, he does put in a lot of hours into finding out about sports, and he probably even knows what an Uchi Mata is and how the scores work in wrestling and judo, so that's commitment.

BEN WATERWORTH: Yes, 2020, Bruce McEvoy needed to commentate every sport. You save money to their Channel 7, you wouldn't have to send as many people over. Just put Bruce in a studio somewhere in Sydney, don't fly anyone over and just get him to commentate everything, he would do it perfectly. news.com.au, I don't really have a whole lot. The only thing I noticed on there, they had a headline saying, Ella, you need a bigger bra. I think it was in relation to our, it was a 200 metre runner from yesterday who missed out by like 0.1 of a second, and some athlete tweeted out the fact that if she was wearing a bigger bra, she would have made it, and that apparently was worthy of a news story. So okay, good to know. Other than that, do you have anything from Channel 7 that you noticed at all?

JARROD LOOBEEK: I think it was, I mean, it was a fairly tame night. There wasn't a whole lot that was going on, so there wasn't really kind of much that they could stuff up in that sense. I think I'm just kind of still stuck up on the whole hair montage. I don't think I'll ever get over the fact that they included a horse's tail in amongst it all.

BEN WATERWORTH: I'm glad that we only shared the Paralympics one and we didn't end up sharing the hair one. And we will never do that. So Canadian Athlete Of The Day, obviously with no Colin, we still continue this one. So we're going to get to know a cyclist, even though the track cycling is already over and done with. He popped out to me, this guy, because he's smiling and having a medal around his neck. I don't know what event that was, probably just like the junior athletics cycling version. I don't know. But Hugo Barrett is his name. He says, Hi, my name is Hugo Barrett, and I'm Canadian. Good start. The first Olympics I remember watching was Nagano, obviously 98, which are Olympics, for those who didn't know, but obviously you probably would if you're listening to this because you're an Olympics fan. If I could be any superhero, I would be The Flash. Is that to help you cycle faster? Perhaps? I'm not too sure. Draw a picture of yourself. He's just drawing a giant smiley face. So clearly he thinks he's a smiley face and has no body. And apparently my internet has decided not to load the rest of this. Wow, we're just teasing people at the moment with Hugo, because apparently these are images and not actually writing. Let's see if this can load a little bit better. I should mention that this is all pre-planned in our pre-production meeting. Here we go. My favourite ice cream flavor is chocolate. This is kind of a boring profile. If I were a baseball player, my walk-up music would be Metallica into Sandman. Oh, good choice. The best nickname I've ever been called is The Lion. Is that because he looks... I don't know why you would call a cyclist a lion. Draw a picture of a Canadian animal. He's drawn a moose. It's actually a fairly decent moose. It's a good one. Best one I've seen so far. If I were an athlete, if I weren't an athlete, I would be an actor. Cool. My guilty pleasure snack is poutine with bacon. Yes. Yum. I'm not even Canadian. I don't know what that is. Delicious. Every time I've been to Canada, I always get poutine. It's so good. My favourite song lyric is Don't Stop Believing. It's probably the only one I knew. This guy's really boring. I mean, we talked about this one the other day. This is the Ryan Lochte of Canada. I think this is the Ryan Lochte of Canada. What would the coolest Olympic medal look like? He's drawn a sun with a smiley face on it, with a ribbon. It looks like it's on fire.

JARROD LOOBEEK: Kind of the opposite of cool hay.

BEN WATERWORTH: Didn't ask what the hottest one was. Good call there, Jarrod. The most recent TV show that I binge watched was The Office. Is that the US or the British version? My favourite place in the world to compete is Toronto at the Matamu Velodrome. My favourite video game is NHL. Which one? There's a lot. Just the entire league is a video game. And I can't live without training, dot dot dot, a lot. He's clearly the most boring one out of all these. I'm sad he didn't even tell a joke. I mean, imagine what that would have been like.

JARROD LOOBEEK: No cursive writing. I mean, they missed out the two best segments.

BEN WATERWORTH: You suck, Hugo Barrett. We don't want to see you anymore. You probably failed in the Olympics. I don't even know how we went. I should have really done a research, actually. Although I do have this page open. So, if I can see here anything with Hugo, he was second in the fourth reprcharge. No, he was fourth in the first round, and the second in the reprcharge, and did not advance. Well, that's why, Hugo, because you're boring. Sorry, Hugo, if you're listening. We're big fans of yours and the Canadian track cycling team. Fan messages. Always our favourite segment of the day. Let's see what we've got in the AOC app here. To the Australian Olympic team. Annie Ming-Kolak of New South Wales. Start speaking French. Je pens que tu es très brave. You have inspired me to keep trying and never give up. Please write back. You're sincerely Annie Ming. So do you want the entire Olympic team to write back to you, Annie? Is that basically what you're saying? And you expect them to reply to you when you start speaking French? Anyway, Jack in South Australia to Paddy Mills. Hi, my best friend is your cousin Harry Mills. Yay.

JARROD LOOBEEK: Oh, I wish Harry Mills was in the Olympics too.

BEN WATERWORTH: Oh, God.

JARROD LOOBEEK: He could have gone with Paddy and sailing would have been good.

BEN WATERWORTH: He could have. Phyllis T of Queensland to Kevin Chavez. I so hope you got a medal for what you have done. What has he done? Who is Kevin Chavez? I mean, you clearly know he's a diver. I'm looking right here. He's actually right in front of my screen. As soon as I opened it up, he's a diver in the three metre springboard who didn't even make the semi-final. So clearly, you're a big fan there, Phyllis, if you're asking him instead of just looking it up. This one could even top it to Charlotte Kaslik. This is from Jack in South Australia. I am your biggest fan. I would like to know your salary for my school project. Goodbye. Imagine if there was a reply underneath that, like, I don't get paid, give me some money.

JARROD LOOBEEK: Jack has a lot of time on his hands between telling Pat Mills that he knows his cousin and then asking other athletes for their salary.

BEN WATERWORTH: What school project is that? All right, everybody, we need to find out the salaries of the athletes. This is probably a bored teacher, like, I hate my job, or maybe I'll become an Olympian, do they earn more than me? Here's another one, this is all in French. This is Letitia Everingham from New South Wales, sent it to the Australian Olympic team, but clearly it's to Jessica Fox. I'm not even going to attempt to read this because it's entirely in French. So why? Like, what language? That's funny, Harley in Queensland, to Bodie Turner, have fun, I hope you get a medal, by Harley. So you want him to get a medal by Harley, like your medal? Is that what you want? Here's one for Jarrod, Ben Gray, to Matthew Delavadova, to M Delavadova, my name is Ben Gray. I have looked up to you for years and hopefully would reach your level in basketball. I only started basketball when I saw you playing with Team Oz, sorry, I'll rephrase that, with Tem Oz. In my opinion, you are my favourite basketballer. That's good in your opinion. Congrats for making it to the Olympics. When did you start shooting three pointers in a game? When he first started playing basketball?

JARROD LOOBEEK: I mean, I hate to break dreams here, but with the last name Gray, you're probably not going to live up to Delavadova. I mean, the commentators are not going to be saying Gray on the bench, Gray shoots. I mean, even if you score, you're the top point scorer. They're probably not going to interview you or be interested. You might not get a mention. So change your last name, and you'll be with a better chance of making the team.

BEN WATERWORTH: Like Grayar Delavovar or something like that. And now, with all the French ones here, to Jessica Fox. I know her mum's French, but goodness, there's another one here. This one's from Anthony and Mackenzie Victoria to Paul Adams. Hi Paul Adams, we are a big fan of you. I want to know how many medals you have, and good luck to you. I hope you win the Olympics. The entire Olympics. He's American now. You're obviously a big fan if you want to know how many medals, you don't know. Clearly Shelby from Victoria is a big fan. Emma McKeehan is obviously already done and dusted in the swimming. Good luck at your next event. I hope you get another medal for Australia. Yup. Tokyo perhaps.

JARROD LOOBEEK: Doing the triathlon leg. The swimming leg of the triathlon.

BEN WATERWORTH: Obviously the big news, Jarrod. I don't know if you saw. Both the Campbells have come out and said they're going to be continuing on to Tokyo. So good to see that we've got a guaranteed fifth and seventh place in four years' time at the Olympics. So thanks for the char. The Campbells there. Yeah, these are kind of boring now. Once again, to the Australian Olympic team, but it's obviously to somebody else. Oh, here's another one to your man, Matty Delavadova. To Adam from Adam Castle. Again, a boring name there, Jarrod, from New South Wales. I have been admiring you for years now for both teams you play for. You and many other basketballers have been my role model and have inspired me to play basketball. My family's American, so we enjoy watching the basketball. You want to say basketball anymore times? Congrats on getting through to the semis. I'll be watching and rooting for you. How did you feel up against your teammates? He's feeling up his teammates now, Adam? Like, what do you know about this? Suzanne in New South Wales to Danielle Prince. I like your gymnastics shout. I don't even know what that means.

JARROD LOOBEEK: That must have been one of the exhibition events, I would say.

BEN WATERWORTH: Let's see. We're kind of stretching this out. Ashanti in Victoria to our gymnast Larissa Miller. You're so good. Yep, these are kind of get a bit boring now. Yeah, okay. Cool. All right. Thank you to all those exciting ones. We're nearly running out of sports now, aren't we? Who are we going to send one to right now?

JARROD LOOBEEK: I mean, what's even left to go? Maybe one of the...

BEN WATERWORTH: Have we sent one to our modern pentathlon yet?

JARROD LOOBEEK: No, I don't think so. We should do that.

BEN WATERWORTH: We've got Chloe Esposito and Max Esposito. I wonder if they're cousins. It starts tomorrow. We'll get excited. Do we like Chloe or Max better? Let's go over Chloe. Why not? There's a lovely photo of her riding a horse. That's nice. She made history in 2007 by being the youngest Australian female modern pentathlete to compete at the Olympic qualifier. But she missed out on Beijing, sadly, Jarrod. Her nickname is Coco. There you go. She was seventh in London in the modern pentathlon. Look at that. He did all right in modern pentathlon. So yes, all right. Who shall... what shall we say to Chloe? Make your mind up. Choose a sport with one event.

JARROD LOOBEEK: That's a big name. Remember, pent means five.

BEN WATERWORTH: Don't forget any of your events.

JARROD LOOBEEK: How much do you earn? How many medals have you got?

BEN WATERWORTH: I am a huge fan. You are on all my walls. You are the greatest thing ever. How much do you earn? What is your bank details? Remember, pent means five! How much do you earn? My family is American. I hope you win the Olympics. Do you know any French? Bonjour! This is the worst one ever!

JARROD LOOBEEK: Au revoir!

BEN WATERWORTH: If I could learn how to spell, bonjour, au revoir. If that would help. Yeah, okay, that will do, done. That's the worst one we've seen. But go Chloe Esposito in the modern pentathlon, my favourite sport, because it's starting and I'm excited.

JARROD LOOBEEK: Now, that's the name you could get on a basketball thing.

BEN WATERWORTH: Esposito on the bench, Esposito to deliver it over. That rolls off the tongue perfectly. Alright, we're on to day 13. This is clearly going to be our shortest episode ever. We just stretched that out a little bit longer. So, day 13. 23 gold medals to be decided today in the sports of wrestling. Beach volleyball, last day of beach volleyball. Triathlon, the first day of triathlon happening. Taekwondo still going on there. First day of modern pentathlon, yay! Synchronised swimming returns again today. God, it was a hard day without that, wasn't it, Jarrod? I don't know how to live. Sailing wraps up today. Oh, I didn't know I could finish. Yep, still going. No, I'm looking at the wrong sport there. Handball, that's the only sport that basically runs every single day of the Olympics. That and basketball and boxing. And yet the difference is that we're still really near the medal rounds there for handball, but it's a good sport to watch. The first of the field hockey medals are decided. I think it's a men's tournament wraps up. Diving, more medals in that. BMX continues today. The canoeing sprinting is still going on, of course. Chance there for Kenny Wallace and his partner. Badminton medals more there in athletics. Still to come. I mean, I guess it's all about the 200 metres. The Bolt DeGrasse Showdown tomorrow, isn't it, Jarrod?

JARROD LOOBEEK: Oh, absolutely. I mean, I'm interested to see if the sailing finishes or not. That'll be a big talking point. Whether the weather is permitting. Otherwise, they're probably going to have to borrow some wind machines from Eurovision to get through those races.

BEN WATERWORTH: I also got some good news for you, too, Jarrod. It's only now officially one day until the rhythmic gymnastics begins. So it's nearly at the one part of the Olympics you've been looking forward to the most.

JARROD LOOBEEK: Yeah, that's excellent. I mean, that's been a long and difficult wait. I mean, repertarger is unfortunately absent from the rhythmic gymnastics, which is a real shame, because, I mean, you can't get enough of that, but it would be great to see some people do the fake gymnastics with the ribbons and try to keep it alive and in the Olympics when we're trying to add other sports, and it's always on the cusp.

BEN WATERWORTH: I feel sorry for the rhythmic gymnasts, not just because they compete in a fake sport, but you look at some of these sports right at the end, so triathlon, you've got to wait all the way to the end, modern pentathlon, and you look at the mountain bikers. I mean, they're literally on the last two days, so the men's mountain bike on the last day. I think the men's marathon is also generally on the last day, isn't it? So, like, you know, these poor mountain bikers, like, you know, they're looking at the swimmers, you know, the road cyclists, all these people who have come in, got their medals and left, you know, they just have to wait around, you know? There's no marathon, midnight, sex sessions for them to split up their partnerships, and they're getting held up, you know, quote, held up with Ryan Lochte. I mean, gosh, what do you think they've been doing for nearly two weeks here? Do you think they even bother showing up to Rio until, like, the night before?

JARROD LOOBEEK: I don't know. I wouldn't. And obviously they're not going to the events because there's no one at the stadiums. I think it's obviously going to be difficult for them being in the Olympic Village as it's probably demolished, with rooms being knocked down around them because everybody thinks that the athletes have left. So it would be tough to wait that long to see people win medals around you if you're from a country other than Australia and New Zealand. Yeah, I think just waiting that long, it would be troublesome and hard to keep your mind kind of on your sport, especially if it's something that's over in one or two seconds anyway.

BEN WATERWORTH: Particularly in mountain bike, you could like, you know, and on your after guess set, go bang, tire blowout, you're done. But as we learnt already, you can change your bikes, can't we? We had that in the time trial, so why not? That's it for another episode. Our shortest episode, we came, we saw, we kicked some ass. That's all we needed to talk about. Not much on day 12, but perhaps day 13 there will be more. As always, Facebook us, forward slash Off The Podium podcast. We are on iTunes, YouTube, and of course, you can email us as well if you feel the need to. But Jarrod, always a pleasure having your company on the show. Look forward to coming back tomorrow for day 13.

JARROD LOOBEEK: Yeah, it's been fun. A bit sad as we get closer to the end, but soaking it up while we can.

BEN WATERWORTH: Only brings us closer to flimflom in 2028. Think of the positives, guys, yeah, think of the positives. But yeah, I mean, I guess time to leave. And as always, if there was a gold medal, of course, for a dysfunctional podcast, we would definitely win it, according to Bruce McEvoy. Thank you, and good night from Off The Podium.