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Rio 2016 Day 9 Review

  • Aug 14, 2016
  • 65 min read

Today can be summed up by two people: Usain Bolt and Ryan Locthe. Do you need to anything else that happens on the show today? Probably not. That'll do until you click below to listen. You're welcome.



EPISODE TRANSCRIPT

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


BEN WATERWORTH: Hello, everybody, and welcome once again to Off The Podium, the Olympics podcast that is brought to you by nobody because we've got no sponsors. But it's episode 11, and we're here to recap day nine of the Rio 2016 Olympic Games. A day that, for Australia at least, brought us nothing. So we've got nothing to talk about today. So we're going to talk about Canada today because they at least kept the trend up of winning a medal every single day. They're doing better than Australia now officially with this because they took home a bronze, and it's an awesome bronze because it came in an event that bronze is almost gold because you were never going to win a gold in it anyway. And to speak about this, it's Colin Hilding from Canada. Colin, another bronze day for the Maple Leaf.


COLIN HILDING: Yeah, and this is no joke, but this bronze medal may be more exciting than the majority of the gold medals that Canada has ever won just because of the competition there was in this. And the fact that André de Grasse, I'll be talking about him a lot today, he just sort of came out of nowhere in the last year or two. I mean, this guy is going to be the next big thing in the sport, not just in Canada and the world.


BEN WATERWORTH: Well, it's such... I mean, the event, obviously, the 100 metres, who won? I wonder. It's the event of the Olympics. It always is. jare But I can imagine that. I mean, God, we were talking about the fact that our man, Josh Clark, we didn't even realise had pulled out on the Olympics like a month ago, and yet we've been talking him up for the last...


COLIN HILDING: I was looking for him.


BEN WATERWORTH: Because I was wondering, where's the news? Where's the news of, oh, Josh Clark bowed out in the first round? I've Googled him. There's an article from a month ago saying he pulled out with a hamstring injury, so good to see we do our research on the show. But if Australia makes the semifinals and that, it's a big deal for us, let alone I couldn't imagine winning a bronze. I mean, have they already started showing the footage of Donovan Bailey watching him winning the bronze medal?


COLIN HILDING: Well, Donovan Bailey was in the studio. They haven't shown that footage yet, but he's been in the studio probably about 8 to 12 hours a day just commentating on everything, even stuff that he knows nothing about. They had him on talking about swimming last night. I don't know why. I'm sure there'll be something. I don't know if there's that many people that know Andre de Grasse yet personally where it would be that interesting. But my wife actually videoed me and my son watching it because I wanted him to see one day you were there when Andre de Grasse held his own against Usain Bolt. So maybe we'll put that video up and it will explode all over the internet.


BEN WATERWORTH: I want to see you exploding all over the TV apparently. Okay, just a quick question. Is it de Grasse or de Grasse?


COLIN HILDING: De Grasse. It's easy to confuse considering the most famous de Grasse to come out of Canada is de Grassy, but I guess he's now at that level.


BEN WATERWORTH: I just love the fact that you've got an athlete now named after TV shows.


COLIN HILDING: I just wish before this event the commentators had given something like de Grasse, not just a future medallist, but also the first seven letters of the greatest Canadian TV show of all time.


BEN WATERWORTH: You know that Bruce McEvaney was commentating. I didn't quite hear him say that as he introduced him, but Bruce kept calling him de Grasse. And I'm like, isn't it de Grassy? But obviously it's de Grasse. But they talked him up a little bit, actually. I know on our favourite website, news.com.au, they, before the final, they were like, you know, Bolt into the final Fast Qualifier, ahead of Canadian rising star Andre de Grasse. So like they had him on our bit as well. And I was, you know, paying attention to him during the race, because I think kind of you always get to the point in any hundred metres, you're like, okay, Bolt's won it, so who's gonna get second? I was...


COLIN HILDING: Bolt can be in last, and with 10 metres to go, you know he's won it still. That's just the way he runs.


BEN WATERWORTH: Well, it was interesting actually with this one, because he actually looked like he did get off very slow. I like at the beginning of the race, I'm like, oh shit, Bolt's in trouble here. And then halfway through, I'm like, oh shit. And then all of a sudden, he's just like, oh, maybe I should try now. And then he's just like...


COLIN HILDING: Yeah, exactly.


BEN WATERWORTH: And even at the end...


COLIN HILDING: We talked about that yesterday.


BEN WATERWORTH: Well, even at the end, it legitimately looked like he just stopped. Like, he just didn't... I mean, he... What? The slowest time he's run at the Olympics, he's still under 10 seconds. But I mean, he probably could have run that in six seconds.


COLIN HILDING: That's the greatest thing about him is that all he wants is just his accomplishment. This isn't a guy like... And I'm not slamming Michael Phelps for this, but this isn't a guy who wants to just run everything up. I mean, he wants to accomplish everything possible. He wanted to win a gold medal, and he wanted to win two gold medals, and now he wants to win three. And he doesn't care about beating his world record times or anything. And he doesn't even care when you watch him in the heats and the semis whether he's the fastest guy. The heats was hilarious because he actually was only fifth in the heats. And you saw the same thing. He wasn't even really trying. It was just, I need to be the top guy in this heat, and I don't care what my time is.


BEN WATERWORTH: Well, there's a photo already circulating. I don't know if you've seen it, but they're saying, like, this is the most famous photo of the Olympics so far. And it's like, I think it's a shot of him in the semi, where they've snapped in, like, just crossing the line, looking sort of over his shoulder with this big, wide smile on his face, while every single person behind him is like, like, they're trying so hard. And he's bolt just at the beginning.


COLIN HILDING: And that was, yeah, that was my favourite moment of him from London, too, was, I can't remember if it was the one or the two, it might have been the 200 metre, where he did the exact same thing. He sort of stopped and turned and smiled, you know, just to show off. And that's like, I've, it's funny, I've said this to a lot of people who aren't as familiar with, you know, amateur sports or the Olympics. And I've said that Usain Bolt is the closest thing this world has come to another Muhammad Ali. And they've laughed at me. But like, as somebody who's seen this, this guy is the modern Muhammad Ali. I mean, he could have the entire world if he wants it.


BEN WATERWORTH: Let's be honest, we didn't even talk about this the other day when he had his press conference last week. He brought a whole bunch of Brazilian dancers to his own press conference. Yes.


COLIN HILDING: Have you seen the Rocky movies?


BEN WATERWORTH: No, I think I'm one of the only few who hasn't. No, I haven't.


COLIN HILDING: Apollo Creed, who's like, I guess, the enemy in the first two Rockies becomes Rocky's best friend. In Rocky IV, he comes out of retirement for a fight against the Russian. And he just turns it into a circus where the ring is rising up. He's got James Brown and a bunch of dancers around him. And he's wearing a big American hat and dancing in the ring, and the Russians just look at him shaking his head. And that is Usain Bolt. He's just a showman, and we don't get showmen in Olympics.


BEN WATERWORTH: It's rare to get them in a lot of sports nowadays anyway. The way that a lot of sports and athletes are trained now with media and all this kind of stuff, a lot of them almost turn into politicians where it's just all about spin and all this sort of stuff. Particularly here in Australia. I know America's probably a little bit different. They've still got a bit of showmen, and Canada too. I mean, we know how showboaty Canadian athletes are, apparently. But yeah, it's just so much fun to see. And again, it's kind of like, do you know anybody who doesn't like the man? And if you do, why do you know them? You shouldn't, because they're an idiot.


COLIN HILDING: Justin Gatlin would be the only one. But I don't know if we want to comment on Justin Gatlin. I think everybody heard the boos that he got. And it's kind of fair. I mean, do you know a bit about Gatlin's background?


BEN WATERWORTH: Bits and pieces here and there, yes.


COLIN HILDING: I mean, basically, he spent five of, I guess, the last 15 years suspended from the sport, you know, for drug violations. And I think everybody deserves a second chance. But when you've been busted twice in only five years, it was like 2001 and then again 2006, I really think the two chances you should be out. You shouldn't be able to come back for two more Olympics after that. And I think it's fair that he gets the boos. I like that he was in there though just because of the competition. We could honestly say this is maybe the most stacked lineup we've ever had for 100 metre. I mean, Johan Blake in fourth. I mean, that guy, if there was no Usain Bolt, he would be like the biggest sprinter on the planet.


BEN WATERWORTH: Yeah, and it's interesting kind of with that because they made the comment too with Gatlin that obviously it's historic, you know, Bolt winning 300 metres in a row, never been done before. But I mean, Gatlin, he also has medalled in three 100 metres. Obviously, you know, again, put a question mark over that a little bit. But, you know, I mean, it's still something that's a big deal. I mean, I remember back Sydney, obviously, the huge talk was all Maurice Greene, all this sort of stuff. He obviously won the gold, and then he backed it up. He got a bronze in Athens, I think, from memory. So, you know, I mean, he at that time was this huge big star and everything, and then all of a sudden, Bolt's come along and just shat all over everyone. But it's, I mean, it's such an event. It's so, you know, like, I mean, even in Australia, where, like, you know, we can talk up Canada now because you've just won a bronze. I mean, Donovan Bailey, you've actually won this event. Whereas Australia, like, I honestly couldn't tell you if we've even had a finalist in the 100m. I know Matt Shervington back in Sydney, his big goal was to make the finals of the 100m. That's it. He didn't give a shit if he was dead last in the 100m. He just wanted to make the final. And I think he made the semis from memory, which, again, a big deal for Australia because we're not very fast people. I think only one Australian from memory has ever run under 10 seconds. So that's...


COLIN HILDING: You're a lazy nation. Let's just say it.


BEN WATERWORTH: We like the water, OK? We don't like having to run. It's too hot to run in Australia. That's why we're in the water, OK? But it's... I mean, you've got to... This event that is like the biggest event of the Olympics, it's over in nine seconds. Like, if only other events in our life could be celebrated for being over in nine seconds.


COLIN HILDING: Well, think about it. You have, I think it's, what, six heats, and then you have the two semi-finals, and then you have this. All together, just the sport itself, you're looking at ten minutes tops of real sport going on. And yet, it was crazy that, you know, we're waiting to record here, and the event had been over for half an hour, and they hadn't even cut back to the studio here. It was still just shots around the stadium of the runners celebrating and everything. And there was a really nice moment that we had here, and I think I mentioned earlier how I think André de Grasse, and I think a lot of people are starting to see, this guy is the future of the sport. He's the next Usain Bolt. Even Bolt seems to think that. Last year, André de Grasse really broke on the scene in the Pan Am Games, but the Pan Am Games, even though countries like Jamaica and the United States are eligible, they chose to rest guys like Gatlin and Bolt because the World Championships were coming up like two weeks later. But André de Grasse did gold in the Pan Am Games, came to the World Championships, did bronze ahead of Gatlin even, and there's this famous moment that still is brought up every time any of these guys race, where Bolt came up and interrupted the CBC interview and basically grabbed André de Grasse and said, I never saw you coming. This is the guy you have to watch. And they have another clip after the event's over and Bolt is sitting there with his arm around de Grasse and you can hear the audio where he's basically saying, I told everybody else out there, you need to watch this guy. And that's what's so exciting about this. Bolt's almost taken him as a protege. He's like, this is the guy I want to root for.


BEN WATERWORTH: I saw the footage of the year when they were doing the victory lap. He went up to de Grasse and kind of put his arms around him and gave him a bit of an embrace. So yeah, I mean, it's nice to see that. And I mean, yeah, the victory lap, I mean, they showed that nonstop with us as well. And there's plenty of classic Channel 7 commentary, which I'll get to during that lap. But yeah, it's just amazing. And, you know, I mean, the sad thing about Bolt, this is his last Olympics. He said he's gonna retire next year after the World Championships. He is only 29 years of age. Now Justin Gatlin is 34. So like Bolt could easily go to Tokyo and still be younger than Gatlin, who's just won the silver medal. I mean, we talked about this yesterday, I think, with Phelps, you know, because in his questions, you know, Ryan Locthe with his bright, spark personality reckons that he's gonna come back for another time. But I mean, is this it? Do you think Bolt is well and truly done?


COLIN HILDING: Yeah, again, I was just before getting ready to record, my wife was asking me about this, because they were saying on TV, you know, his final appearance. And when they were talking about Phelps yesterday, it was always, you know, maybe his final appearance, even though he said that the last Olympics. And we were even talking about that yesterday, that will Phelps come back? It doesn't seem to be a question with Bolt, that if he says he's gonna retire, he's going to do it. And my wife was asking me, you know, why would he do that? Like, this guy is so young, he could do it again. And I mean, the fact is, he's just not the type of guy. He's the type of guy who would want to go out on top. I wanted to get your opinion on this yesterday. I wasn't on the show for the whole time, but Bolt made a comment in the last week where he said that he believes this sport needs him to win this third gold. And it's an interesting thought, like, does the sport need somebody like Usain Bolt, where you could say nobody has ever done this, nobody will ever top this. It's taken, what, like 120 years for somebody to do three back-to-back golds in this. Did the sport need a guy like Usain Bolt? Like, if Usain Bolt had won silver here, would he go down in history? Would he be remembered? I mean, this is what's going to cement him in history, and I think that's really what he cares about. That's why he'll kind of show Bolt at the end, and he won't push himself. I mean, he's looking for that next benchmark. He's not looking for, I need to be faster than last time. And he'll definitely never compete again if he doesn't think that he's going to do gold again.


BEN WATERWORTH: I definitely think it did. I mean, athletics has got a massive kick in the guts with the whole Russian debacle and then everything else that's happened. You know, there was already talk basically with the Ethiopian 10,000-metre lady who broke the world record straight away. Well, no, that's drugs. I mean, it's a sad state of the sport that, you know, I mean, athletics, I guess, has always had that tarnished legacy of drugs. It's kind of like cycling, cycling probably more so than athletics, but, you know, that you're always going to question it. And I definitely feel he needed to do this. I mean, one of the commentators here, Steve Hooker, who, you know, he won gold in Beijing in the pole vault. He's sort of next to Bruce calling the athletics, and he said at the end of it, he's like, you know, it's such a celebration here right now. But I almost feel like it's a relief because everybody wanted this so much for him to do it. And I mean, I feel that there was such more on Bolt doing this than even Phelps, because like, I almost felt with the whole Phelps situation that like, yeah, they're talking it up. Yeah, it's Phelps, blah, blah, blah, blah. But I mean, Phelps is already the greatest of all time. It's not like Phelps was going to, it wasn't like London, where if he had to win a couple medals, he became the greatest. He was already the greatest. He was just coming back to basically be like, I'm good, I'm going to win more. Whereas Bolt, you know, as you said, this had never been done before. This is the pinnacle of the Olympic. This is the Blue Ribbon event of the entire Olympic Games. This is the one that everybody cares about the most. Nobody has ever won three times in a row. And I mean, it goes back to that conversation that we had on that article when they were questioning who's greater, Phelps or Bolt in terms of what they do. And yeah, I think we all really came to the conclusion it's Bolt because, you know, swimming and athletics, I think athletics is more open to the world than swimming. So, you know, for a man to basically win the best event at the Olympics three times and be able to maintain, be the fastest man in the world for eight years that nobody's ever done before, I mean, it's an incredible feat. And, you know, the fact that he's more than likely gonna do it in the 200 as well, leave with, you know, hopefully a relay gold, be a nine-time gold medallist, never won a silver or a bronze, you know, 100% record. Phelps can't even have that. Like, Phelps can have his 23 gold, but Bolt's 100%.


COLIN HILDING: Phelps also competes in two to three times the amount of events every single Olympics that Bolt does. And that's the other thing we talked about. And this isn't knocking Phelps' achievement. I think as a swimmer, there's no denying Phelps is the greatest of all time. But you can't compare swimming to anything else in the Olympics. And even with, you know, being a runner, I mean, you have that opportunity to compete in the 100, the 200, and the relay. And even other sports don't have that. I mean, a long jumper, you know, they're gonna have maybe long jump and maybe they can compete in the heptathlon or something like that, too. There's so many events where you have one shot. And the fact that Bolt can have this track record, if he can do this in the 200, if he can do this in the relay, that's what everything's looking at now, is can he do this in all three of those events? I think him winning this one was the most important. If he does silver in the 200, and even if he doesn't medal in the relay by some incredible fluke, people will still remember him as the guy who three-peated as the gold medallist in the 100m.


BEN WATERWORTH: Exactly, and if it was the opposite, if he had gotten silver today and then gold in the 200, it probably wouldn't have been as a bigger deal as doing it in the 100m. I just quickly want to correct myself, just with the 100m, I've just pulled up here the list of the history of the Olympics. I question whether Australia had even made the final. We're a medallist in the 100m. How could I not know this? In 1956 in our home Olympics in Melbourne, the great Hector Hogan took a bronze medal.


COLIN HILDING: Ben, do you remember where you were in 1956 when Hector Hogan...


BEN WATERWORTH: I was only minus 31. My parents weren't even born yet. So I was not even thought of on a romantic evening. But in the women's 100 metres, of course, the great Betty Cuspert won back in Melbourne. We went 1-3 in the 100 metres women in our home Olympics. Shirley Strickland, the great Shirley Strickland, got a couple of bronzes for us. Renee Boyle, Raylene Boyle, so not Renee. Silver back in Munich.


COLIN HILDING: It's just Australian men that are like super lazy then.


BEN WATERWORTH: But apparently New Zealand have even won a bronze medal in the 100 metres. Back in 1924, the great Arthur Porritt, won a bronze medal for New Zealand in the 100 metres sprint. So there you go. Wow. Yeah, it's a fascinating event, but it's sad that it's over now. What do we have look forward to?


COLIN HILDING: 200 metres, 4x100 relay.


BEN WATERWORTH: Yes, true, true.


COLIN HILDING: Artistic gymnastics.


BEN WATERWORTH: Rhythmic gymnastics. Bring it on. Rhythmic sailing.


COLIN HILDING: Sailing, that's still on.


BEN WATERWORTH: Synchronised sailing. But we're going to talk so much about Bolt today, because it's probably a good day that Australia didn't win any medals in Canada. Got the medal in the event that we're talking about a lot, because we want to talk about Bolt, the greatest human being to ever breathe oxygen. Agreed. Usain Bolt for president of the world. We're just going to have an election tomorrow. But, OK, there were other Australians that competed that didn't win medals, which was everyone, because no one won. They all pulled a Campbell on day nine. Particularly, if you want to talk about pulling a Campbell, I almost want to call this pulling a Kookaburras, because this is ridiculous. This is, again, I've talked so much up our Australian hockey team, the greatest team to ever be a team in sport. The Kookaburras dominate everything. They win everything whenever they play, except the Olympics. And we've only ever won the one gold medal. That was back in Athens. We won that in an extra time thriller. Finally broke the duck. But we're out. We've lost in the quarterfinals to the Dutch. We lost 4-0. This is the worst we've finished in an Olympics since Rome in 1960. And the great...


COLIN HILDING: You should be ashamed of yourself, Australia.


BEN WATERWORTH: This is embarrassing. Jamie Dwyer, the great Jamie Dwyer, one of the greatest hockey players of all time. He's retired. He's gone. This is going to be a rebuilding phase for the Australian men's hockey team. We're going to suck. And not that we don't already in the Olympics, but this would be like if the Canadian ice hockey team... I know you went 50 years without winning a gold until 2002, but you've won basically all of them except for Torino since. This would be like if Canada still wasn't winning an ice hockey and you went out in the quarter-finals. This is a big deal to Australia. Didn't you guys have a national inquiry after Nagano into why you guys suck at ice hockey in the Olympics?


COLIN HILDING: Yeah, and we bribed somebody to let pro players in, and that's how Salt Lake City came around, I think.


BEN WATERWORTH: Yeah, exactly. My dad, who's just come home, this is a weird little side note, he's slid a note under the door while I'm recording, and he's written, They don't do butterfly breaststroke, backstroke in athletics, bolt is the greatest. That's true.


COLIN HILDING: I'm just glad it didn't say keep the noise levels down for a change.


BEN WATERWORTH: No, that was a while ago. Anyway, cycling, just a word of note, I don't have a full list of all the Australian results, so if you're wondering how we went in the wrestling, I don't know because the AOC haven't updated me on that yet. Cycling, Matthew Glatzer, we said yesterday, was a guy for bronze, well, he lost it, he got fourth. Third time, apparently, he's finished fourth in the Olympics, so that kind of sucks. In the Omnium, the men's Omnium, Glenn O'Shea, whose nickname is Mr. Consistency, is currently in sixth place, clearly not that consistent. The greatest female to ever breathe oxygen on the planet, Ana Mirz, after backing up with a bronze yesterday, which, can I just point out, that is, I believe, her, I think, sixth Olympic medal or seventh Olympic medal in total, which in the term of Australian Olympians, that puts her, I think, about eighth or seventh or eighth in the all-time list of most medals won by an Australian at the Olympics. And that hasn't really been talked up much here, because she's not a swimmer, so apparently no one gives a shit.


COLIN HILDING: So who is number one?


BEN WATERWORTH: Oh, Thorpey. Ian Thorpe. You know, he just breathes and farts out gold medals. Wakes up in the morning, here you go, Thorpey, have another medal, oh, another one. So, yes, but yeah, she's competing in the sprint, the event that she's won twice before. She's the reigning champion. Now she actually got eliminated, but because cycling have these reprcharges, which you can get back into the events. We discovered this yesterday, how somehow New Zealand got fourth and we got fifth in the women's team pursuit or whatever that was. She's back into the quarterfinals. So she won through after losing. And then Stephanie Morton got eliminated in the reprcharge. So clearly you're not as good as any of me, Stephanie. Diving, I know that you talk about how Canada went in this column. So I know she didn't win a medal. I'm interested. But we got fifth and sixth, Madison Keeney fifth, and Esther Kins six and three metres springboard. The water polo, this is interesting for Australia. We knocked off the Greeks 12-7 in a big result for us. And basically now for us to make the quarterfinals, we need either Brazil to beat Hungary by more than two goals, or Japan to beat Serbia. If one of them happens, or even both, we go through to the quarterfinals. So come on Brazil and come on Japan. We love you both. Golf, as we predicted, Marcus Fraser pulled a Campbell and choked. He finished fifth. Usually in golf, that's called pulling a Greg Norman, but anyway, it's Marcus Fraser. He's pulling a Campbell. Synchronised swimming, Nikita Pablo and Rose Stackpole are currently 24th and last in the duet competition. But I have to mention, the AOC, our friends who blocked us from their Facebook page on their app, love talking up the Australian athletes when they suck. So for Marcus Fraser, they're basically like, oh, how proud are we of Marcus? He led the competition. You know, he made a course record. He didn't win a medal, but we're proud. And then like, with the synchronised swimming, I'm like, oh, you know, how are they going? And they've talked them up. Oh, Nikita and Rose did so well. They put their best effort in, fantastic. They're coming last at the moment, but who cares? Like, you know, I think they're really trying to bounce back from the Campbell debacle at the moment in the Australian media. Equestrian, sad not to have Jarrod on the show today, even though he's boycotting the sport. Edwina tops Alexander. A clear show jumping round going into the finals of the show jumping. Better than the dressage. Shooting our man, Dane Sampson. Gee, he is the Michael Phelps of shooting. He's in like every event, but sadly he's not winning like Michael Phelps. Him and Will Godwood did not advance to the final of the 50 metre 3 position rifle, which is a much more exciting event than the 50 metre 2 position rifle. And in athletics, I know we had other competitors, so forgive me for other athletics fans who want to know how other athletes went. I've only got the women's marathon. Millie Clark was 18th, Treng Grove was 22nd, and Lisa Waichman, disappointing, only 31st, only she made the top 30, Colin. I'm very sad for her. But how did Canada go today, you medal winners, you?


COLIN HILDING: Well, I think we mentioned André de Grasse, bronze medallist in the men's 100 metre. I think that's going to be the big news for the next six days. Can we just talk about André de Grasse every day instead? OK, let's just call this the André de Grasse show here. We are on the podium now. That's what's important. We are back on the podium for the first time in 20 years after Donovan Bailey. That is the biggest deal. You mentioned the women's marathon. I wish I could have watched the whole thing. I probably would watch a whole marathon just because I'm getting into running those myself too. But Lanny Marchand, they made a big deal about the fact that she finished in 24th, which I guess was an impressive position for us. She finished in two hours and 33 minutes. Now, I've never run a full marathon yet. I was working up to my first half when I had a knee injury a few months ago. But as I said, I like to compare my time to this. And I was probably on pace for about two hours, maybe two, oh five, two 10 for a half marathon. And the best Canadian in 24th place ran in two hours and 33 minutes. So aren't I embarrassing in my running here? Beach volleyball, this is a sad one again. I was only briefly on the show yesterday, but we had one team eliminated, the one men's team, and we're now down to zero teams in a matter of just one day. And part of that was our two female teams were playing each other yesterday, and the winning team, Bansley and Pavan, they actually did advance, but they lost in the quarterfinals to Germany. And it was pretty much a blowout. I mean, 21-14 and 21-14, I saw a little bit of it and it was very sad. Boxing, we had two boxers go down. Our best hope here, our great white hope, I guess, Mandy Bujold, she's still to come, but the men's light welterweight, Arthur Bayer Slanov. He lost to Germany's Artam Harutyunian.


BEN WATERWORTH: No, not him.


COLIN HILDING: I'm sounding like Benny here, butchering all these names. Women's middleweight also, Ariane Fortin. She lost two to one in decision against Deriga Shakhmova of Kazakhstan. Cycling, our favourite, Kate O'Brien, who fell over in the team sprint. She didn't fall over this time, but she was 12th in her qualification. So, I guess as long as she stays up, she performs much better. In all fairness, I think they placed better when she fell down. Diving, I'll get to that last, because I have a couple of things to say about diving here. Equestrian, you mentioned it, and I just love that the horses are mentioned as part of the results here. Like, the Human Olympics have horses, so we have Amy Miller aboard Haros and Eric Lamaze, who's riding Fine Lady number five. I wonder if the previous four Fine Ladies died, because this guy's been around since Sydney.


BEN WATERWORTH: You weren't that fine, number three.


COLIN HILDING: Yeah, that's right. Fine Lady number two helped to medal in Sydney, I think it was. It's up to five now. Anyway, so they got through qualification. Team jumping, Canada's tied with three other countries for third place, so that's impressive. And I'm not even going to cover golf, because I couldn't care less at this point. I don't know why.


BEN WATERWORTH: You just have to worry about the women's golf now. And no one will watch that if they didn't watch the men's, so it's fine.


COLIN HILDING: I just find it disgusting that on American television, I'm going to do my NBC rant right now. NBC, I swear, they air golf every Saturday as it is, or whatever American network, one of the American networks is airing about six hours of golf every Saturday. And here you have the Olympics, you have a thousand events going on, and they choose to just air golf for, I swear, six hours straight today. It was just disgusting.


BEN WATERWORTH: Can I just quickly interrupt, actually, really quickly? On that, though, there might be a reason with that, because I was actually reading a little bit about the whole TV sort of situation, the broadcasting and everything. And it was fascinating, given that golf and rugby are obviously brand new sports, and the Olympic Broadcasting Service is used to airing all the other sports. They apparently handed all the duties over for the Rugby Sevens to whoever the New Zealand broadcasters are, because obviously New Zealand love their rugby. And yeah, for the golf, I think it might be they just handed it to NBC. They're like, we won't, you are in control of doing it. So that's probably why America and their golf, when you think about America and the great things they love, I think of shooting and golf. So yeah, exactly.


COLIN HILDING: America knows two things. You heard it here first. Shooting and golf. Two more events I'll actually mention today. I'll skip the sailing as usual. Synchronised swimming, my favourite, I loved watching Jacqueline Siminoe and Corrine Thomas, who came in seventh place in the preliminary round. I've seen some synchronised swimming before and maybe it's just I always tune in halfway through and I find it kind of funny to watch. But the fact, have they always done a dance at poolside before they jump in the water?


BEN WATERWORTH: Well, with my vast years of watching synchronised swimming, I don't know if I've ever seen them, what is it, like a breakdance or like a full on Michael Jackson routine?


COLIN HILDING: It was kind of like a very stiff, a mime crossed with a ballerina is what I would compare it to. And they're standing at poolside doing this and then they get in the water. And I don't know if it was part of the routine or something, but yeah, not a big fan of synchronised swimming. But I think it's worth it for we have to do at least one live commentary and it's going to be anything. It's got to be synchronised swimming, I think. Yeah. The two big events today, the artistic gymnastics, Shaolin Olson came in eighth place in the woman's vault, which was actually quite an entertaining event. And of course, Simone Biles won that one. And the diving, this is one I'll save for last and I'll say more on this later on. But we have our two divers, Pamela Ware and Jennifer Abel, who just missed out on meddling in the synchronised dive in the three metre. Again, just missed out, Pamela Ware was seventh place, Jennifer Abel was fourth. I'm actually, I'm disappointed that Abel didn't win, but at the same time, when you hear the stories of the people who did win, I think that it's something I can live with. But even so, I think diving, as I said, it's probably become my favourite summer sport right now just behind the 100 metre, 200 metre, just the athletics. So I was very happy with the diving today, despite the fact that Jennifer Abel lost.


BEN WATERWORTH: Well, that's before that we had Penny Alexiak come along now. Now it's all swimming, swimming, swimming, like it's a great white hope.


COLIN HILDING: And pretty soon it's going to be synchronised swimming for Canada. When Penny Alexiak and Emily Overholt actually get an act together and start doing break dancing pool side, we'll have some medallists on our hands.


BEN WATERWORTH: I can't take any sport seriously now unless they do a mime cross with ballerina dance prior to it. Like until the same Bolt does that before 100 metres, he's not good in my eyes. Sorry, Usain. I take back what I said about you being the greatest living human being ever. Take a leap from synchronised swimming. You mentioned actually the beach volleyball, because I was interested. I know we had a team in the quarters, but I think at the time of recording this, our Aussie team are due to play. They're probably playing right now, as far as I know. Borden and Clancy are up against the Americans. We win that, and we can go into the semis where we will no doubt lose to Brazil. We won a gold in Sydney in the beach volleyball on Bondi, the famous victory for Pot-Harse and Cook. So, yeah, anyway. Now the other events before we get to sort of looking at the actual winners, obviously Bolt. He's written here, Bolt, Bolt, Bolt. I don't know if they showed it in your film. I mean, you said they were airing the victory lap for like, you know, 100 years in a row, but like they showed him, obviously they just had the medal ceremony for the heptathlon, and they quickly cut to Bolt, like obviously going up to the medal winners, including your Canadian, I forgot her name, but it looked like she got a quick selfie with Bolt with a bronze medal around her neck. Yeah, we saw that too.


COLIN HILDING: Yeah, I mean, again, I think it would have been nicer to show her going up and congratulating Andre to grass before she's up, like it's the same Bolt selfie!


BEN WATERWORTH: I just love the fact that maybe Bolt just loves Canadians, like he's like, oh man, another Canadian.


COLIN HILDING: I mean, we heard the controversy yesterday with Brianne Tyson Eaton's husband, Ashton Eaton, cheering for her with the Canada hat on. And now all of a sudden, she's out there like Jamaica, Jamaica. I mean, it's just that their family, they just hate their own nations. I think that's what we've come to the bottom of.


BEN WATERWORTH: Stuff our bronze medallists. We're the same, Bob. But I was thinking quickly too, I love the fact that you've got the mascot. We've barely talked about the Rio mascot. What is it? Vinicius? Vincius? I don't even know how to say it. It's a weird looking, what is it, a bear or a rabbit? What is it? What is the mascot?


COLIN HILDING: I have no idea.


BEN WATERWORTH: I'm trying to read about it here right now. See, I like the name of the Paralympics mascot. It's just called Tom. I can announce that one.


COLIN HILDING: Tom just looks like a pineapple or something like that.


BEN WATERWORTH: Venetius design represents Brazilian wildlife combining the agility of cats, sway of monkeys, and the grace of birds. So this is some weird hybrid that they've created in the pool of the diving. They've just shoved a cat, they've shoved a monkey and a bird in the green water, and you've got Venetius.


COLIN HILDING: And even he couldn't help himself but get a bunch of selfies with Paul today.


BEN WATERWORTH: I loved it. At the end of the race, they've conveniently placed the mascot, who's smiling and waving, going, hello, with a giant figurine of himself. Well, come and grab me. Bolt's promptly ignored him at first before coming back up to him. And then you see this person in the suit. I don't know who that is. It's Jimmy or John or some random Brazilian kid they've shoved in a suit who's pooing his pants because he's got a sane bolt touching him. And in the background, you can see like this vniki is like almost fainting in excitement and bolts come and touch the suit. Oh, it was hilarious.


COLIN HILDING: I think it's the guy who had to run in with Ryan Locthe earlier.


BEN WATERWORTH: That's what I'm thinking of the suit.


COLIN HILDING: That's how Ryan Locthe gave it up so quickly. I don't know if we're going to touch the bathroom.


BEN WATERWORTH: Oh, we will. Trust me.


COLIN HILDING: Ryan Locthe is like, it's some type of symbol of Brazilian agriculture and birds and cats.


BEN WATERWORTH: I was robbed by a weird yellow thing. But see, I'm disappointed that this isn't a trend in all of the Olympics. I think Bolt was with the weird London mascots, whatever they were. My favourite Olympic mascot is Izzy from Atlanta, that weird thing.


COLIN HILDING: Yes.


BEN WATERWORTH: I don't know if I ever saw the Donovan Bailey pose with Izzy. Can we recreate that? I mean, you're friends with Donovan now, can we contact CBC, somehow go to the Atlanta organising committee of the Olympic Games and then to dust off the Izzy mascot, which they're probably burnt and never want to talk about again.


COLIN HILDING: We just need to Photoshop it or something.


BEN WATERWORTH: Everybody, seriously, do Izzy from the Atlanta Olympics. I don't even know if they know to this day what it was. Good news.


COLIN HILDING: What it reminds me of? I keep bringing up the Simpsons here, but you know that I'm not saying it's from the Simpsons, but there's that parody in the Simpsons where they replace itchy and scratchy. And it was like an educational thing. I'm not garbage. I'm an amendment to be. It's like one of those cheesy like 70s educational cartoon things. That's what Izzy was.


BEN WATERWORTH: Yeah. Well, I'm just reading here. It was an animated character with the ability to morph into different forms, which was a departure from Olympic tradition that did not represent a nationally significant animal or human figure. The last time, this is why America hasn't hosted the Olympics, the Summer Olympics in like, 20 years, because the last time they created a mascot, it was just basically they were bored and like, oh, let's create like a weird thing that does shit. If Los Angeles wins the Olympics in 2024, I mean, what do they put up as a mascot? Like a racially divided cop? Like, I mean, I don't know.


COLIN HILDING: We're keeping it current here at Off The Podium.


BEN WATERWORTH: I don't know. I'm scared for what the Los Angeles mascot could be in 2024. Anyway, good news for day nine. Despite the fact Australia didn't win any medals, Canada won a bronze, New Zealand didn't win any medals either. So we could be happy. That's good news. Colin's still on the train of hating New Zealand. We've taught him well. What else happened today? Tennis, the medals, obviously, Rafa was out and the semis didn't make it. He's the way we talked about that yesterday, but my man Murray, he took it. Sorry. He won the gold. He beat Del Potro and yeah, Nadal didn't even win the bronze. Nishikori won it. So he has to be content with his solitary gold in the doubles. Good news though in the tennis, our man Jack Sock, who sadly knocked off the Canadians for bronze in the doubles, he got a mixed doubles gold with Bethany Matek Sands.


COLIN HILDING: Good job, Sock-o.


BEN WATERWORTH: Sock-o, yes. Venus Williams was in that final. She lost that one. So no good news for the Williams. And my girl Martina Hingis and her Swiss partner lost to Ekaterina Makarova and Alina Vesnina from Russia. Now, I knew I'd heard Vesnina's names before she won the tournament here in Hobart about two or three years ago. I got to interview her. So you're welcome, Vesnina. You won gold because I interviewed you. You're completely welcome. So, but the results are there are a lot of gold today, but so obviously Bolt 100. Now, this is another big one, which we haven't even mentioned, the 400 metres, Wade van Niekerk from South Africa took that gold world record, broke Michael Johnson's, what, 17 year world record. And I believe the first ever runner in the 400 metres to win from Lane 8. And yeah, like Bruce and Tams and Lewis were going off, Tams and Lewis was like crying almost in that commentary box seeing him break the world record. So, good on you, Wade. The women's marathon, Jemima Sungong of Kenya took that one out and the women's triple jump, Katherine Ibarguen from Columbia won the triple jump. I can't get into the triple jump, Colin, like, I mean, long jump's fine, but like who at one point turned around and said, let's make the long jump more interesting by adding a hop, skip and jump to it as well as, you know, who does that?


COLIN HILDING: When I was in school, I was like an average runner. I was the world's worst high jumper. The one thing I had going for me was that I was pretty decent.


BEN WATERWORTH: I think I was the world's worst high jumper.


COLIN HILDING: Ben's like, let me try to step over this thing. I was decent in the long jump, and I gotta be honest, I was too embarrassed to ever hop, skip, and jump into the triple jump. So I would find any excuse to not do that one.


BEN WATERWORTH: Why stop at triple? Why not like the quadruple jump?


COLIN HILDING: Why don't we add a somersault and a cartwheel in there? Hop, skip, jump, somersault, cartwheel.


BEN WATERWORTH: And a ballerina slash mime dance beforehand. This is the thing that I think the Olympic movement needs to stop introducing sport climbing and surfing. Invent different ones in the same sport, like the athletics, you've got the hundred metres. Why not the fifty metres? See if Bolt can do well in that. The swimming, you've got the fifty, the hundred. Well, why not the hundred and fifty metres? The two hundred, the two hundred and fifty. See if Michael Phelps can win like twenty gold medals. Like you could have a sw...


COLIN HILDING: And where's rock, paper, and scissors in this Olympics? Come on.


BEN WATERWORTH: Exactly. Where's, you know, where's watching paint dry? Like, you know, this is why the Hobart 2020 Olympics were gonna be great, because we were ahead of these. This is where Flynn Flon is gonna take the world by storm with all these events.


COLIN HILDING: We still have a chance. Flynn Flon 28, 28.


BEN WATERWORTH: Exactly. Come on now. Like, you know, triple jump, please. Where's the, I mean, if this is rowing, you'd have the triple jump, the three times jump, the jump with three parts. Like, you would have three different events and be the same thing. Anyway, boxing.


COLIN HILDING: I'm gonna put this out there right now, and Ben doesn't have to agree with this, but if we can get up to, let's say 25 likes on Facebook by the end of this week, we will put up a video of all three hosts doing a hop, skip, jump, somersault, cartwheel.


BEN WATERWORTH: Oh, I'll agree to that, because we know it's not gonna happen. I'm down to that. And you can see why that I sadly have never been an Olympian. 25 likes, get us there. We would do it. Boxing, the men's light flyweight, Hassan Boy Dulsimatov, that was with Bekistan, took the gold there. Cycling men's sprint, Jason Kenny from Britain. He got the gold. Diving, as we mentioned, the three metre springboard. Well, China won that one, surprisingly. She, Ting Mao, took that one. Hezi was the silver in Italy, you got beaten by an Italian. Well, that's fair enough. We talked about Italian diving last week. Fencing, the team's epa, the big event of the fencing. This is what it all leads up to. Everyone talks about this in the world of fencing. France, show why they're good at poking people with silver sticks. They won the gold. Good on you, France, not. Britain took the gold in, they had a good day, the Brits. Justin Rose in the golf, good for him. Bubba Watson, I love that guy, just because his name is Bubba Watson. He didn't win a medal. Anyway, gymnastics, I didn't know the Brits were good at gymnastics. Max Whitlock took two gold in the men's floor and the men's pommel horse. As you mentioned, Simone Biles. And we haven't really talked about Simone. Now, she's being talked up as just this, this is what, a third gold of the games now, isn't it? She's probably gonna win another 370,000. She's just dominating this. But, you know, she won the women's vaults. I mean, how much has she talked up over there in Canada, at least? I mean, you get the NBC coverage, so I can imagine she's being talked up a lot on that. But is she a big deal in Canada as well, gymnastics? Or just the gymnast in Simone Biles?


COLIN HILDING: I kind of feel like with American coverage, no matter what sport you're in, they always have, this is the Michael Phelps of the sport. Like, no matter what Olympics it is, whoever is the big person at that time is always like, this is possibly the greatest person in the sport. But when you do get somebody where the Canadian commentators will commentate on it, you know they are a big deal. They don't go out of their way to mention, oh, Simone Biles, Simone Biles. But I will say during the vault, the Canadian commentators were especially critical of everybody. And when Biles came up, they basically said, gold medal right there. Like, it wasn't even a question. So yeah, I guess she pretty much is the biggest deal. They just don't go out of their way to say it.


BEN WATERWORTH: She could be future wife material. I've just double checked her age. So she's, she's 19. So that's all right. She was actually born four days before me. Well, 10 years and four days before me. But, I'm past the 14th. But yeah, no, good on you, Simone. She's, yeah, the most decorated American female gymnast in world championship history. And just what I'm reading about her there. So good on you, Simone, good on you. The Women's Uneven Bars was won by Alia Mustafina from Russia. Sailing, oh, God, won't we be hanging out for these? The first medals were handed out in sailing. The Men's RSX, oh, one of the blue ribbon events of sailing. Dorian Van Rijselberg of the Netherlands took gold. And in the Women's RSX, France, Charlene Picon, ho ho, I won the Golden Sailing. Shooting, men's 50-metre rifle three positions, we mentioned before that went to Nicole Camprani of Italy. Tennis, as we said, Mari, gold for Britain, Russia, Makarova and Vesnina, and the doubles and mixed doubles, Matic Sans and Sock for America. Weightlifting, the 75 kilo plus category for the women, won by Meng Tzu Ping of China. And in the Greco-Roman, the wrestling started, oh, we love the wrestling. The 59 kilogram Greco-Roman category, never in doubt, the great Ismael Barrero of Cuba. I predicted it at pre-games, and he came through, won that one. And in the Greco-Roman, 75 kilogram, they're slightly chubbier than the 59 kilo folks. Roman Vlasov of Russia, beat Denmark's Mark Madsen. Isn't he an actor?


COLIN HILDING: And you know what? I did hear that he was the Simone Biles of Greco-Roman too. That's what the commentators are saying over here.


BEN WATERWORTH: I had no idea. I'm learning a lot about Denmark in these Olympics, Colin. They can swim and they can wrestle. I thought they could just sail. I thought that's all the Danes could do. So they've added extra programs to their Olympics anyway. So the medal tally after day nine, no change. Actually, there is change at the top because Britain have leaked the second. They're ahead of the Chinese. What's going on? Britain don't even know what they're doing with themselves. America clearly on top. We don't even need to question that. But yeah, Britain, 15 gold, 16 silver, seven bronze, 38 in total. China have dropped to third. This is an inquiry if China get beaten by Britain. 15 gold, 13 silver, 17 bronze. They got more in total.


COLIN HILDING: It's all Tom Daly's fault. Come on.


BEN WATERWORTH: Exactly. I don't know, it's Dong Dong's fault for winning silver yesterday. If he had won gold, China would have been second right now. Come on, Dong Dong.


COLIN HILDING: Thanks a lot, Dong Dong.


BEN WATERWORTH: Exactly. Russia in fourth, Germany in fifth, Australia have dropped down to ninth. We're behind the French again. Come on, Australia. We're only behind. We've won the same amount of gold. Actually, no, we haven't. No, we've won less gold. Shit, God. No, this isn't good. Canada, 15th, two gold, two silver, nine bronze, and New Zealand still in 14th place. If I'm to sort this medal tally by bronze medals, Colin, Canada's in sixth, so you're equal with Australia. So, come on, Canada.


COLIN HILDING: Look at that. We're almost in the top five of third-placers. This is amazing.


BEN WATERWORTH: You totally are doing your country proud. All right, before we get to what we're watching, other news section. I mean, obviously, the big, big, big news of the day, which we shouldn't laugh, but it's not hard to laugh at this. Ryan Locthe was held up at gunpoint. Now, this is wrong when we're laughing about it. If this was like Phelps or Bolt, we'd be like, oh my God, we're so concerned. The fact it's Ryan Locthe, no one gives a shit. Now, I mentioned to this off air, Fox Sports News in Australia claimed that they had the world exclusive, because somehow they managed to score an interview with Ryan Locthe's mother, who told them that he was held up by gunpoint. Now, all these people were quick to come out and confirm it, but then I think Ryan Locthe's coach and somebody else like, oh no, no, this didn't happen. But then Locthe did an interview and said, he said, we got pulled over in the taxi and these guys came out with a badge, a police badge, no lights, no, should I be reading this like Ryan Locthe? No lights, no nothing, just a police badge. And they pulled us over, Locthe said. They pulled out their guns. They told the other swimmers to get down on the ground. They got down on the ground. I refused. I was like, we didn't do-


COLIN HILDING: I told them, if I'm a man during the day, I'm a man at night.


BEN WATERWORTH: I'm currently not dating, I said to the police. I'm sorry, I can't get rid of this because I can't take him seriously, but like, this is funny because the guy got held up in a gun, but he's fine, like he didn't die or anything. Like we're not mourning the death of Ryan Locthe. But I have to say, clearly, clearly, the people who held him up at gunpoint had just watched his reality show and like, give me my life back. Give me my life back, Ryan Locthe.


COLIN HILDING: What would Ryan Locthe do? Just YouTube and everybody. There is another thing, if we can hit 30 likes, we will do a live commentary of episode one of what would Ryan Locthe do?


BEN WATERWORTH: It's just like, it's so ridiculous. Maybe this is a whole ploy, like we were talking about the other day, when you get a second season. They've just hired a bunch of Brazilian cops that are secretly being filming this. So like, on season two of what would Ryan Locthe do, we see what he does when faced with a gun in his face in Brazil. And he's just sitting in the back of the taxi going, wow, you know, you've got guns.


COLIN HILDING: It's funny because we said, obviously, Justin Gatlin is the type of guy that, Usain Bolt is the guy that there isn't anybody who doesn't love him. Justin Gatlin is the guy that there really isn't anybody that loves him. Ryan Locthe is the guy that you can make any joke in the world about, and people will just be like, yeah, it's probably true. I mean, he's just, he's that guy. He's almost, it's almost amusing how, what would even be the word to describe him?


BEN WATERWORTH: A douche.


COLIN HILDING: That might be the closest. He's just, he literally is an amazing human being. That's all I have to say.


BEN WATERWORTH: The photo they've got in this article is like the shot of, obviously when he won the relay, so you've got Phelps and the other two American swimmers, and they're all kissing their medals. It honestly looks like, it's like, cause Locthe's got silver hair right now. Like whether or not he's just got gray hair, or he's just decided the lady's like the silver foxes. But like, he's just there, and like this photo honestly looks like it's like a dad with his three sons, like taking them out to win gold medals. And he's only, you said like a year older than Phelps. So like why does Phelps look like he's ready to go off to college for the day, and Locthe looks like he's about to check into a nursing home.


COLIN HILDING: Look, again, all it takes is an Olympic mascot to tell you, die your hair silver, people will like it, and Locthe will do it. He just doesn't know it, it's sad. He doesn't know any better. Stop messing with him, people.


BEN WATERWORTH: Well, of course, CBC incorrectly reported that Michael Phelps got held up at gunpoint.


COLIN HILDING: Yeah, that's right.


BEN WATERWORTH: Breaking news, Michael Phelps has been, oh, sorry. I got the wrong taxi. It was Ryan Locthe. So, coverage in Canada of the breaking news. Right, we hope you're okay.


COLIN HILDING: I just have to say here, Ryan Locthe's official website. So, I mean, first of all, online orders, please allow four to six weeks for delivery. I could buy something off of Amazon and have it here tomorrow.


BEN WATERWORTH: What could you buy off the Ryan Locthe website?


COLIN HILDING: The Ryan Locthe website says, 12 time Olympic medallist, four world records. Ryan Locthe is considered by many to be the best swimmer in the world.


BEN WATERWORTH: Is he?


COLIN HILDING: Really, like who?


BEN WATERWORTH: In a world that Michael Phelps doesn't exist? I'm here right now. What can you buy? You can buy Ryan Locthe, hardcore. Is that a book or is that porn? It's a workout DVD.


COLIN HILDING: The Ryan Locthe workout DVD, another live commentary for Off The Podium.


BEN WATERWORTH: I'm like, I'm wondering what you can only buy. There's only one item you can buy from the store. That's the Ryan Locthe workout DVD, which takes four to six weeks for delivery. I'm going to be so much a fan by the time it gets here.


COLIN HILDING: No, it's because Locthe's like chartering a cab to get there. He actually delivers it to you.


BEN WATERWORTH: Yes, he delivers it to you. He said on himself, I will personally deliver it to you. I can click on contact. Oh, can we send Ryan Locthe a message? Please allow four to six weeks for delivery to Ryan Locthe.


COLIN HILDING: That's what it says on his Twitter, too. Please allow four to six weeks for a retweet.


BEN WATERWORTH: He's been held up at gunpoint. Please allow four to six weeks for a reaction. Oh, he donates.


COLIN HILDING: I just love that Ryan Locthe himself retweeted, PopSugar's 30 shirtless photos of Ryan Locthe that will make you scream, Ja! He retweets this.


BEN WATERWORTH: Oh my god, Ryan Locthe, you're an idiot. Oh god, I thought this was gonna be the bolt episode.


COLIN HILDING: I've got to be... Can we just leave Ryan Locthe tweets for the next half hour? I've ditched the razor for at gentle hair remove, three treatments, and now I'm always silky smooth.


BEN WATERWORTH: I found his Instagram page, and there's a picture of him and Matt Lauer, and he looks older than Matt Lauer. A photo of him with Matthew McConaughey.


COLIN HILDING: Oh, there is a picture of him, I guess, when he was getting his hair bleached silver, whoever told them to do that.


BEN WATERWORTH: I can see that now. But seriously, when you get your hair dyed, for the most part, it looks about like this, on his Instagram page, he's got a picture of him getting his hair coloured, and right below it, there's a picture of him with his London gold medal around his neck, looking all like Stern. All jokes aside, he's an attractive guy. Good on you, Ryan. You've let it go to your head a little bit. That's why. But him getting silver hair adds 30 years to his appearance. And honestly, he's probably starring in the Ryan Locthe biopic, and he's probably just starring as his dad as well as himself, so that's why he's doing it.


COLIN HILDING: Is he trying to go for that Anderson Cooper look? What was his thinking?


BEN WATERWORTH: Yes, he looks so much older. It's not even a remotely close thing to being older, but oh God, if there's any more, if like seriously, you're a lady or a man and you're into Ryan Locthe and you wanna see a shirtless picture of him like every day, follow him on Instagram, my goodness. Jesus.


COLIN HILDING: And he will retweet other people's shirtless pictures of him, so you'll get double the shirtless Ryan Locthe.


BEN WATERWORTH: And it will take four to six weeks for your follow request to be approved on his Instagram page. Get cracking now and you might get in there before Tokyo. Anyway, we're nearly an hour into this episode and we have barely done anything. He's talking about Bolt and Ryan Locthe. What did you watch today? Ryan Locthe in the same bolt.


COLIN HILDING: Yeah.


BEN WATERWORTH: What else did you watch, Colin?


COLIN HILDING: Today, I mean, the diving, I watched that in its entirety, obviously. The vault, I did watch that. And there was a moment in that that I love sometimes when there's a tradition in a sport that really makes no sense. Because when you get in the gymnastics and they're doing something like an artistic routine, they have to be smiling the whole time. When they're doing something like the vault or the bars or the rings or something like that, they have the most intense look on their face the entire time, except for right before they do the routine, it's mandatory that they wave their hand in the air and put on the biggest, biggest, fakest smile you've ever seen for about.5 seconds. And I just love to all these people have Game Face on and it's like, ta-da! And then, all right, back to Game Face. It's just a ridiculous thing to watch. But I did enjoy the event still. And obviously the track and field all evening, which was basically the semifinals and then the finals and then 30 minutes of walking around the stadium, kissing babies and high-fiving mascots.


BEN WATERWORTH: Well, it's funny, actually, I believe that the same Bolt's victory lap when he just walked around the stadium was still faster than Josh Clark's personal best in the 100 metres. So that's how good Australia does in the 100-metre sprint. Yeah, I watched the athletics. I caught the golf again, just because I'm so thrilled for the golf. Actually, there were people-


COLIN HILDING: Oh, you got NBC over there too.


BEN WATERWORTH: Nice. I think we get the BBC, because they're very British. But it was funny, actually, there were people showed up to the golf today because they showed the volunteers in the background, obviously, ushering people along to each different hole. I mean, surely you must buy the exclusive golf pass at the Olympics, get access to nine of the 18 holes. And I don't know. But one thing I have to say about the athletics, we talked about the swimming introductions, almost the wrestling style. I mean, this is what Bolt's done for athletics. It's just the cockiness of the introductions, and they kind of have that camera in the face, and they do their little pose or their little stance or whatever. Like, again, Michelle Jenneke, I talked her up beforehand. Don't know if you had a chance to look at her pre-race, little jiggle that she did that she got all famous on the internet for. If you didn't, you're looking it up right now, because she'll do that when the 100 metre hurdles come on, and she doesn't need to win a medal. That's enough to win everybody's heart. But yeah, there's something about the athletics introductions. I think they need to do this more so in like the equestrian now that sort of seeps into other sport. Like, here's Berto on Pretty Lady number 12. Just like the D-Generation X suck it on his horse. Or like the Michael Phelps, like, you know, little pushing up his hands or the bolt silence like, shh, I'm going to do so well in equestrian.


COLIN HILDING: Sad thing is Eric Lamaze did try that in equestrian, and that's what happened to Fine Lady number one through four. She just couldn't handle the swagger of his dance.


BEN WATERWORTH: Or just, you know, pulled the whole dance routine of the miming and ballerinas or, see, Ryan Locthe.


COLIN HILDING: Can you answer, what is Michelle Jenneke doing here? This thing is going on longer than the event. They're not cutting away from her.


BEN WATERWORTH: She's because they're introducing other people. Are you looking at her?


COLIN HILDING: Well, this is funny, I'm just wondering, because I'm watching this on mute, are they introducing the other runners, and she's still like, da, da.


BEN WATERWORTH: I don't even know. Like, no one in Australia knew who she was until this happened. Like, she won a silver medal at the Youth Olympics in Singapore in 2010, and I think this came out like a year later. Because of course, all countries celebrate their Youth Olympic medallists. I'm still waiting for the Senior Olympics. Ryan Locthe's going for that. But, I mean, this is gonna be her first Olympics, Michelle, because we obviously don't have Sally Pearson. She's pulled out. She's legitimately not a chance for a medal. I think she's aiming to make the semis. But I follow her on Instagram, and that's an Instagram account worth following. So, she did like a shoot for Sports Illustrated or something like that, which is quite nice. So, hello, Michelle Jenneke. But yes, I lost where I was talking. I watched stuff. Good for you. Athlete of the day. I'm not even questioning this one, but I think I've got an idea that you're gonna pick one of two, I'm guessing.


COLIN HILDING: Well, it has to be Usain Bolt. There's no way you can pick anybody other than Usain Bolt. I did want to give a shout out, though, to just a great story we have, or two great stories, both involving the diving. I mentioned that having Jennifer Abel lose in the diving was a heartbreaker, but the bronze medallist from Italy, this was her, I think they said her fifth Olympics, and it was her final one, and it's the first time she's medalled in five Olympics, and she came in the bronze, which is fantastic. But the big one was the silver medallist in a three metre springboard. Win Kai, I don't know if I'm pronouncing that right, Q-I-N-K-A-I, basically she was awarded the silver medal, stepped down from the podium, and her fiance was right there with a ring proposing to her in front of the crowd, stepping right off the podium. He's also an athlete. I don't know what he's competing in. I wasn't able to find it, but he's also there competing. So just a cool story. Made it a little bit easier to accept that Jennifer Abel lost, but if we're looking athlete of the day, we could be naming this athlete of the century and Usain Bolt hands down.


BEN WATERWORTH: Absolutely. I've written here athlete of the day, Usain Bolt. Didn't even think twice, but I'll give a special prop out though to our South African 400-metre runner in Wade, Van, and the Kirk, just because world record winning from lane eight. I mean, that's pretty decent if you don't mind, but if only he hadn't have done that on the day the Bolt became like the greatest living thing in the world. So, sorry, Wade. Sorry for you.


COLIN HILDING: Wade. What are you, French or something?


BEN WATERWORTH: Did you visit France before you went to Brazil? Wife of the day, I don't know what this segment is. We talked up yesterday, we said our fan message went to a synchronised swimmer called Amy Thompson from Australia, and she'll get a nod today, but I'm also going to give a special nod to Simone Bolt. Actually, stuff it. Usain Bolt, he's... Who are we kidding here, Colin? It doesn't matter.


COLIN HILDING: I had something to put up with you, but you know what? If you love Usain that much, I'm not going to stand in your way.


BEN WATERWORTH: I want to see your silver medallist in the wife of the day category, but come on now. It doesn't matter what sexuality you are, which way you swing. You are, or everybody in this planet wants to marry Usain Bolt. So, but who have you got for tomorrow?


COLIN HILDING: Going through the vault today, it is amazing how many of the 18 year olds, 18 year olds are clearly like 10 or 11. Hilarious that one of the Chinese ones, I did send you a picture. My wife honestly thought she was six years old. She's 16. This is also the event with the 41 year old in her, however old she was. And she did quite well today. So I thought that would have been a potential wife of the day. But as I was watching this, I found one that looked like she was of legal age, but not of legal age to be your mother. So I'll just send you a few images here that I found. I'm kind of concerned that you just legitimately look.


BEN WATERWORTH: I found one who's of legal. Oh, hang on. Okay, I'm distracted. Who's she?


COLIN HILDING: This was the only one I found that looked like she was legal enough that we weren't gonna get in trouble for setting Ben up with her here.


BEN WATERWORTH: Yes.


COLIN HILDING: So her name is Julia Steingrubber. She's a Swiss gymnast.


BEN WATERWORTH: Also Julia Steingrubber. That's right. It's right.


COLIN HILDING: But that would be my nominee for wife of the day for Ben.


BEN WATERWORTH: Let's be honest here, Colin. This is your excuse to have your wife of the day, but can't admit it because I'm actually married and Jamie's looking at me. But. But, absolutely. Hello, Julia. She's a bronze medallist too. So, you know, that's a good conversation at the dinner table. Hi, mum, dad. This is an Olympic what sport? Real gym now. Oh, that's good. Have a seat. Help yourself to some potatoes. Absolutely. Okay, then. We're going to be looking at her for a little bit this afternoon.


COLIN HILDING: Sorry, Usain.


BEN WATERWORTH: Sorry, Usain. You can go back to your golds. I want my bronze from Swiss. See? And how appropriate would that be if like we're at Subway and they say to me, what cheese do you want on your six inch? And I'm like, well, I get a lot of cheese Swiss on my six inch already. So let's put the Swiss on. No, that was wrong, Ben. I took that to a place that went too far. Moving on, I can't even speak. I can't believe I said that.


COLIN HILDING: Do we still have edit points or is this live yet?


BEN WATERWORTH: Well, if you're listening to this right now and you heard it, channel seven, maybe this should be CBC, shit, shit, shit. I don't know. Off The Podium, shit, shit, shit. Was there any CBC moments today? Did they start going, Donovan Bailey winning the gold in the 100 mile wait, hang on, it's Usain Bolt.


COLIN HILDING: No, the closest was yesterday. I don't remember what it was. They gave the wrong name three times trying, like they gave the wrong swimmer trying to say who won a medal. I don't even remember what the event was in, but they mentioned the third place and then like, I mean the second and then they mentioned, oh, then the first. So they finally got it. So I just think at this point, they need to fire the Canadian. This is what's great that Canada is finally doing good in the pool again, because the way the CBC works, I don't know if it's the same on seven or seven mate, but we have one real commentator and they're always paired up with a former athlete who's kind of the expert. Is that the way that you have it there? So ours, the guy who has been screwing up left, right and centre, he, I'll actually read off his info here. This is how he's an expert. So he was a former swimmer who represented Canada in the 1972 Summer Olympics in Munich, Germany. He placed sixth in the final of the men's 100 metre butterfly and also competed in the preliminary heats of the 200 metre butterfly, but did not advance. Wow. So our expert, his experience goes back, what would that be? 44 years in which he placed sixth and won and competed in the preliminaries. So we need to put Byron McDonald out of his misery. Let's get Penny Alexiak in there. Let's get Ryan Cochran. He's retiring now. Get somebody in there. We need somebody who at least has competed within the last 40 years. Let's at least narrow it down to that.


BEN WATERWORTH: Donovan Bailey with everything.


COLIN HILDING: Donovan Bailey. That's right. We had him on sitting there talking about swimming last night just cause he's Donovan Bailey. And that's what you do when you're on Canadian television. You put Donovan Bailey on for everything.


BEN WATERWORTH: Actually, we're getting Wayne Gretzky just popping up. He's our Olympic expert.


COLIN HILDING: Wayne Gretzky's here to commentate on Eric Lamaze and Fine Lady number 12.


BEN WATERWORTH: And now we cross live to the sailing with Jim Smith and Wayne Gretzky. Oh, this reminds me so much of winning no medals at the Olympics cause I'm Wayne Gretzky. But yeah, no, we have that too. We have the experts. I mean, like we actually know who the experts are in the swimming and the athletics, where it's like, you know, the judo, they don't even know who the experts are. They don't know what's going on, I think for the most part. But yeah, now I think so obviously we've got Bruce, our legendary Bruce, but yeah, they have Tamsen Lewis who kind of joins Bruce for the female events, even though she was calling the men's 400 metres. And then Steve Hooker, our gold medallist from the pole vault in Beijing, the big Wrangler lion, look him up, he looks like a, you know, he's got a mane of red hair. But he generally does the field events with another guy. I can't remember the name of it, but he'll random, they had to say about musical chairs in the channel seven commentary box. They're just like, oh, Steve joined Bruce for the sprint because he was doing the Usain Bolt coal, Usain Bolt coal, thank you, Ben. So yeah, I mean, my commentary comes from the 100 metres, the little lines that both Hooker and Bruce were saying. So Steve Hooker, after Bolt wins, just so everybody out there wants to know that Usain Bolt is a human being and not a robot, says, he's made of skin, muscles, bones, and things that make up a human. So I'm glad that Steve Hooker's got the inside word there. Now, I don't know how to describe Bruce. I mean, this is the man that obviously you know him as the guy who talks up Aruba being the line of a Peach Boy song. But I mean, he's Mr. Olympics, they call him on Channel 7. He's been going to the Olympics since Moscow. I mean, he's very highly respected sports commentator in this country. He calls Australian rules football. He calls horse racing. He loves his horse racing, Bruce. I mean, I grew up absolutely idolizing him because I wanted to be a sports commentator and he was up there as one of my favourites. Everybody likes to try to impersonate him. He likes to say special. There's one particular Australian rules footballer who he absolutely loves. And every time he gets a ball, he says, oh, delicious. Delicious.


COLIN HILDING: Do not let the man commentate on woman's gymnastics, please.


BEN WATERWORTH: There's a parody. There's a comedian in Australia called Billy Birmingham. He's AKA known as the 12th man. He got very famous in the 80s and 90s for releasing parody CDs of our cricket commentators in Australia. He became very successful because our cricket commentators were very sort of impersonable. They had very unique voices and they're quite funny. But after the Sydney Olympics, he released a track just ripping into Bruce McEvaney. And I'll have to find it. She won't send the link. It only goes for about five minutes, but it's funny. But basically, he completely recreates the call of Cathy Freeman winning the 400 metres. And at the end of it, it proceeds because, you know, Bruce gets very excited over Cathy Freeman. It's like Cathy's done it. She's shat all over them. Oh, special. Oh, can I borrow a tissue? I need to clean up. It's just it's just funny. It's just Bruce gets excited.


COLIN HILDING: There's so much more life over there than here. We just have like very serious and they're they're always like I said, the majority of the commentary fails we've had outside of calling the Chinese pigs, the majority of the commentary fails that we've had for your Canada, or they're about to say something mean. They're like, should I say this? And then they backpedal like, nobody would say this to their face. But yeah, I want some, I want some energy to get some energy.


BEN WATERWORTH: But Bruce says, so the same box doing the lap of honour, he's going up to get selfies with the crowd and Bruce probably turns around and goes, Oh, wouldn't you like to be in that shot right now? He just the way he says it, it's just so that then bolt bolts going around holding his shoes. And it looks like he's about to throw them in the crowd and Bruce goes, Oh, throw it our way, please. But the best one, we're talking about Bruce McEvaney trying to stretch things out. And I'm no disrespect to Bruce because the guy is a walking encyclopedia. He can pull off stats out of nowhere. I had I went to an AFL match here in Hobart and they had a very prominent footballer at this luncheon and I actually got to sit next to him and we were talking about because he is an expert commentator and commentates next to Bruce McEvaney and we got on talking about Bruce McEvaney about how knowledgeable he is. And we're like, Oh, surely he has like a list of notes in front of him. He, you know, knows every, you know, he prepares and this guy turned around and says, no, he's like everything that he says, he knows off the top of my head. He's a freak. So like Bruce McEvaney knows everything, but he turns around and says as he's doing the lap, he says, and I've written this down word for word, Brazil can lay claim to the greatest football of all time in Pele. And now they can claim to hosting the greatest sprinter of all time. So like, how do you stretch that? Like Brazil's got the greatest footballer and now Usain Bolt's in their country. Like he's been to, he won gold in London, in Beijing. Like, oh, London can lay claim to having the greatest super spy of all time in movies. And now they're hosted. Usain Bolt. And what do they say with China? It's like China has Dong Dong and now they've got Usain Bolt, like seriously Bruce, that's the way.


COLIN HILDING: Well, let's be honest. Rio is now proud because they have hosted the greatest silver medallist to ever be named twice in Dong Dong.


BEN WATERWORTH: So every country out of the world is like great because they've got something really good as well as having Usain Bolt just walk in their country. This is why he's the greatest human being of all time because...


COLIN HILDING: We are the greatest podcast for having Usain Bolt proposed as a wife for one of our hosts. So that's our claim to fame.


BEN WATERWORTH: That's ridiculous. news.com.au, the only one I've got here, still in Australia, we need to talk about the fucking Campbell sisters. Get over it. They choke. The swimming's over. But they've got a headline here on news.com.au, and I have no idea how they can connect Bronte Campbell to Donald Trump, but they have. The headline is, Bronte's Perfect Trump Sledge. And it says, it keeps getting easier to get behind our swimmers. Bronte Campbell delivered the perfect sledge to Donald Trump. This is a headline in Australia. And I don't even know what the sledge is. I haven't even read that far. What does it say here? Speaking about the contrasting fortunes between America's swim team compared to Australia, she laughed in the face of suggestions we should mimic how the US does things. And she replied, I think if we ended up copying America, we'd end up with someone like Donald Trump as our president, Campbell said. I don't think that's a good idea. And to which the news.com.au journalist, who in this case is James Matthew, I think he was the one we were ripping into the other day, he's written the following line, Stuff the middle count, that's Australia one, USA nil. Like that's not even a good sledge. That's shit. Oh, God. news.com.au, you had a slow day because they couldn't bash the Campbells.


COLIN HILDING: Such a vicious people, aren't you?


BEN WATERWORTH: You were talking a few seconds ago about our commentators. You want our news journalists as well? Anyway, okay. Who's your Canada fan profile? Whose name is such and such and why are they Canadian today?


COLIN HILDING: Well, again, I wish this is the second time I was going to put it off, but I did put it off originally, I should say. But Jennifer Abel, our great diver, the amazing Jennifer Abel, she is the Canadian choice of the day. I just want to say, again, if people want to look these up, just Google, hi, my name is Team Canada, and they're all there. She has the most perfect handwriting that I have ever seen. It's really spectacular. That alone is worth the trip to Team Canada's website. So it starts, hello, my name is Jennifer Abel, and I am Canadian. My favourite Olympic moment is the arrival at the Olympic Village. Just right off the bat, I think she misunderstood. The question is, what's your favourite Olympic...


BEN WATERWORTH: Stop calling it. Is this Canada's Ryan Locthe?


COLIN HILDING: We'll get to that. But I mean, the question, everybody else has answered it with what is your favourite Olympic moment? Oh, I remember seeing Mark Tewksbury win in Barcelona. I remember Donovan Bailey in Atlanta. She says, I like arriving in the village. So she's thinking is what is your personal favourite Olympic moment? Maybe a little too literal there.


BEN WATERWORTH: I like using the toilet.


COLIN HILDING: If I could choose any Olympic host city, it would be Montreal. I know she's from Quebec, at least I don't know if she's from Montreal. In my spare time, I most like to have a glass of wine. When you continue on this profile, you're going to realise that that's very true. Draw a picture of yourself. She has drawn a picture that looks like the most accurate stick figure of her you've ever seen with two giant bumps right around her midsection. I think she's very proud of one feature on her body there. I was supposed to say bottom, bottom of her body there. If you've seen the diving, it's pretty accurate. The weirdest destruction a coach ever gave me was stop thinking, which is also the opposite of what the instructions of Ryan Locthe's coaches give you. My favourite workout is talking, which is actually surprising to me because in her interview I swear, it's like over in two seconds, like she never says a lot on camera. I'd like to. Maybe we need to get her boozed up to get her talking or something. We'll see more about that later on. If I could have lunch with any one person, it would be my grandmother who passed away in 2007. So is this post-humus?


BEN WATERWORTH: She's the only person who can hold a conversation with her. Hello, Nan. What's that? You say?


COLIN HILDING: My favourite sandwich is a Calabrese sandwich. I guess that's what her grandmother had for lunch. I love this. Google the picture. Draw a picture of a Canadian animal. She drew a smiling cat that says, meow, with two exclamation marks. This comes right just to the right of an elephant she started drawing, didn't finish, and crossed out entirely.


BEN WATERWORTH: What an elephant? Is this like the Canadian bunnies that I don't know anything about?


COLIN HILDING: The bunny hugs. I'm going to send it to you. Just scroll down until you see the picture.


BEN WATERWORTH: I don't know if it's quite as good as yesterday's one where the fencer guy that we had basically draw a picture of a moose that you didn't know was a moose until you saw the speech bubble that said moose.


COLIN HILDING: Well, this one's great because she put underneath, there's the meow, the cat, and underneath it she put hashtag cougar. It's really a spectacular piece of work here. If I could have any superpower, it would be see in the future. The best candy in the world is little peaches. I actually do love those little peach candies. I love this. As a kid, my favourite sports team was my brother's baseball team.


BEN WATERWORTH: She's a huge sports nut, isn't she? She can only think of her brother's baseball team. I'm looking at the profile now. I just really quickly, I'm looking at the drawer picture of yourself. It looks like Princess Leia with like saggy boobs or a very round bottom.


COLIN HILDING: This is Princess Leia, Force Awakens or Jennifer Abel, age 23. Her favourite sports movie. I love this. Cool Running is probably one of my favourites of all time. I don't know. This is probably the wino in her talking. I don't know what this is. What would the coolest Olympic medal look like? It looks like a bottle on a string and it says hashtag vuvclicote. Is that like a wine or something?


BEN WATERWORTH: Shall we translate that? How's our French going? You live in a country where French is your official language. Come on.


COLIN HILDING: We're only, it's only mandatory we take it for eight years.


BEN WATERWORTH: Let's see what this is.


COLIN HILDING: Vuvclicote, it is a French champagne. So the fact that this is again, where maybe it's a little bit sad that her ideal Olympic medal is a bottle of booze on a string that she could wear on her neck.


BEN WATERWORTH: In Montreal, man, Ryan Locthe and I are just going to drink our medals.


COLIN HILDING: She is so much better than Ryan Locthe. I lost the profile here. Can you find it?


BEN WATERWORTH: I'm on it still. I'm thrilled by this.


COLIN HILDING: Okay, I missed. I was Googling Vuvclicote.


BEN WATERWORTH: If I could live anywhere in the world, it would be somewhere not too far of my family. Now, I will say she spelt 2TO, not TOO, and it doesn't even make sense. Somewhere not too far of my family.


COLIN HILDING: She's really gotten... Between when she started this and finished, she's seriously tanked at this point.


BEN WATERWORTH: Either that or the Canadian diving team need to go back to school and learn some grammar.


COLIN HILDING: I'm almost back here again.


BEN WATERWORTH: When I was little, I always thought that I was a princess, and now I am a queen. Ha ha ha ha ha.


COLIN HILDING: Which is followed by, I love this, my favourite joke to tell is, I don't have any jokes to tell because I am not funny. I thought the princess queen one was pretty funny.


BEN WATERWORTH: You need to go back to that, the, what was it, the one the other day with the jalapeno nose. I want to tell that to your teammate there. Jennifer, like, come on.


COLIN HILDING: She is spectacular though. This is Jennifer Abel, our almost medallist.


BEN WATERWORTH: Live your passion. She hasn't even cursive to live in, like, she's put the L with a gap in between it. Like, do you know what cursive is, Jennifer? Can't even do that properly. And I love the fact that you've got a promo video for your Olympics, which still has to relate to the Winter Olympics. Team Canada, ice in our veins. You should probably get drug tests. That's not very good if you've got ice in your veins. So Penny Alexiak is going to get the medals taken away from her.


COLIN HILDING: Yeah, that is Jennifer Abel.


BEN WATERWORTH: Star of the day, her and Ryan Locthe. Stuff Usain Bolt. Okay, fan messages. Where are we up to? I haven't even looked at these today. Hello, AOC, if you're listening. God, the Campbells are still getting love.


COLIN HILDING: Why? Just why?


BEN WATERWORTH: Exactly. This one is from Leanne of Victoria to Richie Campbell. Yes, I am getting up around 3am to watch you and your team. Keep up the good work. I don't know exactly what Richie does, but clearly it's 3am. Let's see. Surely these are not updated, because there was a volleyball one from yesterday where they're asking her to come out and train with them. They don't ring them and reply to you. It's not Twitter. Breaking news.


COLIN HILDING: Please reply to this message.


BEN WATERWORTH: Breaking news. I've just got here on the Australian Olympic team app. Somehow, they've managed to connect an Australian athlete to Usain Bolt somehow. They've written here, Brandon Stark qualified for the final of the men's high jump just moments after watching Jamaica's Usain Bolt become the first elite. How do you connect that? Anyway, so hang on. Let's see if they've updated things.


COLIN HILDING: I'm surprised we don't have the story that Josh Clark is currently the most famous person to ever not run in a race with Usain Bolt.


BEN WATERWORTH: Exactly.


COLIN HILDING: This is ridiculous.


BEN WATERWORTH: The AOC is so in touch with, like, Usain Bolt. These fan messages are from 15 hours ago. So these actually haven't updated since yesterday's episode.


COLIN HILDING: Hope you win the gold.


BEN WATERWORTH: Yes. I hope you're gonna go well in London. LAUGHS Oh, I don't think we read this one. It's a little boring now. Jackson, my Tassie boy. Jackson Marks in Tasmania. Great to Cam McAvoy. Great swimming. You have served Australia well, and we enjoy watching you in class time. To Jim, overseas fan. I think we've heard from Jim a lot. To Nicole Zagame. I don't know who Nicole is, but Jim writes, You are so feisty. Bring on the US and Italy. LAUGHS Isn't that bad to say feisty? Rick from Queensland.


COLIN HILDING: Not for J-Mac. That must be J for J-Mac.


BEN WATERWORTH: To Georgia Bowl. Hi, Georgia. What amazing season you've had. A tough week for you. Swimming a little below what you would have expected. She's just bagging around. LAUGHS Keep your chin up. Stay focused and enjoy the next four years, and you will achieve huge results. Rani from Victoria to Isabel Bishop. Hi, Isabel. I look up to you, and someday I hope to be an Olympic swimmer. Just like you. Oh, isn't that sweet?


COLIN HILDING: What the hell?


BEN WATERWORTH: Mary Van Dissel from South Australia. I'm really hoping that this guy, Scott Keach, is an equestrian person, because otherwise, this is a bit disturbing about what Scott does in his spare time. We will always be grateful for you breaking in our flaxen chestnut pony, Desiree, over 25 years ago. Good luck for your first jumping round in Rio. Best wishes, Mary and Beatrix Van Dissel. Clearly, breaking in a pony 25 years ago is a big deal.


COLIN HILDING: Is that pony still with us, is the question.


BEN WATERWORTH: I don't know. Anyway, they're boring today. God, pick up your game, AOC. You're too busy blocking people on Facebook to update your app. What sport are we going to today, Colin?


COLIN HILDING: Which ones have we not done yet?


BEN WATERWORTH: We haven't done any martial arts in there.


COLIN HILDING: Oh, wrestling. Let's go for wrestling.


BEN WATERWORTH: Freestyle or Greco-Roman? What's your poison?


COLIN HILDING: Greco.


BEN WATERWORTH: Greco. Oh, we've got the one athlete in Ivan Popov. Okay, Ivan, what about you?


COLIN HILDING: Alright, who was the Greco-Roman one that was in the Roman Vlasov?


BEN WATERWORTH: Yes.


COLIN HILDING: What if we just sent out, hi, what's the guy's name again, your guy? Hi, how are you? I heard Roman Vlasov was talking some serious smack about you earlier. Yes.


BEN WATERWORTH: Hang on, before I get there, I'm just going to quickly read here. It says in his biography, Russian-born Ivan Popov made history in 2010 by claiming the first ever Commonwealth Games Wrestling Gold Medal for Australia in 32 years. Oh, what a legend. His nickname...


COLIN HILDING: Ivan, thank you.


BEN WATERWORTH: His nickname is Ivan. Oh, it took a while to come up with that one. Off The Podium, email. Should really put in a different email address so they might approve it for once.


COLIN HILDING: Maybe it's crashed.


BEN WATERWORTH: They're going through so many of our messages, we can't update it in 18 hours. Thanks for breaking in our pony 20 years ago. Hey, Ivan. I heard, I heard, oh, apparently Vlasov comes up as autocorrect, as a classic. I heard, Roman Vlasov was talking serious smack about you.


COLIN HILDING: Is there even anything else to add?


BEN WATERWORTH: You should...


COLIN HILDING: Dot, dot, dot...


BEN WATERWORTH: . hit him with a chair......and get him in a sharpshooter. That's the one of the day.


COLIN HILDING: Come on, Ivan!


BEN WATERWORTH: Do it for Australia!


COLIN HILDING: We will never be unblocked, will we?


BEN WATERWORTH: I'm gonna get a phone call later on today. Yes, hello, Ben. This is Sam, from the AOC. How are you? Stop talking about us. Alright, so day ten is upon us. That's sad, in a way, because we're past the halfway point. This isn't good, Colin. This summer, in a week, the closing ceremony will be here. No, we can't do it.


COLIN HILDING: We're double digits now. This is where it's officially almost over.


BEN WATERWORTH: Well, it's a slow day, actually. Only 17 gold. We've had three days in a row with over 20, but we're back to 17. So, big news, though. The canoe sprinting starts today. Oh, yes. Alongside the marathon swimming. This became a thing in, was it London or was it Beijing? That became a sport. But I guess it should be a sport. It was London. When's the triathlon? Oh, the triathlon's right at the end. That usually is at the beginning, anyway. So, we have medals today in wrestling. Come on, Ivan. Weightlifting, what else do we have today? Yeah, marathon swimming, obviously. Sailing, I think actually we've got a guaranteed medal today in Australia, tomorrow, whatever. The artistic gymnastics continues. We've got equestrian medals, track cycling, boxing, and obviously athletics as well. So, yes, it's exciting because it's the Olympics, Colin. I don't know if you've got any, I've got nothing written here for Australia. A medal in sailing is what I know we're going to get. So that's about all I can tell you. Do you have anything Canada's looking forward to today?


COLIN HILDING: Well, I was so preoccupied with Bolt and DeGrasse all day today that I haven't even looked up to see what is on tomorrow. When I go through CBC's, what CBC actually has listed in their programming, it just says athletics and beach volleyball all day. And I know we're not in beach volleyball anymore. Right now, I'm watching US and Australia play on CBC. Well, US won the first set, so right now, it's 12-10, or 12-11 in the second. Australia is in there still.


BEN WATERWORTH: Okay, come on, Australia. Come on, let's do it.


COLIN HILDING: But you mentioned the canoe sprint, and that is the big thing because probably one of the most consistent Olympians we have in the Summer Olympics, Adam VanCoverton, one of my favourite Olympians of all time. Just a great personality, great all-around guy. He's up in the kayak, the 1,000 metre, so that's what I'll be watching tomorrow morning on the way to work.


BEN WATERWORTH: I do love the fact that you've got a sport where you've got to have canoe and kayak because you've got to have both. Is it canoe or the kayak one where they're essentially kneeling in the boat? I like that one. That's fun to watch.


COLIN HILDING: I think that's canoe.


BEN WATERWORTH: Yeah, I don't know. That to me, this is all well and good sitting down in a boat. Anyone can do that. I can't even kneel down to pick up something off the ground without hurting myself. I couldn't imagine being in a boat like doing it for like a kilometre. So good on you, people who kneel down.


COLIN HILDING: Well, in all fairness, you're not Adam Vancouver now.


BEN WATERWORTH: Why not? We won gold in that four years ago in some event in the canoeing. So I could probably tell you if I did my research, hang on, I've pulled it up here. The men's K4 1000 metres took out the gold. We beat Hungary and Czech Republic. So suck on that, Adam Vancouver, whatever your name is.


COLIN HILDING: Well, he is the Canadian that has medalled three Olympics in a row. So if he medals here, I think that might make him the first summer Olympian to medal in four separate Olympics.


BEN WATERWORTH: Well, does he won a gold?


COLIN HILDING: He won a gold in Athens. Yes, in the K1 500.


BEN WATERWORTH: Good for you.


COLIN HILDING: He switched to the 1000 in London and he'd pulled off a silver.


BEN WATERWORTH: Okay, then. Well, let's root for him because he got beaten by a Norwegian four years ago. And he beat-


COLIN HILDING: Not a Norwegian. They're as bad as the French. And he beat-


BEN WATERWORTH: I love this guy's name from Germany, Max Hoff. Like, is that just because I love the Hoff over there in Germany?


COLIN HILDING: I'm going to name my-


BEN WATERWORTH: I'm going to re-change his last name to the Hoff. Just like Degrassi Junior High. Oh my goodness. Anyway, so yeah, it's the canoe sprinting, get excited for the canoe sprinting. Three days to modern pentathlon as well. It's getting exciting, woo. Facebook, yes, 25 likes, and we will do a triple jump for you. So, do it. Facebook, Ford-


COLIN HILDING: No, no, no, wait, wait, wait, wait. You can't back out that easy. A hop, skip, jump, somersault, cartwheel.


BEN WATERWORTH: All right, okay, well, I can probably do the first three of that. I don't know about the last two. Off The Podium podcast on Facebook, email offthepodium.hotmail.com, iTunes, YouTube. Thanks for all the downloads and support on that. It's been great. And yeah, Colin, another fun day, and looking forward to another day tomorrow.


COLIN HILDING: Yeah, and from now on, I don't want to be known as Colin. I want to be known as my nickname, also Ivan.


BEN WATERWORTH: Thanks, Ivan, for your time. Somehow we spent this episode, a 90 minute episode, talking about the Olympics for 30, and the other 60 talking about Ryan Locthe and Usain Bolt, so go figure. But yes, we'll be back tomorrow. Thank you very much. And just quickly, if you're listening in Brazil, just remember that not only can you lay claim to the greatest football of all time and hosting the greatest winter of all time, but you can also lay claim to listening to a podcast, goodnight.

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