Simon Leung Interview
It's time to bring you your first ever taste of Badminton on the show today as we speak with Australian Tokyo Olympian Simon Leung about his Olympic experience and the amazing sport of Badminton! We learn from Simon just how he got into the sport and what made him choose it over a variety of other sports he took part in. We also learn about how he ended up switching from singles into doubles and just how important a strong relationship with your doubles partner is in badminton. Added to this we learn more about his Olympic experience in Tokyo and just why he was nearly brought to tears by a gesture from his work back home during the Games. It's a great chat that you will enjoy, so get to listening!
EPISODE TRANSCRIPT
Please note this is an automated transcript that may contain errors.
BEN WATERWORTH: It is Off The Podium, an Olympics podcast coming to you today for another athlete interview. An exciting one for you today, our very first taste of badminton on the show. A sport that I love, a sport that I played for a little bit, and a sport that I'm always fascinated about. And it's great to today be joined by Tokyo Olympian Simon Leung to learn about his journey, which led him to an Olympic appearance and everything else about the sport of badminton. And it's a fascinating chat. Simon, very sporty as a kid, played a myriad of different sports and ultimately did pursue badminton. It led to multiple national representations before ultimately landing a spot on the Olympic team for Tokyo. A journey that was obviously a very hard fought, didn't even know he was going on a plane to Tokyo until mere weeks out from the game. So it's fascinating to kind of hear about that story, learn a little bit more about the training of the sport, strategies and sort of partnerships and teamwork and all that kind of stuff too. So it's a great chat here that I know you're going to love. Here is our chat with Australian Olympic badminton player Simon Leung.
BEN WATERWORTH: Always exciting on Off The Podium, when we can bring an athlete on from a sport that we have never covered before on this show, and today is one of those days. We are getting our first ever taste of badminton, an sport which I'm excited to talk about. I was just talking to our guest off air about me having the pleasure of watching this sport live back during the 2018 Commonwealth Games. My own badminton career didn't really take off after about a couple of months playing, and I think it was year 10 high school, and clearly I'm here doing the interview and not being interviewed about my badminton career. But our guest has an esteemed badminton career today that we're going to learn about. Multiple Oceania Championships, multi-ranked number one in Australia with his mixed doubles partner, Gronya Somerville, and just recently returned from his debut Olympic appearance at the Tokyo Olympics, and I'm so excited to learn more about that and everything else from his career. Please welcome to the show Mr. Simon Leung. Simon, first of all, welcome to Off The Podium. It's a pleasure to have you on the show today.
SIMON LEUNG: Hello, thank you. Thanks for having me this morning.
BEN WATERWORTH: Well, it's a pleasure to have you here. And as I was saying in the intro, always exciting to talk about a new sport. And then badminton, I think you're actually our first racket sport athlete too. I don't think we've had anyone from tennis or any of the other table tennis. So, you know, we're ticking these off right now, and let's just get it over and done with right now. Badminton is the best racket sport, right? Number one.
SIMON LEUNG: Why would you not pick badminton as a racket sport if you had to choose a racket sport, right?
BEN WATERWORTH: Exactly. Fastest racket sport in the world. Am I not mistaken? So that kind of sells it in itself. You know, you get to smack around a birdie all the time. Why wouldn't you want to talk about that? But I'd love to learn sort of what got you into badminton, kind of what got you started on this journey that ultimately led to an Olympic appearance.
SIMON LEUNG: So basically, I started as a young kid, and obviously, family played it as well, so I kind of started around probably the age of eight or nine years old. And obviously, back then, it was kind of just a let's go to like a local club and just, you know, just play when family goes and plays. And later down the track, I guess I kind of got hooked on to it and I really enjoyed playing it. And I started doing a bit of training here and there. And then before I even knew, you know, I got to about probably six, 15, 16, and I was really actually liking the sport and just, I guess, how quick it is and, you know, just how the sport is. It's just so fast and the agility side of things is so, you know, you just need so much agility. So it was just a really nice sport, really fun. I guess I was with a fun group of people as well that I played badminton with. So that really helped. And yeah, I guess I kind of took on training a little bit more seriously, trained a couple of times a week regularly. And yeah, I kind of slowly made my way into the national junior team by about the age of 16, about 16. And then I was lucky enough to be around a very, very strong group of juniors who I guess really helped me be a better player myself. Obviously, it was very tough back then because of all these great players. But I was very lucky enough to get a chance at the very end of my junior career in 2014. To be able to play for Australia at the World Junior Championships in Malaysia, which is definitely a highlight career because being the World Junior Championship, it's probably the biggest besides the Junior Olympics. It's probably the biggest comp out there for junior level. So I was very grateful to be a part of that Australian team. And yeah, so obviously, after 2014, I went to my senior career, moved my way into the senior national team and was quite fortunate enough to get chances to play for Australia at the World Championships multiple times now up until today. I think I played in two World Champs, one in Switzerland and one in Scotland. And yeah, and I guess the whole Olympics thing was never like, obviously, I always wanted to get to play in the Olympics as a kid. There's always that thought of the Olympics, but none of that was really, I guess, a serious thought to me, because obviously, Olympics is not easy to get to. It requires a lot from an athlete to be able to make it to the Olympics and compete, let alone trying to win a medal, you know. And it probably got to about 2018, I think, about 2018, or 2017, actually, maybe 2017. The national junior team, oh, sorry, the national coach, senior coaches, and Gronya actually approached me that year while we were away on an Australian trip in Thailand for the World Men's and Women's Team Championships. Yeah, so during that trip, they obviously approached me to ask if I wanted to play mixed doubles again, as I was only playing men's doubles at that time. So and I said I was happy to play mixed doubles again. You know, if the chances were there and opportunities were there for me to play again, I would. And me and Gronya, I guess, had a bit of a trial sort of period towards the end of the year. And it went well, obviously. You know, start of 2018, she decided to, you know, I guess play with me. So from then on, we basically had a bit of a talk about with the national team coaches, you know, what my goals were. You know, what I wanted to do, you know, in regards to mixed doubles, and I said, look, Olympics is obviously one thing that I wanted to be a part of, but you know, it's not easy. So yeah, we kind of sat down, had a chat, and I guess agreed that Olympics was one of our goals. And we basically in that year, I think about mid 2018, or maybe just before mid 2018, we already had plans already to start travelling for tournaments around the world and trying to start that qualification pretty early, just to give us a little bit of a head start. And yeah, so we did qualifications for about two years. And then obviously COVID hit pretty hard in end of 2019, 2020. So that obviously was a bit of a challenge for us in regards to qualifications. But yeah, we were very lucky, obviously, still to qualify. And here we are now post Olympics after going to Olympics. Yeah, it's good. It was exciting to be at the Olympics. It was my first Olympics as well. So yeah, it was very memorable for sure. And definitely something to remember, especially the journey of making it to Olympics with COVID.
BEN WATERWORTH: I was going to say, it's that crazy sort of journey that led all to that. I mean, sort of growing up sort of with Badman, were you a sporty kid? Were you sort of playing other sports at the same time as Badman? Is there another potential sport, Simon? We could have seen you competing at the Olympics.
SIMON LEUNG: I don't know about potential sport we competed in. Definitely not at the Olympics. But you know, I was always a very sporty sort of person since a kid. So, yeah, throughout like high school and primary school, you know, I played soccer. I played, I played TRL. I played TRL like the last couple of years well, but obviously with the Olympics, I stopped because I just couldn't commit to it. I played, I actually played a bit of rugby league as well, back in my primary school days as well. Yeah, and I just played a lot of touch footy as well in high school, you know, with my mates and stuff. So they were probably, I played a bit of basketball as well back then. So I guess you can say I was pretty sporty and stuff.
BEN WATERWORTH: Pretty sporty.
SIMON LEUNG: I guess I did athletics as well. So I did a lot of running, all the track events and stuff. So I was pretty good at that as well. I guess I can run.
BEN WATERWORTH: Probably helped sometimes in badminton, I can imagine.
SIMON LEUNG: Oh yeah, definitely helped.
BEN WATERWORTH: What was it particularly sort of as you were progressing through? Was it, is it a case of you just enjoy playing the sport or all of a sudden you start making a rep team, you're working away at the ladder? Okay, I'm pretty good at this, I could progress. I mean, kind of was it a mixture of the both? Or was it just something particular that really kind of tickled your fancy through all those sports that ultimately led you to pursue badminton?
SIMON LEUNG: I think obviously the enjoyment of playing the sport itself, of just how fun it is, that obviously played a big part. But I think just during that junior sort of career when I was part of the national team, and then making the junior world junior championships, I think that was definitely something that really motivated me to continue playing, wanted to do well as well. Because I was quite lucky that same year I also won the national junior championships. So I won that the same year as well. So it was a very big achievement, I guess, for myself. And that really kind of motivated me to do well and do better. And just continue to train hard and just give it a shot. Because I guess in a way, a lot of people back then did tell me that I had a bit of talent in me. And there's a lot of people that kind of believed in me back then as a junior. So I think that was also a bit of a motivational comment towards me, which kind of pushed me as well. And obviously, going to seniors, there wasn't much for me in that early senior period, but I think I was already quite motivated to try and do well and make senior teams, rep teams and that. And obviously, when I first made the first rep team in 2017, I think it was very memorable, being my first senior rep team, I'm being around the big boys, getting to compete with the big boys in a rep sort of environment. Yeah, I think that really pushed me, and I guess that's probably what held me together a fair bit and told me to keep on going and go for Olympics, especially when the whole Olympics talks came up with Grono.
BEN WATERWORTH: Is there a moment as a player that all of a sudden you realise that maybe you're more suited to a doubles than a singles? I mean, I know sort of tennis kind of works that way a little bit where certain players will get to a point, okay, well, singles isn't going to work for me, but I'm a better doubles player. Is that a similar thing for badminton? And was that kind of a case of you just at one point go, okay, I'm going to stick to doubles, I'm going to stick to mixed doubles, and maybe not focus so much on the singles?
SIMON LEUNG: Yeah, so before as a junior, I was actually a singles player. And I've always been, I guess, a singles, but I always trained singles and everything as a junior. It was probably not until 2014, at the beginning of the year when the national juniors coach, Stuart, he approached me and he gave me a bit of a, this was during, I think, Oceania Junior Championships. I still remember this talk very well, because he came up to me while I was ordering fruit at the canteen. And he was asking me, what are your plans? What do you want to do? Are you looking, do you want to be part of the World Junior Championships? I obviously said, yeah. And he was asking me what my training is like, what I do at training. I train a bit of singles. I normally do that, train singles and da-di-da-di-da. And then the next minute, he kind of approaches the convo in a very weird sort of way. And at that time, I was a bit confused because he was like, okay, well, I reckon, it wasn't exactly along these lines, but it was roughly, this is roughly kind of what he said. But yeah, that's good, that's good. I reckon once you leave here, go home. I think you should just start training some doubles instead of singles, because I think that might be quite useful. And then that pretty much ended the convo there. I was like, oh, okay. I was like, okay, that was very, I don't know what you're trying to do there, but that was a very weird convo. So I walked away and I told my Max, I was like, I just had a very weird convo. He just said all this to me. I don't know what he's trying to say, but I don't know. And everyone kind of said, oh, that's a hit. I'm pretty sure you made the World Junior Team now. I was like, oh, surely not. And yeah, and next minute, you know, a week or so later, I think I got an email saying I made the World Junior Team. So it was a very weird way of telling me that I've made the team. But I guess that's another thing to, I guess, remember of, you know.
BEN WATERWORTH: So you're on a bit of a different path than I can imagine you're expecting, isn't it?
SIMON LEUNG: Yeah, no, it was definitely not something. But I guess that year I did, you know, win the World Junior Nationals in doubles as well. So I guess that played a big part of it as well. But yeah, as a singles and doubles, I guess a lot of people start off with singles, you know, and it's probably later on the track where they, I guess, transition to doubles if they, I guess, either not like singles or they find that they're a bit better in doubles, they're more suited for doubles. So yeah, I guess, yeah, we all kind of start off being a singles player, and it's probably later down the track where you kind of know whether you're going to transition into a singles player, sorry, stay as a singles player or transition into a doubles player, you know. And I guess for me, 2014 was the year where I kind of transitioned to a doubles player. And since then, I haven't played singles or trained singles whatsoever. So I don't miss it whatsoever because it just requires too much of me.
BEN WATERWORTH: Which is it a case then when you've got a coach saying something like that, are they watching your singles performance and watching, say, your future partners performance? Okay, these two would work better together. Is it more of a chemistry thing that like it's, it doesn't really matter how your ability is on the court. If you two get along, it works better. Or is it kind of a combination of the both when you are forming a doubles pair and mixed or, you know, same gendered doubles?
SIMON LEUNG: Yeah, I think obviously, you know, the coaches will always, I guess, look at everyone and I guess see their strengths and weaknesses. And obviously, if, you know, they believe that that person is a bit, is more better to be in a doubles combination than in playing singles. I guess they obviously will kind of start thinking already about, you know, who they could be, you know, working best with as a partnership, who they'll kind of, you know, really bond and work well together. Yeah, and I'm sure, you know, even after that, I guess they don't really decide from that, purely from that, I guess. You know, they'll just start picking, you know, players out and be like, hey, look, you should, you know, maybe think about playing doubles. And then that's probably where they kind of have a rough idea of who may be that possible, you know, partners and stuff. But, you know, nothing's kind of, I guess, locked in anything, because, you know, they're still trying to find everything, find all the strengths and weaknesses, find, like, who works well with you. And, you know, you'll probably have to try it out with all the different parents, you know, and really try out the combination, see whether it works well or not. And yet, sometimes it's a quick process, you know, sometimes it's not. But I guess it's just trying to see what you have and what you don't have and what this other person has that will really help your game. So it's kind of like which two players can be put together sort of, and I guess help each other and build on their game, but also make you as a combination, as a pair, like, really strong and like to really work well together. And it's not easy, I think, trying to find the right pairings to be put together, because you can be put together and you can either do really well, or you're going to be completely trash and not do well whatsoever. So yeah, it's tough. And I guess for myself, I guess with Gronya, obviously I've never played with her back then, throughout juniors and whatnot, we've never played before. And we kind of only had that one or two matches together when we were trialling, and that was it. And then we kind of basically gone into the whole qualification period as a very rough sort of starter pair, you know. But we were very lucky, I think. We worked really well and we somehow, you know, work as a pair fairly well. We had things that we could help each other with. And yeah, I think we just, in a way, didn't really look like a scratch pair. That was a very new scratch pair, you know. So it looked like, you know, we had a bit of training together, you know. And, you know, we worked together for a bit and build towards this tournament sort of thing. So that was very positive.
BEN WATERWORTH: And how is it then, too, when you put together, and again, back to sort of my question about the chemistry, I mean, yeah, it's all well and good to have that, the ability to play on a court. But do you then all of a sudden go, let's go grab a beer. Let's, you know, have a bit of a chat. What are you into? Because I guess you've kind of got to have that communication level and kind of, you know, in a weird way, you're starting a relationship without the romantic side of things. But, I mean, you obviously want to work together well as a pair on and off the course. You don't want to be leaving that court going, OK, I don't want to talk to you again. See you in bloody Paris. We won't say a word.
SIMON LEUNG: Yeah. Yeah, no, it's obviously as a pair, we obviously get closer each time we play, each time we train, each time we see each other. Yeah, and obviously off court, we always have chats and stuff. We go out, we have meals together, lunch, dinner, when we're away. We're off tournaments and stuff, we'll always go eat together sort of thing. So yeah, I guess that's sort of the bonding time that we have. I guess also out of tournaments, when we finish and we've been knocked out already, we have a bit of free time, I guess we'll go do a bit of sightseeing as well, and we'll do that together normally as well. So I guess yeah, off court, when we're away, we do spend a bit of time together as well, which is really nice, because obviously that kind of builds that chemistry where you kind of get to know each other a bit more. And yeah, it will really help, I guess, on court without performance and everything.
BEN WATERWORTH: Outside of the obvious training aspects of just going on court and hitting the shuttlecock a thousand and one times every single week, what are some of the key training aspects for badminton, hitting the gym, things along those lines? What are you working on as an athlete that, say, maybe is different to some of the other racket sports that, say, a tennis player or a table tennis player or squash player would be working on?
SIMON LEUNG: Yep. So yeah, we obviously have on court sessions where we obviously do technical stuff, do a bit of physical stuff as well on there on court. Yeah, so it's normally generally the week is about five or six on court sessions, roughly about two hours each. And then you've obviously got the gym side of things, the physical training side of things, so the gym. And I would normally have about three sessions, probably two to three of actual gym sessions. And then the one or two sort of, I guess, running sort of session where I probably do sprints or something like that, or like a bike session or something, just depending, I guess, what I need to do and whether I can do it. Like, you know, if I got injuries, then obviously it would be a bit more strengthening, conditioning, eyes in a conditioning sort of session. Yes, I guess it gets tailored to, I guess, how the body is feeling as well and everything. But yeah, generally, it's about, you know, like I said, five or six on-court sessions a week, and then you've got like two or three gyms, and then, you know, one or two sort of running sessions. So it's a pretty packed sort of week, you know, in regards to training and everything. And obviously, gym is something I guess I hate as well. I guess I hate all the trainings, honestly. I just hate it all.
BEN WATERWORTH: Which is natural. We all hate the training. Come on, it's all about the competition.
SIMON LEUNG: I guess, like, as much as I hate it, you know, it's still very enjoyable, I guess, especially if you're training with others as well. Yeah, it's still very enjoyable. Like, even, like, especially gym, like, I've always hated gym, because back then I had early morning gym sessions at, like, 6.30, so. And I'm not a morning person whatsoever, so.
BEN WATERWORTH: We managed to get you up for this one, I'm glad.
SIMON LEUNG: I guess it was a bit easier, because, you know, obviously I had my doubles partner there as well. And obviously, we push it, push it out a fair bit as well. So I guess that's really helpful. And it's enjoyable. At the end of the day, it is enjoyable. After a good gym session, it is quite enjoyable, and it's very satisfying.
BEN WATERWORTH: Which I can imagine, though, when you're standing on that court at the Olympic Games. You're surrounded by, you see the rings, and you've got the Australian colours on. It's maybe worth it.
SIMON LEUNG: Yeah, it's not worth it. No, 100%. No regrets of doing 6.30am starts.
BEN WATERWORTH: Which I read that you, at some points in your career, sort of through badminton, university, work, I mean, you were pulling 80-hour weeks, basically, with about three hours sleep. So, I mean, it's kind of... It's always what I love hearing from our guests is kind of that journey, because, yeah, we're going to tune in and watch you play a couple of games at the Olympics, but I mean, it's far more than that, isn't it, for you to even get to those Olympics. It's those 80-hour weeks where you're trying to fund your way across the world to play a sport that obviously is not going to get the same amount of funding and attention as, say, is Arianne Titmuss is going to get in swimming, right?
SIMON LEUNG: Yeah, no, it's been tough. Yeah, it's been obviously, you know, with the not so much sort of funding here in Australia, in Brabhamton, a lot of it is rely on myself to work and get that sort of funding for it. And I guess I've always I've been working two jobs as well. One job I work at my uni at Griffith Sports in the events department, and I do a lot of events work and stuff with them. And then the other work, I work in the nightclubs as a seccy.
BEN WATERWORTH: So I was going to ask about this. I was like, like, what's it like being a security guard nowadays? Like, I mean, I don't know, like, I remember going back to the clubs and kind of some you'd have fun with some were just absolute dickheads. Let's be honest. Is there a balance you've got to achieve?
SIMON LEUNG: Let's just say from a security perspective, it's very different to what it was back then. Like, like, you know, like years ago, you know, like where back then Sec is was a bit more, I guess, very hands on sort of like, you know, aggressive sort of like, you know, behaviour that you can kind of feel from them. Now, a lot of it is purely off like customer service and stuff, which obviously doesn't really happen when, you know, things don't go your way and things kind of go south. But no, it's, it's nice.
BEN WATERWORTH: It's like, I feel like I need to grab a pair of shoes behind me and just double check. Like, are these shoes OK? You're not going to give me that excuse if you don't like the look of me. So your shoes are not capable of being in this club.
SIMON LEUNG: I think it's a lot more chill. It's a lot more chill now, I think, when you go out clubbing. I think, yeah, obviously, like there are some clubs where they've got like dress codes and this and that. But I think most clubs are pretty chill about it. As long as you don't look ridiculous, like really bad, really trashy, they're going to let you in. But yeah, no, I think it's a bit different now compared to what it was back then. Even for myself, I feel like since well, obviously, I've worked in it. I've been in the Secchia industry since 2018, so it's been like four years now. And I guess working there now and thinking back to when I went out myself, it's already so different. Things are already different, and yeah, it's a lot better now. Let's just say that.
BEN WATERWORTH: It's just so fascinating though, Simon, to kind of hear about this journey, because as we often say in this show, it's all well and good for people to look at you and go, you're an Olympian, you're a professional athlete, clearly you're doing well for yourself and all sort of stuff. But I'm sure next time anybody goes to a nightclub and sees a security guard, they're not going to automatically look at a security guard and go, well, they're training to be an Olympian, or they are an Olympian, when you go back to work. It's kind of fascinating, particularly in a sport like badminton, which sadly in Australia is only ever watched during the Olympics, during the Commonwealth Games. It's not something that's ever really focused on. So it's just, it's always that journey. It's just so fascinating to kind of hear just how it is for you to get to an Olympic Games.
SIMON LEUNG: Yeah, no, actually speaking of that, you know, it's a bit of a funny story, but I guess of an also very grateful thing that obviously I'm very grateful of. Yeah, so obviously I work in a nightclub, and one of my supervisors who works there, he actually one day messaged me saying, I've actually asked work to see if I can stream your match at work. I was like, that's not going to happen. There's no way that's going to happen. Not a single chance. There's no way. And I was like, no, I actually asked her. I'm just waiting to hear back. I'm like, okay, sure, whatever. It's not going to happen because why would they? And I remember this was my second match against the Japanese pair on that Sunday. Obviously, I had my phone turned off when I went and played the Japs. And once I finished and came off court, I turned my phone back on. And as it was already from the first game, my phone was blowing up with notifications, just blowing up messages from everyone, Instagram, Facebook, Snapchat, WhatsApp, just everywhere, you know? And obviously, I checked Instagram, and there was a couple, obviously, there was my supervisor, and I was a couple of other staff members that worked there as well. They were all, like, you know, tagging me in Instagram stories. I was like, what the hell, like, why? Like, that's so weird, right? And obviously, I clicked on it, and I looked at it, and then next minute, you know, work actually screened my match at work. I was like, oh, my God, like, like that first, like, the first feeling, the emotion I had was like, honestly, it hit me so hard. It was like, I was actually very, very happy. And I had no words because I just never expected, I guess, work to do that for me. And yeah, I was obviously very happy. And Lowkey was trying to hold in a tear because I was that happy that, you know, work did that for me, you know. And yeah, obviously I said thank you to everyone because there was a lot of stories of them posting at work and everything. You know, one of the DJs was actually on the mic, you know, giving shout outs and, you know, shout outs to me being at the Olympics and everything, you know, talking a bit of banter and at the same time about the other guys, you know, being pretty useless and, you know, they just hear being a normal dumb seccy, whereas there's me who's, you know, the more talented, more skilful seccy, you know, who's at the Olympics. Yeah.
BEN WATERWORTH: The first time probably that badminton has ever been shown at a nightclub, surely.
SIMON LEUNG: No, I would never have thought about that anyway. But yeah, so obviously now, all the regulars there that go to where I work, they've all seen me, and then I thought honestly, oh, that's going to end there, you know, it's a one night thing, you know, no one's going to remember me, no one's going to know who the hell I am. Obviously, and then I came back to work, and I came back that first weekend, I got out of hotel quarantine, and random people, like not random, but I guess some of the regulars that know me like, oh, hey, man, welcome back. Oh, my God. I saw you on TV. Like we watched you here. Like, no, thank you. Thank you. Very grateful. Thank you. Thanks for watching. Thanks for the support, you know, that sort of stuff. I mean, you start having, you know, obviously staff members will say that to you, you know, so they're very happy to see you again. I was very happy to see them again. And he thought, oh, maybe it's the first weekend, you know, like, you know, fresh coming back sort of, you know, feels and environment. I've been back for like five weeks now, about five, six weeks now. Till this day, I'm still getting random people walk up to me, right? And what's worse is they know my name, but I have no clue who the hell these guys are. Like, in my mind, like, who the F are you? Like, I have no clue who you are. But you're saying my name and saying, dude, good job, man. You at the Olympics. How was it? Like, I watched you here. I was like, it was very good. It was amazing. Had a lot of fun. Thank you. But in my mind, I'm like, I have no idea who the hell you are. I know you know my name, but I have no clue who the hell you are.
BEN WATERWORTH: You're a celebrity now, Simon, come on.
SIMON LEUNG: Well, it seems like I'm a bit of a celebrity in our work, you know.
BEN WATERWORTH: Well, you take it. Take it. Come on. I mean, are you the most famous badminton player now in Australia? I mean, I don't know about that.
SIMON LEUNG: I guess, no, definitely not. I think Granya is a fair way ahead of me at the moment. So I think I'm not even going to try to get close to her, you know. But I guess, no, it's not, I don't know. In a way, I'm not really that sort of person anyways. I guess I've never really been the type that I guess enjoys the spotlight. Obviously, I've never always really wants to be in the spotlight, you know. But obviously, with the Olympics, things kind of change to fair bit, you know. And I guess you get a little bit more spotlight after the Olympics since you're an Olympian.
BEN WATERWORTH: Always an Olympian, of course, it always kind of you've got those three little letters that kind of stick after your name. I mean, on that journey, sort of, I believe you didn't really get named to the team until essentially what, a month before the game? Like it was very close, wasn't it? I mean, what was that period like? And then right up to that selection, because I always find it interesting, these sports where, you know, some some athletes can qualify 12 months for an Olympic, you know, you're there, whereas you it's weeks away. I mean, what's that period like knowing, not knowing, and then finally finding out?
SIMON LEUNG: Yeah, it was a it was very stressful, actually. Obviously, there was a little thought going through my mind. But, you know, back then, when we were kind of looking at, you know, where our ranking was compared to where the Kiwis were with their ranking, you know, we were still ahead. So we were the obvious qualifiers for the Oceania spot. So in a way, I guess we were we knew that we were going to qualify, but it wasn't official yet. But I think at the same time was obviously anything could happen, you know, you know, since it wasn't official, you know, we don't know what's going to happen. Who knows something might happen and bam, the Kiwis qualify and we don't. So, yeah, it was a bit of a wait and I think they announced it officially, probably, yeah, probably three, four weeks prior to us leaving. And yeah, it was obviously a period where I was very nervous, always like I kept telling, you know, I tell everyone, I'm not nervous about it, and I'm not thinking about it really, but, you know, deep down, yeah, it was always on my back of my mind, I guess, you know, whether I was going to qualify or not qualify, you know, especially, you know, spending all that money or that time and putting all that effort into it, you know, like the last thing you want is to not qualify for it. So, yeah, it's it was a very nerve wracking sort of period. But obviously, once we've got the the OK from the Australian Olympic Committee, you know, when we saw that email, when we saw that announcement on Facebook and everything, you know, it was it was the biggest, you know, relief ever, you know. And, yeah, it was so big that, you know, obviously, before I could even tell family, you know, some of my family and friends, you know, they were already telling me that, oh, my God, congratulations, you know, sort of thing. So, yeah, it was definitely a very, very special, very special moment, very special day, you know, that I always remember is, you know, when it was announced that, you know, I was actually going to be heading to Tokyo Olympics. So, yeah, we'll always remember that day.
BEN WATERWORTH: I always love finding out sort of outside of the competition side of things, it's kind of just those, what you're mentioning about being named to the team, but the other experiences that you have, you know, everything from village life to if you do a ceremony, kind of pin trading, things like that, even the little things of, here's your uniform, here's your, you know, this is what you're going to be wearing, all that kind of stuff. I mean, kind of do you so call that in, Simon? I mean, are you so switched on the competition that you kind of can't focus on that? Or is it kind of a bit of a balance between the two?
SIMON LEUNG: Um, I think, like leading up to it, obviously, when I knew that I was going, you know, I wasn't, it didn't really hit me still. Um, so I always, so there wasn't, I guess, a very big sort of adrenaline rush in me, like, you know, being very excited and stuff. Um, and I think it probably got to the day that I guess we were flying off, you know, from Brizzy Airport to Cairns and then to Cairns to Tokyo, and I was where it kind of slowly hit me, you know, that, you know, dude, you're going to the Olympics, man, like, get excited, man, like the hell, right? Um, yeah, so I think it was probably then when it kind of slowly got to me that, you know, I was gone. But even then, it wasn't, it wasn't something, you know, overly big, um, that I was feeling, you know, um, in saying that I did have the privilege to fly business class on the way to Tokyo, so I got the lucky, uh, I was the lucky one out of the four of us.
BEN WATERWORTH: I'll say you didn't all get it. It wasn't just a Qantas perk. It was only like, we, badminton can only have one spot in business.
SIMON LEUNG: Yeah, so the whole business thing, um, it depends how many athletes you have in your team, which would determine sort of how many seats you get allocated. So obviously there was only like four or five of us. So we only got the one and I was very lucky to, uh, to have gotten the right pick choice of car that we kind of drew out.
BEN WATERWORTH: I was going to say, how does that happen?
SIMON LEUNG: Yeah, I was very lucky. Um, so I got to enjoy, you know, over, you know, over, over like about 12 hours of flying, you know, in business class. Um, but yeah, like, I think that was where it kind of soaked up a lot. You know, we got to Cairns, we got off the plane. There was a bit of media stuff out on the tarmac, you know, a lot of media. Um, you got the rest of the Aussie crew coming through as well. So I think that kind of really hit in as well. That hit a little bit more, um, knowing that, you know, oh my God, we're in like, you know, our travel gear, you know, our Olympic travel gear, you know, got media at the airport, like on the tarmac, you know, like what the hell, like, you know, I've never experienced this sort of thing before. So, uh, yeah, it was very good. And then obviously once we got to Tokyo, um, you know, everything kind of slowly started coming through and my body started feeling it, you know, the excitement started coming through. And even then it was kind of not overly too big of an excitement. I'm not going to lie to you. It was, um, it was, yeah, it was really like, yeah, it just felt like I was away for a normal tournament, you know, honestly. Um, but it probably really hit me once I got to opening ceremony night when we got into our uniform, we went out and did our walk around the stadium. Obviously with no spectator was very different, but just the the atmosphere and the feeling of walking out with the whole, you know, with other Australian athletes, with other athletes around the world, you know, and walking around that stadium for an opening ceremony was just surreal, you know, like not everyone gets a chance to do something with that, you know, and I think that really hit me. I was very excited. I was recording on my phone as well, and obviously all my family and friends back and back at home, you know, and everyone was watching and they're like, dude, we saw you for like a second, but your bloody hand was in the way in your face, man, not looking into your face. Like it was just in your face, like, what the hell, I'm like, oh, I'm sorry. I was trying to record myself, you know, I was trying to shake up the time, you know, everything and trying to record it. But I don't know, that was my two minute of fame on live television, you know, so.
BEN WATERWORTH: Which I'm actually fascinated about that because the opening ceremony, if I'm not mistaken, was the night before your first match. And often we speak to our guests who, they don't go to the opening ceremony if they're competing the next day. And I've always been a person as an armchair critic like, screw it, I'm doing the opening ceremony. I don't care what you say if I'm competing at six in the morning. This is an experience. I mean, was that down to you guys? Was it as a choice as an athlete or kind of was it a, hey, represent Badminton? I mean, kind of what brings about that choice considering your first match is the next morning?
SIMON LEUNG: Yeah, so all the badminton guys were allowed to go because it was a very small team. And obviously I was still contemplating about where I was going to go. Obviously, because I think my memory, my match on that Saturday morning was like 10, 30, 11, I think about 11 o'clock sort of match or 11, like something somewhere around there just before midday. And obviously, you know, the bus ride to the stadium was like an hour drive, which means I had to get up pretty early, like seven o'clock sort of start, get up, you know, get breakfast, go see massage, and then, you know, make my way to the stadium, you know. So obviously, this was a very early start, and I knew that was going to be a late finish as well, you know, even if we didn't stay to the end, it was still going to be a late finish. I didn't want to be too tired, you know, obviously being my first game was always going to be tough. And in the end, I got convinced to go, you know, being like my first Olympics, you know, like my first Olympics. So I think I thought, oh, it's something special, you know, I'm probably not going to be gone. I may or may not be going to the next Olympics in Paris. So this could be my only chance, my only opportunity to, I guess, be at an Olympic opening ceremony, you know. So in the end, I decided to go. And I think another reason that made me go was knowing that there was early buses coming back to the village, you know. So once everyone came through, you know, there were buses that were going to take us straight away back to the village. And I think that was another factor that kind of got me in.
BEN WATERWORTH: Which is exciting too, because you also ultimately, with how COVID works, you weren't allowed to stay for the closing. So it's kind of like, you know, you might have if a normal Olympics were on, you could have been like, OK, well, at least do the closing. Whereas obviously, you didn't really have that choice, did you?
SIMON LEUNG: Yeah, no, we didn't know. So I think that was yeah, it was very special. It was a very special moment and memory for me to, I guess, be there at the opening ceremony.
BEN WATERWORTH: In terms of the competition itself, obviously, I can imagine that every athlete goes into an Olympics and says, I want to win a gold medal. You know, of course you do. You're athletes here at the top of your game. But, you know, did you and Gronje sort of once you were drawn in the group that you were, I mean, was it a case of get out of the group? We can do this kind of like what was sort of the targets that you set yourself going into the competition?
SIMON LEUNG: Yeah, so obviously, when the draw was done, we knew we had a very tough group, you know, played against the Indonesians, you know, the world number four, you got the Japanese pair who was the world number five as well, and you got the Danish pair who's, I think, 20 something in the world. And you know, at the top, the world number four and five pair, you know, they're a bloody good pair, you know.
BEN WATERWORTH: Took a set off them, if you don't mind, though. So you started off all right.
SIMON LEUNG: That was definitely something that we didn't see and expect to happen is to take a set off the Indonesians. Yeah, and obviously, we guess obviously we want to get out of the group and make the quarterfinals, you know, it was always it was always one of our goals to to make it out of the group and make quarterfinals. But we knew it was going to be a tough when it was going to be very tough. So I guess, you know, our goal and to go out there was really to just to just play and try and do our very best, you know. And obviously, I'm sure you would have seen some of the results, you know, that first day, you know, we were down the whole way. We were down 2014 in the end and then somehow a bit of magic and a bit of, you know, smarter decision makings, you know. And I guess we kind of played a bit better. You know, we came back and won 2220 in that first set. And, you know, I still remember the moment that happened, you know, me and Granya were laughing after, we were smiling like, what the hell is happening? Like, we were so surprised and shocked, you know, that, you know, like, how the hell did we come back? Because at a level that we're playing there, you know, there's not a chance for that to ever happen, you know, when you're 2014 up to lose 2220, you know. It's not going to happen. It's almost a mission impossible sort of thing. But we did it. So we're very happy and I think going to that second set, we obviously had a lot of. We were very, very excited for that second set, you know, we were very ready to play that second set, you know, after taking that first set. We knew that we could do it, I think, especially coming back from that first set. And it did show, you know, as that second set progressed, we were leading the whole way. We were always the lead leading pair in the whole set until we got to about 17 14. Exactly the same thing that happened the first set, you know, we kind of went down and we lost 21 17. Which is very disappointing, you know, because, you know, playing so well in that second set. We're playing so well, and to lose that second set after being one set down was, you know, obviously very disappointing, you know. And for myself, I was, yeah, I was a bit nervous, obviously, you know, being one set up, you know, like, it's not easy to do it against the Indonesian pair, you know, one set up, leading, winning 17 14, you're four points away in your opening match of the Olympics on debut to win against the world number four, who's one crazy amount of, you know, big tournament and stuff, you know, so it was very overwhelming at that point when I was playing. And I think that obviously got a little bit to me. And, yeah, that's obviously affected me in how I played in that second set. And in the end, you know, we lost that third set. But, you know, overall, it was a great experience, you know, it was tough. And would I ever say that the opening ceremony played a part of it since I was out late? Honestly, I'm not going to point anything on the opening ceremony, you know, because I think overall we played pretty well, you know, and things happen, I guess, at the end of the day, you know, these guys are top pair, you know, it's learning curve at the end of the day, you know. It's part of it.
BEN WATERWORTH: You can set off them at the Olympic Games, though. You can not take away from that, can you?
SIMON LEUNG: It's part of the experience. And so would I ever change it and not go to the opening ceremony if I had to relive that moment? No. I'll definitely do that.
BEN WATERWORTH: I think it comes down to that level of, if you're playing Roger Federer and you take a set of Roger Federer, you're always going to say, you know, I may have gotten beaten six love, six love, six love in the next three sets, but I still took a set off him. So, you know, like it's kind of, you're always going to have that thing that you took a set off, you know, this great pairing at the Olympic Games. And I'm saying it now, I think the opening ceremony helped. You came out straight away, boom, take the first set. It's not like you won the second set. You won the first straight away. So that helped. Come on.
SIMON LEUNG: Yeah. It was definitely something. I will always remember this, and I still bring it up to like today with people, you know, like all my friends and family are watching, you know, they're all screaming at the TV, you know, they're just like, oh, my God. He's like, you know, once it up, there's like four points away from me, like, ah, come on, you know, sort of thing. And, you know, it's, yeah, it's, it's disappointing, you know, like to not be able to take out that match, you know, because it definitely would have been not only an upset, but it would definitely be the biggest upset probably at the Olympics. Besides that, it's probably going to be a bit of a talk around, you know, the world of badminton, you know, for a while, you know. Um, yeah, but it's no, it's, it's still a big thing till today, you know, and still in the talks here and there.
BEN WATERWORTH: I mean, it's on the resume, you know, still give me a bit of banter about it.
SIMON LEUNG: Why did you lose that second set? Well, useless, Simon, like, if you train harder and actually be serious about what you do, you might actually win. Okay, all right, thank you.
BEN WATERWORTH: Thanks for that. Thanks for the coaching tips.
SIMON LEUNG: Very positive.
BEN WATERWORTH: Well, the one moment that obviously went a little bit viral against the Japanese pair in the eventual bronze medallist was midway through that second set when Gronya's racket breaks and she basically changes halfway through a point and grabs it and you still win the point. I mean, is that a common badminton thing that often happens, or is this just kind of the uniqueness of Gronya? And she's that skilled, she can go halfway through, change her racket, and still win the point.
SIMON LEUNG: Oh, I wouldn't give her that much credit, okay. I'll keep the credit to myself on this one. Yeah, it's a pretty normal thing in badminton. Obviously, you break strings a lot, because we string it at such high tensions. So on the side where our bags are, we'll always have one or two rackets there ready for situations like this, where we break strings or break rackets. And obviously, for Granya, it was actually her racket that broke. Her frame actually snapped. And obviously, I had no clue that happened whatsoever. Probably until... I don't know if you watched that rally itself or not, but I didn't realise it until she hit that clear from the back court. That's when I kind of heard, that sounds a bit weird, you know? It doesn't sound right. Something's not right. And that's when I knew... I actually thought she broke her strings, honestly. So when she had the chance to kind of move up straight away and hit like a block or a push, I literally told her just to run. I'm pretty sure you could hear me just yell out, run, run, run. And yeah, off she went, you know? And she came back in the new rack, and I was just playing a bit of singles, reliving my junior days where I was very fit. I was very fit as a singles player. Doing very well. Yeah, and you know, I held the rally, held it together until she came back, and we were all lucky enough to win it, you know? And I was very lucky because I remember that last shot I hit, it was not the greatest shot whatsoever, that drop shot. I probably should have died on that and got killed, but... You didn't. So it was a good turnout. And obviously it got us a bit viral here back in Australia.
BEN WATERWORTH: We got on Channel 7 that night, they wanted to interview, they wanted to talk badminton, it was great. Look at this, Channel 7 realised that the sport exists, go Channel 7.
SIMON LEUNG: Yeah, I know, when Grunga told me that, you know, hey man, tonight, 10.30, we're going on Channel 7, we've got an interview on Channel 7 tonight. I was like, what? I was like, literally about the rackets, he goes, yeah, we've somehow gone a bit viral about that. I'm like, wow, I mean, I always wanted to go viral, but I never knew, as you know.
BEN WATERWORTH: Was that on Xinyi? Was that Andrew Gaze, Andy Ma? So you're getting interviewed by... That's pretty cool. There's Andrew Gaze having a chat with you.
SIMON LEUNG: That's pretty special. It was lovely. Because I'm pretty sure that's... Yeah, because I haven't done many of those live. That's probably my first proper, you know, live Channel 7 sort of live interview. So it was very exciting. Obviously, I was very nervous as well, you know. But no, it was great. I was, yeah, it was great. A lot of actually a lot of my mates that I work with and all that actually saw me on Channel 7, on Shinya that night, actually, because I got messages saying, oh, I saw this guy on TV. He looked a bit like you. And I look closely and I'm like, oh, it is you. I'm like, oh, what a coincidence. Get to see me on TV on an interview on Channel 7. How lovely.
BEN WATERWORTH: I do like the fact that I kind of see this as almost like a video game. You could use this as a strategy that, yeah, you can say it broke, but it's kind of like a power up when you pick up something in a video game. So you're just secretly going, oh, power up. I mean, I don't know, is there a secret strategy here in Badminton that we're just unaware of?
SIMON LEUNG: I mean, if there is, if you know any, just please do.
BEN WATERWORTH: You could be discovering it.
SIMON LEUNG: Yeah, I'd definitely like to know. I mean, any helpers on court would be appreciated, you know.
BEN WATERWORTH: Any sort of publicity that the sport can get is obviously fantastic, because as you were saying before, mainly self-funded, this isn't a sport, obviously, that Australians are tuning into all the time. So even if it's a small little viral moment, people are watching you, you've got your mates texting you, but I mean, there might be a kid out there watching it going, hey, this sport's pretty cool, I'm going to give it a try. I mean, anything really to get some publicity for the sport must be great.
SIMON LEUNG: Yeah, no, it's obviously good. And obviously, badminton's not an overly big sport compared to other sports here in Australia, like swimming, basketball, you know, soccer, you know, that sort of stuff. So I guess being able to go to the Olympics and I guess even with the whole racket swap going viral, you know, back in Australia, you know, you know, we really hope that that alone kind of helps, I guess, with with a bit of just, I guess, putting badminton out there, you know, just putting out there on the maps, you know, for young kids, you know, young adults, you know, just anyone to really, I guess, know and hear and see about the sport of badminton. And hopefully that kind of gets them excited. And, you know, it can be really fun, you know, these guys are doing, you know, all these running off courts, like, why is there one person missing on court, so I've stopped, you know. So hopefully that shows them a bit of excitement, a bit of fun that can be part of the game as well, rather than like a very, I guess, serious sort of sport. Like, you know, at the end of the day, it's a fun sport. And, you know, we just want everyone to have fun more in their play, you know. So, no, we were all hoping that, I guess, our appearance at the Olympics, you know, has helped with, I guess, the publicity here in Australia with badminton, you know. Hopefully, that's put out on the map there, and a lot more people are aware of it and are now interested and actually want to give badminton a go, even if it's just for fun, you know. Like, it's still good, you know. It means that, you know, we're doing something right here, you know. We're doing something right to get participation numbers up, you know. And at the end of the day, you know, that helps the sport itself, you know. It's probably going to help myself and help younger athletes, elite athletes who are coming through the system and, you know, want to be at the Olympics, you know, later down the track. So I guess it doesn't just help me, but it also helps the public, you know, just people playing the sport, but also help my, like, fellow juniors and stuff, you know.
BEN WATERWORTH: Which is such a fun sport to watch. I mean, I was telling you off air, and I said in the intro, it was one of the sports I was lucky enough to watch at the Commonwealth Games. You know, I had a day off from work and it's like, hey, what am I going to go watch? And got tickets to the hockey and then badminton that night. And it was just fun. It's just such a fun sport to watch live, and the crowd was really into it. And I mean, obviously, you know, we're lucky in Australia that whenever we have a multi-sport event like a Commonwealth Games, we get behind everything. But I think this bodes well for Brisbane in 2032. Literally, your home Olympics because you're from Brisbane. So I mean, I'm seeing this now. Sell out crowds for badminton 2032. You're going to be a two-time Olympic gold medallist by then, Simon. They can name it the Simon Leung Centre, basically, for excellence for badminton. I mean, gosh, it's exciting times for badminton moving forward after this one little viral moment from the games.
SIMON LEUNG: Yeah, definitely. Obviously, congrats to Brisbane, taking out that 2032 hosting for the Olympic Games. It's massive, and it can't get any better than having Olympics in your backyard. So whether I'll be a part of it as an athlete, that's a very big call. 2032, you know, I'll be like 35.
BEN WATERWORTH: You're still young. Come on. It's only 11 years away.
SIMON LEUNG: Yeah, it's only 11. I'm still thinking about Paris in three years' time, so 11 years, that's a long way to go still.
BEN WATERWORTH: Look at Andrew Hoy. He was 62 and he's still winning medals. I mean, you wouldn't even be halfway there basically by the time you get to Britain. We'll just pass halfway, so you've got another 30, 40 years in you easily. Come on.
SIMON LEUNG: Look, hands down for him, man. God damn it. I'm speechless for what he has done, man. For him to be going to the Olympics at that age and winning medals like that, I'm going to straight up say I'm never going to be able to do that.
BEN WATERWORTH: Never say never, Simon. Come on, you'll be playing this interview once again in the 2046 Olympics or whatever we're up to by then.
SIMON LEUNG: We're getting a bit carried away now. Let's bring it back a little bit. No, like I said, whether I'm participating at the Olympics for 2013 in Brisbane or not, I think I see myself being there, even as a spectator, just being there supporting, I guess, the juniors that's obviously come up and made Olympics. I guess it's a good environment. Obviously, I've got a lot of friends here that was going to go over to Tokyo to watch Olympics as well. So it's obviously a shame. So obviously, going to the 32 Olympics in Brisbane with everyone will be amazing.
BEN WATERWORTH: Literally in your backyard, you can just...
SIMON LEUNG: Yeah, 100%. And not only that, just like you say, it's in my backyard. You know, like Brisbane is such a lovely place. You know, it's a place where I think I encourage everyone to come and visit Brisbane. It's a nice place, I think. It's nice here. You got lovely weather here. I'm sure you would know.
BEN WATERWORTH: Yeah, I mean, coming from Tasmania, I will say your winters are very interesting. I do love the fact that it gets below 20 degrees and you guys are complaining it's cold.
SIMON LEUNG: Hey, I'm not complaining. I've never complained that below 20 years is cold. I don't mind the winter here. It's not that bad.
BEN WATERWORTH: Well, it's technically a Winter Olympics. As we keep saying, the Brisbane 2032 Olympics are a Winter Olympics. They're held in Australia's winter. So, you know, Australia's only chance of ever hosting a Winter Olympics, basically. I mean, obviously, you mentioned not sure about Paris, but I mean, are there short term goals? Obviously, we say Commonwealth Games less than a year away, kind of in this unique sort of period we're in with the Olympics being a bit out of cycle. I mean, do you set yourself a goal to those, or is it kind of you're just still kind of working out what the goals are between now and if you do push towards the Paris tilt?
SIMON LEUNG: Yeah, 100% Commonwealth Games next year in Birmingham. I never got to play Commonwealth Games. That's probably one of the big things, one of the last things that I guess haven't been part of. My last rep team I haven't been part of. So yeah, Commonwealth Games is definitely on the books for me to be a part of. And yeah, it's, you know, being in Birmingham as well. It's a place I always wanted to go to as well. So I guess to be there for the Commonwealth Games is definitely something to look forward to. It's, yeah. And obviously I want to do well as well, you know, being the Commonwealth Games, you know. Hopefully I'll do well enough and maybe hopefully, you know, win a medal at the Comm Games, you know.
BEN WATERWORTH: Because it's very achievable, isn't it? Like it's sort of, given that you're not having China or Indonesia, you know, Denmark, Korea, sort of the powerhouses there. It's kind of, I can imagine for an Australian on like a world scene where, you know, it would be great if you can get a medal at some of these. It's a little bit, I guess, more realistic at a Commonwealth Games, isn't it?
SIMON LEUNG: Yeah, no, it definitely is, and it's a lot easier, but not easy at the same time, you know, because obviously you still got the greats of India. You still have the greats of Great Britain, you know, and you still got powerhouses like Singapore and stuff. They're, you know, they're still very great, strong, you know, in their own disciplines, you know. And yeah, it's not easy still, but obviously the goal to winning a medal is obviously a lot closer and a lot durable, a lot more durable, you know. But it's still very hard, you know, there's still so many, so many great pairs out there, even not even from Great Britain, not from India, not from Singapore, you know. There's still amazing sort of players out there who are very good, and it's still a fight. You still got to work hard for it. You still got to train very hard for it. You still got to compete and perform to the best you can and perform at a high level. Because, you know, otherwise, you're not going to win it, no matter how, you know, how well, how great, you know, even when there's no one there, no great players, you know, you still got to do well, because if you still play crap, you're still going to be losing to players you shouldn't be losing to, so.
BEN WATERWORTH: Well, I'm seeing here that Australia has not won a gold at the Commonwealth Games since 1994 when Lisa Campbell won the women's singles. And prior to that, you've got to go back to 86 in the mixed doubles, your event, where, and I'm probably going to butcher the names here, Michael Scandalera and Audrey Tuckie won that. So break the drought next year, Simon. You and Gronya are going to hashtag break the drought for a gold medal in the sport of badminton for Australia at the Commonwealth Games.
SIMON LEUNG: Yeah, look, it would definitely be a goal of ours. Definitely something that we want to achieve as well. I mean, just a gold medal in general, you know, just winning something, you know, like, there's no better feeling than winning later on, you know, at Commonwealth Games, a gold medal. And I'm sure, like, you know, if that ever happens, you know, if that day does come, you know, obviously I'll make myself very proud and obviously a lot of family and a lot of friends.
BEN WATERWORTH: It's got to be the English. I'm seeing here the mixed doubles has only ever been won by English pairs. And outside of that, the Malaysian pair won it in 2010 and then a Hong Kong pair won it in 1990. So it's always England. Bugger them in their home Commonwealth Games. Chris and Gabby Adcock, no, you're not allowed to win any more gold. It's Simon and Gronya's turn in Birmingham in 2022.
SIMON LEUNG: We'll put it this way, they're retired now, so...
BEN WATERWORTH: Oh, well, there you go. Let's open up the door for you.
SIMON LEUNG: They've still got, like, another very strong pair who's in the top 10, I think, at the moment from England. So they're quality side as well.
BEN WATERWORTH: They're England, now choke, come on.
SIMON LEUNG: They're in their home. They've got all the pressure on them, you know.
BEN WATERWORTH: Yeah, exactly. And, you know, they're just gonna choke. Let's be honest. They've lost all the funding since London. They didn't win as many gold in Tokyo as they did in Rio. So it's going downhill. Now, before we sort of wrap it up, Simon, with our final set of questions, kind of a bit of a get to know you sort of, I mean, outside of Badminton, you talked about sort of your work that you're doing. I mean, kind of, you know, is there kind of career goals kind of looking like, are we going to be a career security guard? Are we going to see you maybe a security guard at the Brisbane Olympics? Is that kind of what you're working towards? If you can't compete, that you could be on the opening ceremony, telling people, no, you can't sit there.
SIMON LEUNG: So obviously I study, I'm studying business at the moment in sports management. I did a bit of finance as well. But I'm actually currently in the process of trying to get into the police force here.
BEN WATERWORTH: Police in Brisbane 2032. There you go.
SIMON LEUNG: Yeah, hopefully. But yeah, I think, you know, obviously if that all goes well, I'll be part of the police force, Queensland Police Force.
BEN WATERWORTH: Commissioner Simon Leung by 2032. How's that sound?
SIMON LEUNG: That's a big, you're making very big calls here this morning.
BEN WATERWORTH: What we do on the show, we're big thinkers. You know, we push it out there.
SIMON LEUNG: Yeah, so obviously if that doesn't happen, I think I'll be going back towards business, doing something in business, or maybe a bit of finance sort of side, banking sort of side, you know. It's, yeah, but I guess the police force was something I kind of wanted to do always, because I wanted always to join the defence force in a couple years ago. But obviously with badminton, that was never going to happen. So I guess now, I guess the opportunity kind of came, and I guess I might as well take a chance to give it a go.
BEN WATERWORTH: Sounds good to me. That's all you can do, right? Give it a go and see sort of where it takes you. Now, as always, Simon, we wrap up every interview with a set of sort of get to know you style questions now. As we always say in this, it's based off a Team Canada questionnaire they gave their athletes ahead of both Rio and Pyeongchang. We often like to get an athlete from the same sport and quiz at. Sadly, at least not on their website. There is no badminton athletes from Canada that they put this towards. So I've gone with a beach volleyball player, Heather Bans. There's a net involved. So it's the closest I could come really to something along those lines. And as always, too, if you want some extra homework, there's a drawing element. You are always welcome to send in drawings, and we will publish them on our social media. You don't have to, but I will say the first drawing, if you want to draw a picture of yourself and send it to us, we will post it on social media. I don't know how your artistic skills are, but, you know, putting on the spot.
SIMON LEUNG: I'm sure if I drew a picture of me, it'll look very good.
BEN WATERWORTH: Good.
SIMON LEUNG: It might look a bit better than what I look, but, you know, hopefully the real me is a bit better than a picture of me.
BEN WATERWORTH: Well, we look forward to seeing it. Now, first question. Again, you're always allowed to answer your own if you want to, but your favourite ever Olympic moment is?
SIMON LEUNG: Stepping out on court on that first day of my first match. Just feeling of, wow, I'm actually competing and here at the Olympics now. Definitely a dream come true.
BEN WATERWORTH: Works great. The best candy in the world is?
SIMON LEUNG: The best candy in the world.
BEN WATERWORTH: If you want to, we can always come back or if you're not a candy eater, there's no rules in this segment, really. Hence why I'm asking the word candy and not Australianising it into the word lolly. I'm literally reading off a Canadian questionnaire. So, your favourite sandwich, how's this one?
SIMON LEUNG: If it's a toasty, I'll definitely can't get away with ham, cheese and tomato.
BEN WATERWORTH: Oh yeah, good choice. Good answer. And I always like to find out, is there a specific bread that you go with or are you just whatever's available?
SIMON LEUNG: I'm not too fussed, honestly. I try to be healthy sometimes. I'm a very good athlete, I try to keep my diet very well.
BEN WATERWORTH: You're an Olympian, that's what we all expect.
SIMON LEUNG: Well, that's it, 100%. As an Olympian, you should be setting good role models towards younger players.
BEN WATERWORTH: Just ignore Simon at McDonald's if you see him. He's not at McDonald's, that's a different person.
SIMON LEUNG: That's a cheat meal for me. Mac is a cheat meal for me. I don't eat that.
BEN WATERWORTH: Which we keep learning about the disappointment that obviously no longer are a sponsor of the Olympics, so they're not at the Olympic village.
SIMON LEUNG: I was so sad, I'm not going to lie to you. When I heard Mac is not a sponsor at the Olympics, I was like, that's it, I'm depressed. I'm going to go cry for the next two hours.
BEN WATERWORTH: Do I even want to go anymore?
SIMON LEUNG: I was looking forward to going after I finished and just going to the biggest Maccas order I could ever do. I'm talking about a massive order.
BEN WATERWORTH: Thanks McDonald's. Come on, we're saying, hashtag bring back Maccas for Paris in 2024. In your spare time, what do you most like to do?
SIMON LEUNG: In my spare time, sleep. Because I don't get enough sleep. But I think just hang out with friends. And I guess, yeah, hang out with friends. Watch a bit of Netflix movies. Just relax, I guess. Have a bit of my me time. And I guess talk to people, I guess, who are good to talk to.
BEN WATERWORTH: Yeah, that's always a start. Don't want to chat to these, you know, people, people like me, you don't want to chat to these. What's going on?
SIMON LEUNG: Don't say that. I mean, if I didn't want to, I wouldn't be here today, right?
BEN WATERWORTH: So, yeah, we'll just ignore the fact that, you know, we just force you basically to do this. Your favourite sports movie is?
SIMON LEUNG: Sports movie? Ooh, sports movie. Trying to think of a sports movie.
BEN WATERWORTH: Sports movie, sports movie. I'll say that the athlete we've chosen here, Heather Bansley, has answered Space Jam.
SIMON LEUNG: Space Jam?
BEN WATERWORTH: I feel like I've never even heard of that. You've never heard of Space Jam, Simon? Come on. Michael Jordan playing basketball against the Looney Tunes? I'm trying to say. You were born the year it came out. I can, yeah, but like still, like it's iconic movie.
SIMON LEUNG: Yeah, I don't know. Sports, sports movie.
BEN WATERWORTH: Is there a badminton movie? Or is there a movie where people play badminton?
SIMON LEUNG: This is very, this is very embarrassing to say, but there is actually a, I don't want to call it like a, I don't know. Is it an anime? I don't know. It's not an anime or anything, but it's like, there's some shows, some like series thing, right? It's on Netflix. I actually can't remember what it's called, but it's a Korean, is it a Korean thing? No, it's not a Korean thing. But there's something on Netflix. It's about Bams. It's a show. It's like a series about Bams, and it's very cringe as well.
BEN WATERWORTH: Because it's animated. It's an animated badminton show.
SIMON LEUNG: Yeah. I think it is animated. Yeah.
BEN WATERWORTH: Wow.
SIMON LEUNG: It's very cringe. The way that they do things, I guess, the way that they, I guess, go and hit a specific shot or whatever, it's just like, oh my God, when I watched it, I was like, no, this is very cringe. I can't watch this whatsoever. And I think they also got in like, I think they had like one or two, like really good actual badminton players, I think, to be a part of it. I don't know if it's legit or not, but that's what I've heard, because I didn't even make it past halfway through the first episode because it was that bad, that embarrassing, that cringe. I just couldn't, like it was giving me goosebumps.
BEN WATERWORTH: I'm going to search for it now. I need to see it.
SIMON LEUNG: Yeah, no, you should have a look at it. It's bad.
BEN WATERWORTH: I always like, you know, when there's not an obvious one, and sort of ask that question if there's some sort of, you know, media around a certain sport. I always then try and relate it back to James Bond because James Bond has played so many different sports across the movies, but sadly he's not done Badminton yet. So one day, maybe. We'll wait for it.
SIMON LEUNG: I'll definitely watch it though.
BEN WATERWORTH: Yeah, exactly. You know, Daniel Craig or whoever the next Bond is kind of playing Badminton, we'll watch that. Now, the next one here for a drawing, if you want to, Simon, draw a picture of a Canadian animal. Just thinking Heather's drawing a picture of a polar bear in a snowstorm. It's just a white box. Quite funny, that one. As a kid, your favourite sports team were?
SIMON LEUNG: Like just any sports team?
BEN WATERWORTH: Any sports team, yeah.
SIMON LEUNG: Well, I've always liked watching soccer. So until this day, I'm still obviously a fan of these teams. They're obviously the best teams in the world as well. But yeah, Chelsea from the Premier League. Barcelona from the Spanish League.
BEN WATERWORTH: So always the best team. And you are a raw man then, being a Brisbane boy? You get on board the raw?
SIMON LEUNG: Actually, I do. If I did ever watch A-League, I think Brizzy Rawls will probably be the team I will kind of support. But I guess if we talk about, I guess, our own sport here in Australia, Rugby League, you know, Brisbane Broncos and Melbourne Storms have always been my team.
BEN WATERWORTH: Well, Melbourne Storms are basically what? Brisbane, Queensland Junior, right?
SIMON LEUNG: Basically, yeah.
BEN WATERWORTH: And then State of Origin, is it just kind of a case of you just get absolutely... I mean, one of my highlights of living in Brisbane is I went to an Origin game, and it's just one of the most insane atmospheres I've ever been in.
SIMON LEUNG: Amazing, right?
BEN WATERWORTH: It is amazing.
SIMON LEUNG: I've been to one as well, so I know exactly what you're talking about.
BEN WATERWORTH: And this was a dead rubber, I believe. I think New South Wales had already won it, so it was game three, but there's still 50-odd thousand at Suncorp, you know, Queensland win. It was just, it was rabid. It was amazing. I absolutely loved it. You mentioned before you don't like training, so I'm intrigued for this one. Your favourite workout is?
SIMON LEUNG: My favourite workout?
BEN WATERWORTH: You can say none if there's none of them.
SIMON LEUNG: My favourite workout? I reckon squats and deadlifts will probably be some of the ones I like probably the most. When I can, when I'm actually in a decent form where I can lift decent weights and like not having like taken a break and come back and feeling weak. Like my own goals, like my own weight that I've normally lifted. Yeah, I guess squats and deadlifts are probably some of my favourite ones I like to do in the gym.
BEN WATERWORTH: That's good. All right. Motivationing. That's not even a word. I know what I'm talking about. I know what you're talking about. Thank you. If you could live anywhere in the world, where would it be?
SIMON LEUNG: If I could live anywhere in the world, where would I be? I think it's a tough one. I'll definitely live in Asia just for the food, but that would be the only reason I live there. But I guess I've always wanted to be in Europe as well. I guess Europe have always been a place I guess I wanted to visit.
BEN WATERWORTH: You've got an excuse. Birmingham, you've got an excuse.
SIMON LEUNG: Yeah, you're not wrong. I mean, yeah, I guess Europe, I think Europe maybe is probably a place I would live if I had a choice to choose where I want to live.
BEN WATERWORTH: Perfect. Perfect. Next drawing here. What would the coolest Olympic medal look like? And Heather's drawn a picture of a stick figure and says, Olympic medal around my neck.
SIMON LEUNG: So, yeah, I reckon mine would be me wearing my Olympic medal with my face on that Olympic medal.
BEN WATERWORTH: Hey, I mean, again, Brisbane 2032, plenty of time to put your name out there enough that they would kind of do that. So, you know, plenty of time. If you could have lunch with any one person, who would it be?
SIMON LEUNG: If I had lunch with any one person, who would it be? They don't actually live here as well in Oz, so I guess having lunch with them would be really nice. Yeah, and I guess just being able to spend time as well. But yeah, she lives in Ireland. Oh, right.
BEN WATERWORTH: So this is a special someone, potentially. All right. Don't want to name drop anything today?
SIMON LEUNG: Name drop?
BEN WATERWORTH: You can say a name. She might listen. I don't know. We've got a big listenership in Ireland, surely.
SIMON LEUNG: Oh, really? Okay. Oh, maybe there's a bit of mutuals out there who listen to this as well. Sure. Her name is Natalie. Shout out to Natalie.
BEN WATERWORTH: Shout out to Natalie, our number one Irish fan, at least until, you know, now. So, I like that. Like, I kind of like that. There you go. You can, when you're in Birmingham, it's not that far to Ireland. It's just over the border.
SIMON LEUNG: Yeah, so great, great football, everything she's done also.
BEN WATERWORTH: So perfect. If you could choose any Olympic host city, where would it be?
SIMON LEUNG: Brisbane.
BEN WATERWORTH: Brisbane. Hey, it's on the card.
SIMON LEUNG: So I guess that's not a valid answer because it's already here. I would like to say Hong Kong, but I know it's probably fairly hard to do it, but only because, you know, I've got a lot of family there, and obviously that's home to me as well. And just knowing that if it's there, I could eat so many good foods, so much of it, like...
BEN WATERWORTH: All about the food.
SIMON LEUNG: I'm just there for the food, honestly, but...
BEN WATERWORTH: Always, as you should be, come on.
SIMON LEUNG: Yeah, and I guess having family there as well, and friends, you know, if I got the chance to compete there, just having everyone there, you know, it would just be amazing, you know, like, all my family, all my friends. And then, you know, yeah, it would just be amazing, really.
BEN WATERWORTH: It works. I like that. If you could have any superpower, what would it be?
SIMON LEUNG: Any superpower? I think... I think either I'll be able to time travel or a certain power where I could move things that have happened in the past already and be able to, I guess, put it, like, make it happen earlier, like, move it even further back, you know what I mean?
BEN WATERWORTH: I like that. That's a unique one. I've never heard that before. That works.
SIMON LEUNG: For example, like, you know, something that's happened, I guess, the last couple months. Obviously, you know, it only happened last couple months, but you would love to have had that, you know, happen, you know, a couple of years ago, you know, let's say.
BEN WATERWORTH: It's a growing experience, a little bit more, kind of, yeah.
SIMON LEUNG: And it'll be cool to be able to, like, move things around and, you know, and obviously time travel back, you know, and relive that moment.
BEN WATERWORTH: That's really good.
SIMON LEUNG: Whatever happened. I mean, like, that'll be cool, you know, I guess, get a do.
BEN WATERWORTH: I like it. You're coming up with these new ones, Simon.
SIMON LEUNG: I try to be very, try to imagine these things, you know. I'm trying to be creative here, you know.
BEN WATERWORTH: Good. That's what we like. We like the creativity on this show, it kind of works well. You tried, you tried very well. I like it. Simon, before we let you go, if people want to kind of start to date with what you're doing, follow the journey ahead of the next Olympics, Commonwealth Games, wherever it may take you, where can they find you on social media?
SIMON LEUNG: So I'm on Instagram, obviously. Obviously, I'm on Instagram, I'm on Snapchat. Who uses Snapchat? Instagram, and I'm on Facebook as well. So I don't know if I'm supposed to drop Instagram names here.
BEN WATERWORTH: Go for it, absolutely. Of course you can.
SIMON LEUNG: But yeah, my Instagram name is Simon.Leung96. Yeah, hit that like, follow button.
BEN WATERWORTH: Watch the follow button.
SIMON LEUNG: Hit that follow button, give me another like to my collection of likes, of I don't know what I'm on, but I wouldn't say no to an extra like on my page.
BEN WATERWORTH: So there you go. I can see right now the time of recording this, just over 1500. So let's get you to 2000, you know, because of this interview. What do you reckon?
SIMON LEUNG: I reckon that's good. And I'll definitely give you a shout out as well for helping.
BEN WATERWORTH: Hey, look, there's some honours that you've had this year. You've been on the Sydney Opera House, but right now being on Off The Podium trumps that, doesn't it? Come on.
SIMON LEUNG: Yeah, 100%. What a way to end it all. Opera House and then being on this podcast at the moment.
BEN WATERWORTH: Perfect, perfect roundabout way to bring your year to a close, essentially. Simon, mate, it's been such a pleasure to chat with you, to learn about the journey, the Olympic experiences, and badminton in general, because it is a great sport, which I always enjoy watching. But very much appreciate your time here on Off The Podium. And thanks very much for chatting with me today.
SIMON LEUNG: No, thank you. Thanks for having me on. It's definitely a big privilege to be on here. So very grateful. Thank you for that.
BEN WATERWORTH: And a massive, massive thanks to Simon for his time, learning so much there about the sport and Olympic experiences as well. And great to see that athletes who do compete on day one can still go to the opening ceremony. Again, it's kind of living up to that thought that if I ever was an Olympian, let's be honest, the boat's gone, but I would force myself to experience that. You know, who cares if I get an hour's sleep? I wanna experience an opening ceremony. So I respect Simon a great deal that he was able to do that and still go back, compete the next day, and take a set off the world number four. Why not? That works perfectly. But Simon, appreciate your time, mate. Great chat here on Off The Podium. And if you wanna stay up to date with all the other great chats that we do have upcoming for you, all the ones that we've just had, and maybe you wanna go back and re-listen to some of them as well, hit us up on all the good podcasting networks Off The Podium. Search for us on there. Leave us some feedback. We'd love to hear what you think of the show while you're there. And of course, social media, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram. Search for Off The Podium. Mash the like, the follow, whatever button it is on whichever social media platform you're using. And stay up to date with all the progress of the show. Send us a message. We'd love to hear what you think of the show. And as always, suggest a guest, suggest an episode. We'd like to hear your thoughts on kind of what you'd like to hear us talk about here on the show. Big thanks again to Simon. Big thanks to you for listening. My name is Ben. This is Off The Podium. And as always, go left.
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