Stephanie Rice Interview (Brink Vault)

Time to bring you a big name today in our 'vault' series of interviews as we bring you our parent shows The Brink interview with the legendary Stephanie Rice. Talking up her then appearance on The Celebrity Apprentice, she also talks about her swimming career and everything else in a diverse and fun chat. You won't want to miss this one!

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EPISODE TRANSCRIPT

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

BEN WATERWORTH: It's Off The Podium, you're tuned in to it once again, and we are bringing you more interviews from our vault series as we look through the vault, go through the archives to find all the Olympians and people involved with the Olympics we spoke to on our parent show The Brink over its 11 year history. Today, it's a big one, Stephanie Rice. Sure, people outside of Australia even know Stephanie Rice. Three time Olympic gold medallist. She won the 200, the 400, and the four by 200 metres in Beijing. I should say the 200, 400 medley, and the four by 200 freestyle. So, just one of Australia's all time great swimmers, and complete icon really, I guess when it came to this country for several years. I mean, she went on to do numerous other things outside of swimming. She became real face for the sport. And even now, she retired in 2014, and is still going on to great things, and is still one of, I guess, the most recognisable celebrities in this country. This interview though, bit different. 2013, this was done, and just a bit of background for this one. At the time, she was competing on The Celebrity Apprentice in Australia. So, you'll probably hear this interview and think, well, why aren't they really talking about the Olympics and swimming? Just a little bit more in regards to The Celebrity Apprentice, with a touch of swimming thrown in there. And spoiler alert, spoiler alert, I will tell you how she finished in The Celebrity Apprentice after you listen to the interview. There you go. So here is Stephanie Rice's interview from 2013.

BEN WATERWORTH: Stephanie Rice came to the attention of Australia during the 2008 Beijing Olympics, with her three gold medals and world records, making her the darling of the pool. She has continued her stellar swimming career since, and has now taken the plunge into the corporate world by competing on the third season of Celebrity Apprentice. I spoke to Stephanie about what we can expect from her time on the show, and why I was uncomfortable working with Dawn Fraser. Stephanie, welcome to the program. It's a huge pleasure to have you on, because obviously, such an amazing swimming career that you've had, but about to take this plunge, as I said, into Celebrity Apprentice. What's made you take on this role on the show?

STEPHANIE RICE: It was a few things, I think. The biggest one being just perfect timing. Obviously, having the shoulder operation, I did have really ruled me out of this year's competition. So I just moved to Sydney and started my own company. So to be approached by Apprentice, I felt more than anything I could learn from the show about some sort of business.

BEN WATERWORTH: Yeah, it definitely works out well there. Did you find yourself learning a lot from the business along the way or was it just a bit more fun to have?

STEPHANIE RICE: It was a big combination of everything. I learnt so much. I learnt obviously a lot about myself as well, I think. And I had so much fun along the way, a few tears, but I mean, all in all, such a wonderful journey.

BEN WATERWORTH: It's always good to have a reality show with some tears now, Stephanie. So obviously, the first two seasons were huge and this season looking like to be even bigger. You got the likes of Dawn Fraser, Jeff Fennig, Jon Stevenson, Dermot Burton to compete against. Now, who can we expect to see some of the real tough competitors with this season? And who did you find the toughest to work alongside?

STEPHANIE RICE: Well, to be honest, a lot of the girls, almost all of us were really strong personalities, very confident, outgoing, not afraid to sort of, you know, step up and be involved. So definitely caused a little bit of drama and as well alongside some great TV. But Dawn was sort of a surprise to me. I actually, I didn't really know her very much before the show and she's just such a strong woman. Like she's really tough and it was really good to see.

BEN WATERWORTH: Well, I'm sure she's somebody that most female swimmers must look up to in this country, given the success that she had. And I could imagine that you probably never thought growing up, you'd have the opportunity to compete against her in some form of competition.

STEPHANIE RICE: No, not at all. I mean, yeah, definitely. I mean, I think every swimmer knows Dawn Fraser and she was definitely someone that I followed in her career whilst I was a young swimmer. And it was very much a weird scenario competing against her. And it was quite uncomfortable. You don't really want to be competing against someone that you sort of have looked up to. And I'm sure she felt a little bit uncomfortable too, me coming through and her being so successful.

BEN WATERWORTH: Definitely all these comparisons, people might be thinking along the lines, how would Stephanie Rice go against Dawn Fraser in an event? Well, they can see that evidence starting tonight, can't they?

STEPHANIE RICE: They sure can.

BEN WATERWORTH: Now, obviously, I don't actually want to put any pressure on you in the competition, Stephanie, but we spoke to Dicko last year before the second season of Celebrity Apprentice. He, of course, went on to win. So with that added pressure...

STEPHANIE RICE: Way to add the pressure.

BEN WATERWORTH: Yeah, well, what can I say? I mean, do you think you honestly have what it takes to win this season? Did you go in with the mindset to win?

STEPHANIE RICE: It was actually very strange because when I go into swimming competitions or whatnot, obviously, you embark on it wanting to win, but it's never my focus. The focus is always to just kind of take it one day at a time and enjoy it and just do the best that I could. I mean, it was totally out of my sort of knowledge and comfort zone. And as I said before, just wanting to learn, but I really enjoyed the journey and definitely learned a lot about myself along on it. So I look back and I'm pretty proud of what I did.

BEN WATERWORTH: So yeah. And obviously along the way too, it's about raising money for charity. Now your charity, Jump Rope for Heart, of course run by the Heart Foundation. Now, what made you choose this charity, Stephanie? And what sort of work do they do out there for the community?

STEPHANIE RICE: So I wanted to choose a charity that I could really relate closely to. And the Jump Rope for Heart Foundation helps kids that, you know, to lead a healthier lifestyle, be more active, make better choices with their nutrition. And they run, you know, not only nutritional programs, but obviously like the Jump Roping throughout the schools. And some of the schools that are less fortunate, you know, say for example, in the country, they don't have the funding to be able to run the program in the schools. So the money that I raised went towards running those programs for those kids.

BEN WATERWORTH: Brilliant, brilliant. And as we always do in the show, we'll put a link up to your charity there so people can obviously check in on what they did and donate. Now, Stephanie, with every interview we do in the show, we always like to wrap up with a set of five fun questions, which I'll get to in just a moment. So I start to get worried a little bit about those ones. But I just want to quickly say, outside of Celebrity Apprentice, of course, you recently did speak about your desire to come back into swimming with the Commonwealth Games next year. Now, do you still feel, obviously, you got a few years left in you and a few more gold medals?

STEPHANIE RICE: I don't know, I really am just taking it sort of one day at a time. I mean, I chose to have the shoulder surgery which I needed right after London, which ruled me out of this year's competition. So I've enjoyed just really experimenting in different things, you know, being Celebrity Apprentice and moving to Sydney. And I mean, I would love to represent Australia again, especially at the comm games. And if I was to come back and my shoulder was to be fine, I mean, that's what ultimately I'm sort of counting on. If it's no good in the water, then I won't be able to keep going. But I hope that it is, and we'll just take it one year at a time, I think.

BEN WATERWORTH: Yeah, definitely. Best of luck with all that. And as you mentioned too, in terms of the business side of things, about to launch your own swimwear range. Now this must be pretty exciting.

STEPHANIE RICE: Yeah, I'm really excited. It's called Freestyle, and it should launch hopefully at the end of the year. So it's been a great project, you know, a year or so in the making now. And I'm really excited to sort of see it come to fruition.

BEN WATERWORTH: Definitely, we'll keep an eye on that one now. Stephanie, as I said, wrap it up with five questions. They're a bit of fun. They're probably gonna be the hardest ones you'll answer in your entire day of interviews today. Starting off with question number one, what is your favourite type of cheese?

STEPHANIE RICE: I don't eat cheese.

BEN WATERWORTH: Don't eat cheese? Well, there you go. Ah, so you shut down my first question.

STEPHANIE RICE: Yeah.

BEN WATERWORTH: Question number two then, are you a folder or a scruncher?

STEPHANIE RICE: Scrunch.

BEN WATERWORTH: Scrunch. I like hearing more scrunches. I need to catch up to the folders. Question number three, growing up, what was your dream job?

STEPHANIE RICE: Oh, you know what? I can't even remember because it was to be an Olympian.

BEN WATERWORTH: Well, that worked, didn't it?

STEPHANIE RICE: Ever since I can remember. So, yeah.

BEN WATERWORTH: Well, that counts as a job, I think. We'll accept that one. Also growing up, who was your childhood celebrity crush?

STEPHANIE RICE: Pierce Brosnan. And like, still think he is super hot.

BEN WATERWORTH: Yes. More people, I'm surprised more women don't say James Bond actors. I'm disappointed that they don't, and I'm glad you've said Pierce Brosnan.

STEPHANIE RICE: Oh, there you go. Yeah.

BEN WATERWORTH: I had a man crush on Pierce Brosnan, I'll admit that.

STEPHANIE RICE: Oh my God, he's divine.

BEN WATERWORTH: And question number five, Stephanie Rice, what is your worst habit?

STEPHANIE RICE: I'm a little bit OCD, so I definitely can just look like a bit of an idiot sometimes doing things in repetitions of four. Ha ha ha ha. Wow. Which sounds really, really stupid. But yeah, I got it from swimming, just being very routine and taking a few too many traits from the pool to home.

BEN WATERWORTH: Well, you know you have to go back to the Olympics and win that fourth gold medal then.

STEPHANIE RICE: Oh, God.

BEN WATERWORTH: Ha ha ha ha. Shouldn't have said that. Shouldn't have said that. The Celebrity Apprentice kicks off tonight on Wynn TV at 8.40. Don't miss it and see how Stephanie goes. Stephanie, pleasure to have you on and good luck in the show as well as swimming careers. Should you go back to the pool?

STEPHANIE RICE: Oh, thank you very much.

BEN WATERWORTH: I promise you a spoiler alert, I'm gonna tell you right now that she won. She won Celebrity Apprentice in 2013. So, sorry if you wanted to go back and watch it, but maybe you wanna go back and watch it more now, hearing that interview. And that interview was done before the season had aired, and of course, they filmed multiple endings. So I guess she sort of knew she'd won, but didn't know that she won at the same time. So there you go. And I said, 2014, she retired. She walked away with three gold medals. She did go to London. Sadly, couldn't replicate her success outside of those games. But she still will go down as one of Australia's greatest ever swimmers, greatest ever Olympians. And again, still very promising. She's still a very young woman. She's younger than me. She's only 28 at the moment. So, you know, she's still got plenty of things to go on in her life. And we've got plenty more of these interviews to bring you in our vault series, but still more to come. And we really do hope that you are enjoying them, much as we're enjoying bringing them to you. If you missed any iTunes, head there now, find them on there, download, subscribe, rate us, feedback, everything else in between. And of course, Facebook, like us on there and join in the conversation, say hello, suggest some people you wanna hear from, everything else in between. We appreciate all the feedback and the comments. We also appreciate ending an episode, because that's what we're doing right now. Thank you for tuning in to Off The Podium, and we will speak to you next time, wherever you can hear our voices.