The 90 Minute News Episode

Well it's been a while since the whole crew was together so we thought what better time than to get everyone on an episode to talk about everything that is happening around the world of Olympic sports and everything else in between? Join Ben, Colin & Jarrod as they discuss a wide variety of topics including the recent retirement of Usain Bolt, both the Swimming & Athletics World Championships and why both Canada & Australia shouldn't be happy with their results. There is also discussion about the Canada & Commonwealth Games (and which one Canada will do better at) as well as future Olympic Bids and paying tribute to some recently departed Olympians. So much fun, so little time to listen. So do it now to make sure you're up to date!

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EPISODE TRANSCRIPT

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

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BEN WATERWORTH: Hello everybody and welcome back to Off The Podium, An Olympics Podcast as we come to you for our clearly once every couple of months episode where we talk about all things to do with the Olympics. We've got a special episode for you today, not because we've actually got another Olympian on the line. And we've got two non-Olympians on the line to kind of go back to where we started from, to just do a generic, fun, mixed episode of a variety of different topics and just get the gang back together, because we like having the gang back together. Including this man, because clearly you don't hear this guy's voice that often. It's always myself or some other Canadian guy talking to Olympians. But stuff that, you don't want that. You want the original guy, the guy who came on this show. He talked about his love of a variety of different sports and a variety of different things. He talked about hair. He talked about dressage. He talked about bat horse. I do, of course, speak of the one, the only Mr. Jarrod Loobeek. Jarrod, welcome back to Off The Podium.

JARROD LOOBEEK: It's great to be back. Looking forward to the dressage season getting into full swing at some stage in the near future.

BEN WATERWORTH: Yes, so am I. It's been too long. It's just my life without dressage is not worth living, if you ask me. And speaking of a life worth not living, if you don't hear this guy's voice, you probably should be dead, because he's awesome and he's Canadian, and he's the Canada Games number one non-winning medallist. I do, of course, speak of Colin Hilding and Colin. Welcome back to the show.

COLIN HILDING: Yeah, I thought that the number one non-winning medallist was Nibin the mascot, but I'll take second place to Nibin any day.

BEN WATERWORTH: This bloody weird looking mascot that you've got in the photo, which...

COLIN HILDING: It's an amazing mascot.

BEN WATERWORTH: Can you describe, so again, we'll talk about the Canada Games in this episode, but describe this mascot that is posing and looking very creepily at your son right now.

COLIN HILDING: Well, the actual, I brought it up here, the actual explanation for what Nibin is, is Nibin is a magical creature created by the summer heat who lives in Manitoba's Spirit Sands desert. Nibin draws his strength from the sun, giving him energy to explore forests, lakes and fields.

BEN WATERWORTH: So again, as I said to you off air, they've gone the easy route and basically can't come up with an idea. So they're like, fuck it, let's just make something up.

COLIN HILDING: It was that or Dark Teddy Ruxpin, and Dark Teddy Ruxpin was taken by Burang.

BEN WATERWORTH: Oh my God. What was Wendell and what were those ones from the London games? They look like giant dildos. You know, was it Wendell and Wexler or something like that? They were like made up things as well? No?

COLIN HILDING: Uh, I'm looking for it if you're...

BEN WATERWORTH: We're very prominent Olympic podcast hosts.

COLIN HILDING: Wendlock and Mandeville.

BEN WATERWORTH: That's it? You know what I'm talking about. Nothing beats Izzy. Stop trying to be Izzy. Izzy is the king of all mascots, all right? Just literally Atlanta are the kings of that. We've got plenty to cover here though on Off The Podium. A lot has happened since I guess all three of us together, the last episode all three of us did was our Winter Olympics sort of preview one. And today we're kind of closer to the Winter Olympics than we were last time, but we're really not talking much about the Winter Olympics today. I guess it's sort of just an update. And I should actually mention, and I didn't mention this to either of you off air, but it's basically been a year since we existed. So this time a year ago, the Rio Games are on. So we were hanging out daily last year about this time around. I mean, Jarrod, I think it's kind of strange to think that this has been a year. How has 12 months flown by?

JARROD LOOBEEK: Yeah, you tell me it's ridiculous. Next thing you know, Tokyo 2020 will be here. We'll be talking about that. Before that, the Winter Olympics. It's just ridiculous how fast it's going.

BEN WATERWORTH: And Colin, I mean, yourself, obviously one of the things we're gonna talk about today, you've at least been wedding your appetite for multi-sport events by basically putting on a show for up and coming Canadians in the summer sports, which really means you probably had about two athletes hanging around you for the last few weeks, right?

COLIN HILDING: I will say some of the records that were set here are double digits for individual athletes. You know which ones are gonna show up at the next Olympics. But yeah, it's been fun. These last couple of weeks with the Canada Games going on kind of has me revisiting the glory of Off The Podium one year ago and all this Olympics talk. So I'm excited for what we're gonna have coming up in the next year.

BEN WATERWORTH: The best thing that I like is kind of, if you check on this day on Facebook or if you've got the TimeHop app, where it kind of shows you what you've been doing on social media over the years. And kind of like everything on my TimeHop in the last couple of weeks has just been Twitter of me on there, just tweeting about the Olympics and just everything. And it just makes me sad. I mean, I used to always say after Olympics, what, that's funny, I'm just revisiting all of my memories.

COLIN HILDING: It makes me so sad that my life is so empty.

BEN WATERWORTH: Well, that's true, now that you bring that up. But I used to say after Olympics that I would have SOW, Severe Olympic Withdrawal Syndrome. It's a real condition. And I kind of feel like it, it always rears its ugly head when all of a sudden you see these sort of things pop up. I don't know, Jarrod, do you look at your On This Day thing? I mean, I don't know how much you posted during the Olympics last year. I think you did a bit on Twitter for a memory.

JARROD LOOBEEK: Yeah, I check it out every now and then. And it's just, it is depressing. And I think also, like, it's not just you and your memories, but it's also all like the other people that you're following, like the Australian Olympic team, the Olympic official Facebook page that's always like, on this day, 12 months ago, and you just kind of escape it.

BEN WATERWORTH: And it's not also just 12 months ago. Like, there's one of the great ones on Twitter, actually, which I recommend everybody follows. I think it's just called Olympic Trivia. They post kind of like on this day, you know, eight years ago, you know, Usain Bolt won his first gold, or on this day, like 12 years ago, they actually posted one during the week. It was like on this day, 12 years ago, well, 13 years ago, the swimming race of the century, the 200 metres from Athens, of course, where, you know, Thor went up against Vanden Heugen, Vanden Phelps, Thor won, of course. But, you know, it's like, it was great to kind of relive those memories. I mean, Colin, I don't know if you follow many of those sort of things, or, I mean, I don't see you as the type of man who checked his on this day. I mean, you're kind of a live in the moment type of guy. You don't need to look in the past. You've had a good life.

COLIN HILDING: I pretty much ignore my, every time one comes up for me, I ignore my own, because I'm like, oh, I don't want to remember my own life, how empty it was a year ago.

BEN WATERWORTH: Now it's so good.

COLIN HILDING: But I mean, you can't avoid all the other athletes. Pretty much every day over the last couple of weeks, you're seeing some athlete posting, oh, one year ago this, it was very sad with Andre Degrasse posting one year ago, I was the second fastest man in the country, and now I'm out with a hamstring injury. Well, the fastest man is out with a hamstring injury. So yeah, bittersweet for some of those athletes, but it's great to see all these ones coming back. You're like, wow, it's amazing how much was crammed into just two weeks, one year ago.

BEN WATERWORTH: Yeah, it's sad memories. We live in the past. Well, at least two thirds of us do apparently. But on this episode, again, lots to talk about. I think we're going to start off with, we had one main retirement. We kind of got a lot too into this because we realised another prominent athlete also is sort of retiring. But recently we've had the World Swimming and the World Athletics Championships. We'll talk about them, of course, very shortly. But the big one, the big main one, the main man, the man that everybody loves. And if you don't, well, then you're a dickhead. Usain Bolt, he's hung up the shoes. He retired from the recent World Athletic Championships in London. That was his final meet. Sadly, they can't entice him to come to the Gold Coast at Seen to the Commonwealth Games. We'll talk about those, of course, in this episode as well. But I'll start with you, Colin. He's done, he's gone. No more Usain. What are we gonna do with ourselves now? I feel like we need to retire this show.

COLIN HILDING: Yeah, you know, it's funny because I think we went through all of our opinions on this during his last race in Rio. And really, I don't think anything has changed. But it's still worthy of its own episode, I feel. It's such a huge event. I mean, this is gonna be like, you know, Muhammad Ali retiring. It's Wayne Gretzky retiring. It's like the biggest athlete in the history of this sport. For me, more than anything before, I could even get into, you know, how it was watching these races. I just have to say how frustrating it was for me when it was the end of that 100 metre final. And I was watching it. I timed it so I could watch it live and not have anything spoiled. And my wife was busy doing some of the time, and she doesn't really care most of the time with this. Sometimes, we'll be like, oh, Bolt is racing. She said, okay, let me check that out, or Degrass is racing. Let me check that out. So I told her, I'm like, it's on now. Do you wanna come watch it? He goes, oh, just pause it for a minute. I'm like, I don't wanna pause it. I'm watching it live. And she says, no, I wanna see this. I paused it. I paused it and of course my phone dings. And I'm just looking to see what it is, not thinking I'm gonna get a notification that quick. And it's Justin Gatlin upset Usain Bolt. I'm like, I scream. I'm like, I just had it spoke to me. I told you five seconds ago this would happen. Oh, so disappointing.

BEN WATERWORTH: Yeah. Look, I'll be absolutely honest with you. I didn't see anything for it until I woke up and saw the news myself. I'm obviously not that much into it outside of the Olympics as you are, but I'm glad at least one of our hosts cares about this sort of stuff. Jarrod, did you, I mean, were you in Egypt when this happened? Because we should mention you just got back from Egypt. So I'm guessing that's where you were when this race was on.

JARROD LOOBEEK: Yeah, it might have been right after I got back, I think, actually. But yeah, it's such a big event. And I suppose I'm so disappointed because we've lost a 100-metre athlete that I actually like. And that's really rare because sprinters in general are just idiots.

BEN WATERWORTH: Hello, there are sprinters listening.

JARROD LOOBEEK: So just lose an athlete who just is incredible, has class and is entertaining and makes you want to watch that. It's just a real shame.

BEN WATERWORTH: I mean, the thing that I always thought about sprinters, the Olympics, every time they're on, you always watch 100 metres. It's kind of the blue ribbon event of the Olympics. And you get to know these larger-than-life personalities. I mean, I'm sure you both remember Maurice Green, like Sydney 2000, just kind of how much of a bigger deal he was. And then even obviously Donovan Bailey for you, Colin. I remember Donovan Bailey and all that kind of from Atlanta. And Michael Johnson and people like this, you remember their names and that. But I guess some of them aren't necessarily idiots. I kind of like Maurice Green still. Do we not like him? Or I don't know what his reputation is all these years later. But yeah, I mean, yeah, you're right. Like, I mean, Usain Bolt just transcended the sport. I mean, it's kind of everybody. He's one of these, yeah, like Muhammad Ali style athletes that everybody knows who he is. And I know we kind of talked and compared him and, you know, Michael Phelps last year, and as a lot of people do. But I mean, while Michael Phelps is off racing digital sharks, like Usain Bolt is just being Usain Bolt. I mean, this guy is just, in all seriousness, when I say if you don't like him, you're a dickhead, you probably are a dickhead. Because like he's the Hugh Jackman of sport. Everybody loves him. Who's one person who does not like Usain Bolt? I mean, Colin, have you ever met anyone? Just Jamie probably doesn't like Usain Bolt. I don't know.

COLIN HILDING: No, Jamie loves Usain Bolt. Everybody loves Usain Bolt. I mean, you would think the only person on the planet that wouldn't like Usain Bolt is Justin Gatlin. And who bowed before Usain Bolt after beating him for the first time? Justin Gatlin. So I mean, Justin Gatlin loves Usain Bolt.

BEN WATERWORTH: Well, that's because his drugs hadn't kicked in just yet. So he's a bit of a downer.

COLIN HILDING: Or they had kicked in.

BEN WATERWORTH: He was very high at that point. But yeah, we should admit, like sadly for the fans and everybody out there, he didn't go out on a high. He got bronze in the 100 metres. Justin Gatlin won it. And I guess I don't want to say controversial because, I mean, it was controversial in many ways. Obviously, Justin Gatlin is a very polarizing sprinter. I mean, he's what being done for drugs twice, isn't it? And yet here he is still running. I mean, the guy is also, like is he in his late 30s, mid 30s? How old is he? I mean, he's-

COLIN HILDING: He's at least mid.

BEN WATERWORTH: Yeah, I mean, you sort of talk about, you know, in fact, Usain Bolt won three gold in a row at the Olympics. I know Usain Bolt was in Athens, and he just didn't do that well. But I mean, you know, this is a guy who won the gold in Athens, and basically he's medaled at every Olympics, since if I'm not mistaken, he did not get a medal in London, perhaps. But I mean, he's been-

COLIN HILDING: I mean, he was banned for Beijing.

BEN WATERWORTH: Oh, he's banned for Beijing.

COLIN HILDING: Everyone that he was allowed to compete.

BEN WATERWORTH: But I mean, you think about that. Like, that's for a sprinter. I don't know if I'm just picturing guys at a certain age still being able to run and still being able to win. I mean, he's- How old is he, Colin? Do you have that in front of you?

COLIN HILDING: 35.

BEN WATERWORTH: 35, and you can still win 100 metres. I mean, that's- How old's the grass? Like, what, 25 or-

COLIN HILDING: 22 or 23.

BEN WATERWORTH: There you go. I mean, this guy is older than us, and he's still able to run 100 metres fast. I mean, I couldn't run that when I was like at my peak athletic ability, which has never happened.

COLIN HILDING: Well, I mean, the other thing is that you look at certain sports like swimming, where people will compete in three, four Olympics, maybe because of the age they start at. It is different with sprinters, because they kind of peak in college, and then it's usually post-college university is when they really strike it big. You talk about like Donovan Bailey, Maurice Green. I mean, these guys were kind of like one Olympics, I'm not gonna say flash in the pan, because that's kind of downplaying their success, but that's just the way the sport is. It's unlikely for somebody to have success in back-to-back Olympics if they do, certainly not three in a row. For Justin Gatlin to even compete in this many is kind of crazy.

BEN WATERWORTH: Well, Maurice Green won bronze in Athens, remember, did he not? I know he did get another medal after his gold in Sydney, but yeah, it's crazy to think that, because I didn't know too much about how long Justin Gatlin had been around for, so when I kind of looked him up the other day, and I'm just looking here, so I mean, he's won in the Olympics at least, a gold, two silvers, two bronze, a world championships, three gold, five silvers. So this, he won gold obviously this year, and he last won gold in the 100 metres at the world championships in 2005 in Helsinki. That's crazy to think that you can kind of go that far between, I mean, Jarrod, you've obviously got a very high esteem netball career, but like, I mean, are you playing netball better now than you did 12 years ago? Did you play netball 12 years ago?

JARROD LOOBEEK: I wasn't playing netball 12 years ago.

BEN WATERWORTH: What were you playing 12 years ago?

JARROD LOOBEEK: 12 years ago is probably around when I started playing tennis.

BEN WATERWORTH: There you go, tennis. Okay, do you play better tennis now than you did 12 years ago?

JARROD LOOBEEK: I would say better now than 12 years ago, but probably not better now than say five, six years ago.

BEN WATERWORTH: Wow, it's crazy to think. I can't think of anything that I'm better now at than 12 years ago. I want to think radio, but clearly that's not the case. I can listen to my stuff 12 years ago. There was innocence about my voice back then. Now I still sound like a 13 year old girl. Yeah, it's crazy. Even the same Bolt, I mean, how old's Bolt? He's 30. I should really have this in front of me. I do. He's 30. So, I mean, he's got six years younger than Justin Gatlin, four years. Oh, I don't know, I can't do math. No, six years. That's right.

COLIN HILDING: He's younger.

BEN WATERWORTH: Yeah, he's younger than Justin Gatlin. And he's Justin Gatlin retiring? Do we know this or?

COLIN HILDING: Like, again, that's the other thing you'd speculate on because here's the thing. I didn't really like Justin Gatlin until he won this race. And as frustrated as I was that Bolt couldn't go out on top, it was the way that Gatlin handled it where he did bow before Bolt and he looked happy for the first time in his entire career, at least since the last time he was high. But it's just, it was weird the way that he bowed. It was almost like he didn't care about winning the gold. He just wanted to beat Bolt at least once. And that's kind of the way that I saw that. So nothing's been announced, but I would guess that Gatlin will want to step down because do you want to end up being a Bolt? And I'm not disparaging Bolt at all. I mean, the guy's the greatest ever, but do you want to be the guy who goes out on a bronze and a hamstring injury?

BEN WATERWORTH: Well, he'll be 38 if he continues on to Tokyo. And look, this is meant to be talking about Bolt, not Gatlin, but look, we'll come back to Gatlin because I feel like we need to talk about Bolt more here because it is a serious question I want to ask about Gatlin. But I mean, look, you cannot go past Bolt's achievements. I mean, just let alone everything. I mean, looking here at just his medal record, these are from major events, you know, not like the Jamaican Junior Under 17 Championships, I'm sure he's won like 50 gold medals in. But I mean, overall, so 23 gold, five silver, one bronze. That is in all, so they're the Olympics, the World Championships, World Relay Championships, the CAC Championships, Commonwealth Games, World Junior Championships, World Youth Championships. There's a difference apparently between the World Junior and the World Youth. I don't know how that works. I mean, one thing I think we probably have not mentioned on this show, which has happened this year, he did get one of his gold medals taken away from him. And the Olympics, sadly, because the Beijing 2008 4x100 minute relay team, one of his teammates tested positive. So sadly, he technically isn't a three for three for three, although, you know, he did do it all. But I mean, Olympics alone, eight gold medals, no silver, no bronze. World Championships, 11 gold, two silver, one bronze. Again, I didn't realise the World Relay Championships were a thing, but he won a silver in those, his worst performing ones. The CAC Championships, which are the Central American and Caribbean Championships, one gold, two silver, sorry, zero silver, zero bronze. The Commonwealth Games. Now, it's kind of interesting to think that, Usain Bolt, obviously Jamaican, Jamaica's part of the Commonwealth, and you would assume that, like, that's where you'd want to cut your teeth in, because that's kind of where you're up and coming. That's the, almost like the Canada Games for the Commonwealth, except we take it probably a little bit more seriously. He's only ever won the one gold, and that was in Glasgow three years ago. He went in the four by one hundred metre relay. So he's never actually won the 100 metres in the Commonwealth Games, because clearly he's a lot better than the Commonwealth Games are. And the World Junior Championships are gold, two silver, World Youth Championships, one gold. I mean, Colin, is there anybody out there you can even compare that to in the sport of athletics? I mean, just, it's a ridiculous record. And particularly, the majority of these medals are gold. It's not like he spread this around. I mean, 23 out of his, what's that, 28 career medals in major championships are gold medals.

COLIN HILDING: I mean, I'm just looking right now at all of the Olympic gold medallists in 100 metres. And the only person to ever even win two of them was Carl Lewis in 84 and 88. And of course, in 88, it was actually, you know, the Canadian Ben Johnson that was stripped of the gold for testing positive for steroids. But I think it was afterwards that it even came out in 88 that six out of those eight runners all tested positive for some type of drugs. So like, okay, Carl Lewis won two back to back, but, you know, is it really against the same competition? Bolt won three in one event, not to mention all the other ones you mentioned. No, there's nobody who's ever gonna be able to duplicate this. You know, at this point, there's a couple of runners that are, if Gatlin sticks around, this is basically the one great race Gatlin ran in the last couple of years. So I don't really think that he's even on the radar. You know, there's Andre Degrasse, there's this other American, Christian Coleman, who I think won the silver. Like, they're up and coming. But again, you're not going to reach this type of height that Bolt had. I mean, the guy is unbeatable. It's crazy. Like, you can't even put into words how incredible these records he set is, because there's other people out there like Phelps who are, okay, Phelps won however many medals, but it's in a sport where you can win that many. I mean, most runners won't even run the one in 200 metres, let alone win both of them. And the relays, it's just, oh, it's unbelievable. Like, I can't think of anybody else alive right now, or even in history that could have duplicated what he did.

BEN WATERWORTH: Anyone you can think of, Jarrod, or anybody that you could put in the same league as kind of Bolt's achievements?

JARROD LOOBEEK: No, I don't think anybody comes close. And I think the thing that always astounds me and will continue to is the fact that in so many of his races, probably like 90%, he's ahead by so much, and he slows down before the line. He never has to run flat the whole way through. He's always ahead. He has time to look around. He slows down. And it's just, you think of how fast he could go if he was running flat the whole way to the line, but he just doesn't need to. And it's just insane.

BEN WATERWORTH: I think he came out, didn't he, in an interview recently, said he had a regret. It might have been Beijing, or there's one of the ones that he said that, actually, it wasn't even him. There was somebody, I can't remember. It might have been Michael Johnson, actually, in the interview. They just said it was frustrating because you could see, probably it was Beijing, that he pulled up at a certain point and he would have done a 9.2 or something ridiculous like that, had he not. But that's part of his appeal, isn't it, that he's so blood good that the guy can break a world record while basically walking over the line.

COLIN HILDING: Well, there's two memories that stick out for me. One is, I can't remember which race it was in London. It may have even just been one of his heats, where he was well ahead of everybody else and he slows down, like Jarrod said, in the last couple of metres and turns so he could smile at the camera across the finish line. And it didn't bother him about his time at all. And the other one was, I think, in Rio last year, again, I think it was in the semi-finals, where he was kind of taking it easy and then he turns and looks into grasses right next to him and only then does he really pick up the pace. You see those two things with Bolt. You'll see him go and then slow down a little bit. When he's like, you know what, I've got this one. I can relax a little. Or, hey, somebody's pushing me, now I'll kick into high gear. I don't know if we've ever seen Bolt run as fast as he can run. And that's kind of the other great thing about him is that, there's this mystique where he's the fastest man who's ever lived by far. And you're always sort of questioning, you're like, he could be faster, but he wants to look good doing it more than he actually wants to do it.

BEN WATERWORTH: And that's what you want. Like he takes all the boxes from somebody you want to kind of admire in sport. You know, like, I mean, I know we did it last year, you've already done it this episode, Colin, but I mean, it's just the Muhammad Ali comparison, it's just because, you know, he's charismatic, you know, he's good looking, he's just fun, he just goes out there and just, he just, he's the type of guy that, you know, everybody just wants to hang out with and everybody wants to be with and just like, he just, he ticks everything. He's just the most awesome human being pretty much on the entire planet.

COLIN HILDING: We can also add to that. Is there any other runner in history that is instantly recognizable even if you don't follow the sport?

BEN WATERWORTH: I, yeah, I mean, that's, I would doubt it. Probably not. I mean, that's kind of going back to, I think, just putting the sport of athletics on the map. I mean, we had earlier this year in Australia, that, what was it, Jarrod, like a lightning series or whatever the hell that thing was. Nitro, yeah, thank you. And I mean, look, athletics in Australia, really, I mean, it's, you know, outside the Sally Pearsons and, you know, those sort of people, we don't really follow it that much, but HEEK, they got BULK to come down for these Nitro athletics events and it was like prime time TV. You know, it was on the major networks being showed, you know, in prime time and I cannot think of a time at all. Even the peak of Cathy Freeman in this country, you know, that that was a thing. So, I mean, just such a big deal. And I mean, just you're going on there about, you know, Carl Lewis winning 200 metres in a row. I mean, you've also got to look at the fact that, you're not only to BULK win the 100 metres three years in three Olympics in a row, he won the 200 metres three Olympics in a row. I mean, that's just insane. And I would list here just looking at Olympic athletes who have won the same event multiple times in a row. And I mean, you've had the three athletes who have won the same event four times in a row, all American, all in both to an athletics, obviously Carl Lewis won the long jump for Olympics in a row and Al Orta won the discus throw four years in a row and Phelps the 200 metre individual medley for Olympics in a row. But the rest, the three years in a row, three Olympics in a row. I mean, it's just, you look at some of these events that they win and you would have to argue that nothing is more difficult than 100 metres sprint to win. I mean, you know, Petri Karpen won the single skulls, three Olympics in a row for Finland. I mean, look, I'm not discounting rowing, but I mean, you know, figure skating.

COLIN HILDING: Don't you disparage the great name of Petri Skull, was it?

BEN WATERWORTH: The great name of Sonja Henny won the figure skating, three Olympics in a row. The female singles. I mean, great Dawn Fraser, of course, obviously won the 100 metre freestyle, three Olympics in a row. I mean, I can't even win, like, three games of swimming on an Olympic video game in a row. I mean, I don't know. What else can we say about Bolt, Colin? I mean, am I missing something here? I don't know. We're just gushing about him.

COLIN HILDING: The only thing we could really talk about is whether he would be done after this, because to have such a great career, you know, we're talking about Rio, should he come back? Are you running the risk that you're going to flop in the World Championships the next year? And that's kind of what happened. I mean, for anybody to walk out with a bronze, that's great. But this is Usain Bolt. If he had won, I think even a silver in the relay, it would have been a little bit different. But if you have a guy who struggled the first time we've ever really seen him struggle in the 100 metre and win a bronze, and he still was celebrating out there on the track, you know, he was hugging Justin Gatlin as our rival and he was happy. Okay, well, I'm the guy who could still win a medal but pass the torch. And then the fact that he had to pull out of the relay, it's just such a sad ending. He just walked right off the track. He didn't stick around. And this is London. This is for him as big as running in Jamaica. That's his track. And it was sold out. And for him to just kind of walk out, you almost have to wonder. I know if any athlete has ever really been very firm in saying I'm going to step away from the sport right now, I'm not going to be one of these guys who just keeps coming back. It's going to be both. But you have to ask, like, can his pride take that? Is he okay with the guy who wants to win, even if he doesn't have to put in the effort and wants to kind of have this style to it? Is he okay with the lasting image being a hamstring pull, then he runs off the track?

BEN WATERWORTH: Do we want him to come back, though, and perhaps risk that legacy? I mean, Jarrod, do you want to see him come back and bounce back from that image of, as Colin was just saying, or do we kind of just want this to, you know, because I mean, I don't think it really tarnishes his legacy that much. I mean, it's, you know, one bronze and an injury out of 5,100 gold. But I mean, would you want to see him return one more time, Jarrod?

JARROD LOOBEEK: I would like to see him back one more time, but I think that's just it's always going to be that way. Like whenever it's whether it's official or not, like it's just always it's Usain Bolt. You're just going to want to see him run again. I do get the feeling. I just have a feeling that he won't. To me, he seems like such like a laid back kind of relaxed character that I don't think doesn't seem to me like the type of thing that would niggle at him and get on his nerves.

BEN WATERWORTH: Well, Justin Gatlin, I think, came out an interview and basically was like, yeah, he's coming back. Probably pinging on ecstasy or something at some point there Gatlin. Probably doesn't even realise he was talking about. But yeah, I don't know. Like, I mean, my biggest idol, my biggest hero was Formula One driver Michael Schumacher. And he sort of broke all records, often considered as the greatest Formula One driver all time, retired in 2006. And then kind of he came out of retirement to race three more years between 2010 and 2012. Didn't really live up to the hype. I mean, he didn't win any races. He was only on the podium one time. And some people often called his return disappointing. But I mean, as a fan, I was glad to see him back. It was disappointing not to see him go on to win races. There's a lot more circumstances in Formula One than just running in a straight line for 100 metres. So it's a little bit different to compare. But I, for one, as a fan, was glad to see him back, to have that opportunity to see him race one more time. And I'm sure that could be the same with Bolt. I think the difference is, is that, you know, it's a sport where Formula One, a lot of it can come down to the machinery you're driving. This really comes down to your ability of running very fast. And I think the difference here is that you kind of don't want Bolt to come back in a few years. And oh, fuck, he's slow now. He's been beaten by, you know, Jarrod Lubik's outstanding new sprinting career, which we never saw coming.

COLIN HILDING: Well, here's the other thing. It's not even so much about whether I think his legacy is damaged, because, I mean, fans are going to remember him no matter what. But it's the way that Bolt's going to, I think, look at himself going out. The only ones I could really compare to would be Michael Phelps and Donovan Bailey. You know, you look at Michael Phelps, it's not like he went out on a... If he had gone out in London, it's not like he went out on a sour note. Comparison to his earlier games, maybe, but he was still top of the sport. And yet he felt compelled to come back because he wasn't happy with that being the end of his career. He's like, you know, I was kind of messed up at the time. I wasn't giving my all. I had some attitude problems. I wanted to go out and be, you know, the good team player and go out with a love for the sport. I think if there's anything that's going to bring Bolt back, it would be that. It's that he wouldn't be happy with this being the end of his career. The other person, like I said, was Donovan Bailey. And I just remember, you know, after Donovan Bailey won in Athens, it was all Donovan Bailey versus Michael Johnson, you know, 100 metre versus 200 metre, who's the real fastest man? And Donovan Bailey campaigned hard to do an exhibition against Michael Johnson. And it happened. And it was like a huge crowd, huge deal, televised live. And Michael Johnson pulled out halfway through the race. And Donovan Bailey got so bitter after that, even though he won. He got bitter just because, like, he wanted that glory of knowing he was the fastest man alive. And for years, Donovan Bailey, he had injuries after that. And it was kind of just like his reputation here in Canada was, well, he's really bitter. And now he's kind of turned around. But you know that there's the pride for runners where they want to go out on top.

BEN WATERWORTH: And I also think, I mean, anybody can hang up the boots or whatever you retire. And, you know, at that point in time, you are 100% done. You're never going to see him again. But, I mean, it's not uncommon. I mean, you look at Ian Thorpe, Australia's greatest Olympian, he attempted to come back. Sadly, didn't really do that well. But, I mean, I don't think Jarrod Australia holds anything against Ian Thorpe. I mean, Ian Thorpe's kind of always been beloved. He's extremely beloved now, I think, since, you know, all this personal life stuff has come out. And he's now the face of the whole Yes campaign for our plebiscite, isn't he? So, I mean, clearly Australia still loves Thorpe, even though he kind of sucked when he tried to come back.

JARROD LOOBEEK: Yeah, I think if anything, it kind of endeared him a bit more, I think, just seeing him as, I suppose, human, which upsets, I suppose, some people, but just the fact that he was willing to kind of put himself out there and the fact that he owned it, it didn't go the way that he wanted it to.

BEN WATERWORTH: You know what baffles me? This is kind of sidestepping, but I'm sure, you know, you remember growing up sort of late 90s, early 2000s, when Thorpe was a thing and Grant Hackett, you know, and you kind of had this like rivalry between the two, even though they eventually, you know, one went on more for the distances and Thorpe was stuck with the sprinting. But, you know, back then it was kind of always perceived that, you know, Thorpe was, I mean, he was beloved. Everyone loved him, but I know there was kind of always a bit of a report that he was slightly a bit arrogant and, you know, not as easy going as a Hackett. Hackett was the nice guy. Everybody loved Grant Hackett. And now, you know, no one ever calls Thorpe arrogant. Thorpe is just even more of a legend. And Grant Hackett's kind of punching his brother and going to rehab every week, isn't he? I don't know. Has Hackett punched anyone this week? I don't know.

JARROD LOOBEEK: I don't know. Has he been on any flights recently?

BEN WATERWORTH: Colin, just to put that into context, he got kicked off a flight because he got into somebody's face and he punched his brother and then abused his family and went off to America to go to rehab. He's had a few troubles since he's retired. Let's just put it that way. I love Grant Hackett. I won a swim clinic when I was, I think, 11. And I got to this pool and it was great. He was amazing. I found a photo the other day of me and him when I was 11 years old. And then I interviewed him for The Brink many years ago. And it has the distinction of being the one interview that I've never been able to air because it didn't record and I couldn't get him back on the line again. So that was awkward. But yeah, Grant Hackett, bit of trouble, but I still like him. You don't have to add anything there, Colin. You don't know who he is, do you?

COLIN HILDING: No, but I know lots of people who have abused their family and gone to rehab.

BEN WATERWORTH: Glad we can find some context there. Feel free to mention anything more about Bolt. I just wanted to quickly say with Justin Gatlin, it's a wide-ranging question. You could do a whole episode on this. The guy has been found guilty twice. He's been banned. He got completely booed when he won that 100 metres. Obviously, a lot of that can come down to Bolt losing. But I agree with you, Colin, what you said. He handled it very well. Again, I don't know if he was high on drugs or low on drugs or whatever. But I mean, should an athlete be able to come back after two banned doping substances like that? Because I mean, you know, you look at some other sports and you're done for life. So why is he allowed to basically keep going? And I guess Lance Armstrong would never be able to come back again. I don't know.

COLIN HILDING: It seems like maybe because of how big the sport is and how much attention there is worldwide for it, that maybe they give a little bit of leeway that they wouldn't give in other sports. Yeah, just all around. And again, I'm not complaining because, as I said, I kind of had my first appreciation for Gatlin in watching this race, and I'm glad that at least myself as a viewer can go out appreciating what he was able to do clean as well. But maybe one strike, and I'm not even saying three strikes is too much, but two strikes for sure, you should be out.

BEN WATERWORTH: Jarrod, what's your thoughts on the whole thing?

JARROD LOOBEEK: Yeah, I agree, particularly in a sport that's had its big troubles in the past and will continue to have into the future, I would say. It's just, I think, similar. I think one time, I mean, even that's bad, but sure, give them a ban for a period of time. I think twice, it's kind of, you've pushed the envelope, you've got caught twice. Clearly the first time didn't do anything to deter you from doping again. So I think by that time, you should probably just be out for life.

BEN WATERWORTH: Yeah, I agree with both of you. I think it's obviously a touchy-touch subject, and maybe we can do a whole episode on it one time. I'll just actually quickly here, I've noticed on the Usain Bolt Wikipedia page, if you look underneath his name, it says, Usain redirects here. For the organisation with the acronym Usain, see United States Agricultural Information Network. So we wish all the best to United States Agricultural Information Network Bolt in whatever he does in the future. But obviously, the World Athletics Championships are in London. This is where Bolt obviously hung up his boots. And we also did have the World Swimming Championships. World Athletics Championships, I guess we should also mention Mo Farah. Sort of retired. He's not doing his distance events anymore because he wants to run longer. He's doing the marathon now. I know we kind of, I guess Mo Farah is not a bigger deal as the same Bolt. I mean, we still know who he is. And if you're listening to us in the UK, obviously, he's a very big deal. Just quickly, Jarrod, I don't know if you've got anything to add on Mo Farah. I mean, were you a Mo Farah fanatic or did you just not give two shits about the guy?

JARROD LOOBEEK: I've been in the middle, to be honest. I prefer the distance running, if you can call it that, when it's still inside the stadium. But yeah, it's just interesting that these top athletes so often, their retirement comes after their best result. Whereas if you have somebody who kind of flukes it, then I think they're more likely to, hey, they fluked it. They know that they're not going to do any better than that. And then they'll sort of retire in a high note.

BEN WATERWORTH: Colin, sorry, do you have anything to add on the Mo?

COLIN HILDING: Well, I do happen to follow Mo Farah on Instagram, so I'm a fan. Like we're saying, it's not as big of a deal as Bolt. If you're in London, it is. Mo Farah is a god there. He's pretty much the closest thing to Bolt as far as success in his 5,000, 10,000 metre races. Just back to back medals every time he goes out. I think the result he had is similar to Bolt in that he's definitely not going out on top. But I'm betting that Bolt would have been much happier with winning the gold in one and bronze in the other, as opposed to bronze and then a hamstring injury. So maybe Mo Farah goes out a little bit closer to being on top. I think the greatest thing for me is just remembering in London, the reaction that he got, not to mention the reaction he got just last week. I mean, it's crazy. And again, I love the charisma. He's not the same as Bolt. It's very different, but huge amount of charisma as well. I love how he always gets his family out there and evolved.

BEN WATERWORTH: He's just like, he's why, that's why.

COLIN HILDING: I follow her on Instagram as well.

BEN WATERWORTH: I bet you do.

COLIN HILDING: But no, I mean, at least we still have him in sport in general. It will be interesting to see if he can, if this success can kind of transfer over to a full marathon.

BEN WATERWORTH: Yeah, it's going to be interesting. I mean, his achievements, I mean, he went out with a gold and silver in London, gold in the 10,000 and silver in the 5,000. And basically he won gold and silver in both the 5,000 and 10,000 every year in the World Champs since 2011. Obviously double gold in London and Rio in both the 5 and 10,000 metres. And I mean, yeah, just an amazing athlete. He also is one of these ones who is too good for the Commonwealth Games. He didn't even win a medal in any of them, it seems. And I do love here on his Wikipedia page, you know, you've got birth name, nationality, born, you know, all this sort of stuff. And you've got monuments, which include Madame Tussaud's London wax sculpture in Marylebone. Cool. Good for you. Exactly. So we'll see how Mo Farrow goes there, obviously in the marathon career. But athletic side of things. So for our great nations, at least when it comes to our medal performance, how did Canada go, Colin?

COLIN HILDING: This, oh, you know, it's funny because there are legitimate reasons why Canada did poorly. You know, the World Championships, I think 2001 was the last time that Canada walked away without a single medal. And we were going into this, like, Andre Degrasse for one, huge, and there was a bit of a controversy, which I don't know if it made news anywhere outside of Canada, but during the last races prior to the World Championships, you know, I guess the World Champion is allowed to choose his competition, and he excluded Degrasse from one, and Degrasse got all upset about it, and I guess figured, well, I'll get him at the World Championships, and then Degrasse, like a week before the World Championships, you know, messed up his hamstring. So he was out. I mean, obviously, we would have had something if Degrasse was there. Some of the athletes we had, like in the high jump, Derek Drewan won the gold in Rio. I think he ended up with some type of virus, a stomach virus when he was there, which from what I understand, plagued like a lot of athletes all over, not just Canada. It's not like it's a maple syrup virus or something, but there was a lot of sickness there, and you know, Sean Barber, our pole vaulter, was the defending World Champion. He didn't do too well. Evan Dunphy, who has been on the show before, the race walker, I think he came in 15th. Yeah, just across the board, it wasn't great results for Canada. And I don't know, some of it's probably sickness, some of it injury, and some of it's just bad luck.

BEN WATERWORTH: Well, you know, it's bad luck when New Zealand can walk away with a gold medal, and Canada can't even walk away with a bronze. And generally, you're pretty decent in the athletes. Actually interesting here, there's a placing table, obviously, because you get points, I guess, in the IAAF sort of standings. So, I mean, you still finished 14th on the points table, because apparently, according to this, you got two 5th places, five 6th places, two 7th places and three 8th places, which gives you 30 points. Australia, we finished below you, and we won a freaking gold and a silver medal. So, go figure. But yeah, I mean, for Australia, obviously, Jarrod, we're still celebrating. Great Sally Pearson. I mean, she's come back from years and years of injury. I think it's been about two or three seasons, full seasons she's missed. Obviously, she sadly couldn't defend a gold medal at the Olympics last year, but she's come back. She's won the 100m hurdles. I think it's her second World Championship gold. I mean, Sally Pearson. Who doesn't love Sally Pearson, Jarrod? She is Australia's every woman.

JARROD LOOBEEK: Yeah, idiots don't love Sally Pearson. She's just such a legend. And her reactions every time she's in a race and she wins or comes second or whatever, her reactions are just like the icing on the cake. I think it's amazing that she's come back. And before the event, it was a whole thing of she was like, I'll just be happy with a medal. And then to come away with gold, I think that she's just... Her technique for hurdling looks like it's so much better than everybody else around her. And it's just incredible that she could come back from injury in that long way off and win.

BEN WATERWORTH: I think I say this every single time we talk about her. Just if anybody out there has never seen the interview with her after she won silver in Beijing, go and watch it. It is like the greatest interview you will ever see in TV. I was watching that live, and I fell in love with her in that moment. Because I'm like, this woman is just like woman down the shops who's just won an Olympic medal. She doesn't know how to react. She's like, I won! I won a medal! And it's like, she's just awesome. But yeah, good on her, obviously. Because I think a lot of what Australia had, and I don't know how it would be for Canada, is a lot of our performance, at least in the Athletics World Championship, we'll talk about the swimming in a second, was kind of like, oh, how are we going to go on the Commonwealth Games next year? Because for Australia, we care more about the Commonwealth Games than we do the World Athletics Championships. So I mean, everybody's kind of, you know, Sally Pearson will, I guess, be once again the face of the Commonwealth Games. She will be our number one hope, even though we win like 100 gold medals a day. We only care that she wins it. It was like that in Glasgow. I remember Channel 10 had the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow, Jarrod, and it basically turned into the day that she won the gold was basically 24 hours of rolling coverage of Sally Pearson. Which, I mean, look, let's be honest, it's probably the only day I would be fine with that. But we also, we should mention, we also did get a silver medal. Danny Stevens, who always seems to do well in the World Champs, but can never kind of distinguish that into the Olympics. She got a silver in the discus. She of course did win gold back in Berlin. But, yeah, I mean, still not quite the levels of Bolt and Pearson and Farah there. Jarrod, I mean, I don't see the little kids in Australia taking up discus anytime soon because of Danny Stevens, but good luck. Good on Danny Stevens.

JARROD LOOBEEK: Yeah, good on her. The thing is, like, that was so unexpected just because I feel like discus athletes, maybe they do just naturally have a long kind of career, but it seems like she's been around for ages, and to still get results like that, particularly with such a gap between the last great result is impressive.

BEN WATERWORTH: Well, they don't do much. They just throw a circle. So, I mean, admittedly, it's a heavy circle, but I mean, you know, have you ever done discus, Colin? That's a weird question. I never thought I'd ask you, but hey, we're on the topic.

COLIN HILDING: I mean, I don't know if it's the same in Australia. Usually, right near the end of the school year, you'd have like track and field day, so there'd be like discus, shot put, stuff like that there. I don't remember ever doing it well. I guess when I was watching this, my wife couldn't have cared less when I was watching hurdles or sprinter or anything like that, but every time it was like hammer throw or javelin or discus, she was all into it. So, I don't know, maybe some Danny Stevens rubbed off on her when we were at the beach the other day, and I'm just picking up rocks to get my son to learn how to throw it, and she's like, hey, look at me, I'm doing discus! And she's just throwing it, not doing it properly. But yeah, discus is caught on there, so Danny Stevens maybe does have the impact of a mole pharaoh.

BEN WATERWORTH: I was always shot put because I was fat, and that's generally the one that the fat kids did. And Tug of War, I got a second place in Grade 6 Tug of War, got to go to the Inter-School Championships, and we won the first place medal or whatever it was.

COLIN HILDING: If we're going around the table, Jarrod, what was your track and field event?

JARROD LOOBEEK: Um, probably 800 metres, 1500.

BEN WATERWORTH: Oh, you're the middle distance man, I like it.

COLIN HILDING: I was the worst high jumper in history, where there were special needs kids in my class that got it, and the gym teacher held me back for recess to teach me how to do it one on one. But long jump, I will say long jump, I was the king of long jump.

BEN WATERWORTH: I remember high school, I just wanted to do all the field events, because I think in primary school, we didn't really like, you did Tug of War, but there was no field events in primary school. It was just all running. The best one I always had in primary school was the obstacle course. You had to like run like five metres, take the shoes off, go through hoops, get in a sack, jump around a witch's hat. It was just fun. But yeah, like high school, I was like, fuck yeah, we get to do field events. I'm going to do everything. And then grade eight, I realised, I suck at everything, so I'm just going to sit and watch.

COLIN HILDING: Did they put you on a scale and say, shot put?

BEN WATERWORTH: I don't think they did with the field events. I know they did in the sprinting, and I remember, I think, grade eight, because it was all voluntary, didn't have to go in it. But I think grade eight, you know, I had a shit time in high school, everyone hated me, but I think it was the last time I ever competed, you know, in my outstanding athletics career. And I was put in the lowest division of the hundred metres in grade eight, and I got dead last. So there was a photo that was in the newsletter of me, like, flailing my arms around.

COLIN HILDING: You were so hated in high school that they would look for bad pictures of you to publish.

BEN WATERWORTH: They would literally, the only time they'd put my name in the newsletter is if, like, I got a letter published in TV Week or something like that.

COLIN HILDING: Did you, did you by any chance do so poorly in the hundred metre because you're holding a giant ball under your chin trying to toss it?

BEN WATERWORTH: It didn't quite work. Exactly. I was so good at the hundred metres, I was the same bolt that had to kind of, you know, weight me down. I should just mention one of our gold medal favourites, our walker, Dane Bird Smith, he sadly only got sixth in the walk, but in the 20k walk, but it was still a personal best. So obviously not quite up to the scratch of what he was hoping. But yeah, I think for us, Jarrod, I mean, the World Athletics Championships, we're always more into the World Swimming Championships, which I think we should probably get into now. But I mean, it was still, were we more successful in the Athletics Championships, Jarrod, than we were the Swimming Championships? I kind of feel like we were.

JARROD LOOBEEK: It's a possibility.

BEN WATERWORTH: Actually, okay, we won three gold in the, this is the Aquatics Championships, so they lump in diving into this as well, an open water swimming and synchronized swimming. I know we didn't win a gold in synchronized swimming, but so the World Swimming Champ, the Aquatics Championships, sorry, were recently also held, they were in Budapest in the end of July. Now we, Australia, we came out of it with three gold, five silver, four bronze, but yes, our solitary gold in swimming came from Emily Seabalm. Not even the Campbell Sisters could fucking bring back the gold. We had a woeful meet. Our other two golds came in diving. We got Madison Keeney won the one metre springboard, and apparently high diving is a thing now. Rhiannon Ifland, the next big spawning name in Australia, won the women's high diving. Jarrod, what the fuck happened? Why did we all of a sudden turn Canada into swimming? I mean, we won one gold. What's going on?

JARROD LOOBEEK: I don't know. Our swimming is going down the drain, which in a way I suppose is a positive that comes from this, is the next time that the Summer Olympics on, all the Commonwealth Games, we don't have to show swimming for the whole of the event. What is the deal? This is like our one event that is like, oh, yeah, it's swimming. We'll be right. We'll rack up a couple of gold here, and you can just kind of guarantee that that's where the majority of our medals are going to come from. But it seems like that's changing and there's nothing replacing it. It's just swimming is dead.

BEN WATERWORTH: You know, you suck in swimming when France win the same amount of gold medals as you do in swimming. And they get, they got six gold in total. And I'm seeing here they won, they won like four gold in open water swimming. Is that even a sport?

COLIN HILDING: Well, they award golds, don't they?

BEN WATERWORTH: They also award gold in dressage. It doesn't make it a sport. But I mean, like even fucking like Britain, Britain are beating us in swimming. This is not good. Like we shouldn't, there are certain sports we should never lose to Britain in. One of them is swimming. Like this, if we go to the Commonwealth Games next year in our own backyard and we lose to Britain in swimming, I'm done. I'm going to New Zealand. Like I'm out. Like that's it. I can't even fathom this. And I don't know if you were paying much attention to the media coverage of it, Jarrod, but like it started off all like, you know, oh, you know, bad day for Australia. We only got a silver and a bronze, but Mack Horton's swimming tomorrow. So there we go. Oh, Mack Horton didn't win, but the Campbell sisters are swimming tomorrow. By the end of the day, at the end of the coverage, they're literally coming into the sports bulletins. Great day for Australia at the World Swimming Championships. We won the bronze.

JARROD LOOBEEK: Somebody jumped in the pool today.

BEN WATERWORTH: It was literally just like it's got to a point where our media is like, fuck, we suck at swimming. What's going on? I mean, I just I just really don't know what to think of this. Does this mean like I think you're right though, Jarrod, come 2020, we're going to slow down on the swing. But like this kind of backs up my point. I feel that we talked a little bit about last year that Australia was so disappointed that we did so poorly in Rio, whereas I always say like, no, we kind of peaked in the 2000s and we're kind of back to where we were 20 years ago. This is kind of normal. Do you think maybe we can start to take that on board again properly? And as Australians realise, it's not normal for us to win more than 10 gold medals in Olympic Games. It's kind of normal for us to win like seven, eight or nine and just be satisfied with one or two gold medals in swimming like we should be.

JARROD LOOBEEK: No, I don't think we'll ever take that tack.

BEN WATERWORTH: Once we've reached double figures, it's like we're never going back.

JARROD LOOBEEK: Yeah, I'm just waiting. Surely this calls for the push to host like the Olympics, the next bid, because just so we can get our medal count back up.

BEN WATERWORTH: Well, we'll see how that goes in the Gold Coast next year. Colin, Canada, I mean, you also won a gold medal in swimming, the same amount as Australia. When can Canada ever say we won the same amount of gold medals in a major swimming meet as Australia? That's like us saying, yeah, we won as many gold medals in ice hockey as Canada did that year at the Olympics. Kylie Mass, is it Mass or Massie?

COLIN HILDING: I've heard it pronounced both ways.

BEN WATERWORTH: Okay, well, let's go with Mass. She won the 100 metres backstroke, but our dear old favourite beloved Penny Alexiak, she couldn't back up her Olympic form. She only got two bronze. What's going on with Penny?

COLIN HILDING: Yeah, and the bronze she won were in medleys and, or sorry, relays as well, so it wasn't even individual. Well, Kylie Massey sort of came out of nowhere because back in Rio, I think, I don't know if she won anything, but she definitely was on the radar. Like our swimming really took off at Rio, and she wasn't really even in the top five swimmers you would hear mention. And not only did she win gold, she kind of set a semi-record with it. It's kind of complicated the way that they records with this type of jumpsuit. You know, it's kind of the way that they rank them now. But she's our new star here. Penny's kind of a thing of the past, it seems. She just exploded here already.

BEN WATERWORTH: Penny peaked. Penny's done.

COLIN HILDING: Yeah.

BEN WATERWORTH: I'm looking at Kylie Mass. I like Kylie Mass. She seems nice.

COLIN HILDING: Come on the show, Kylie.

BEN WATERWORTH: Ben's future wife.

COLIN HILDING: This one's a legal age man.

BEN WATERWORTH: I was about to say, I can say this about Kylie Mass. She is. She's definitely of legal age. Yeah, but good on you, Kylie. I mean, the US shattered everywhere. Of course, they did. Russia were allowed to compete again, so they got third. The drugs clearly kicked in for them. I mean, Malaysia got a fucking gold medal in the World Athletics Cup. North Korea got a silver and a bronze. I didn't think they were allowed to swim. It's just them practising swimming out of the country. What is going on here? I mean, diving wise, Canada did OK. You got a silver and two bronze.

COLIN HILDING: Yeah. I mean, we always win something in diving. Diving is kind of one of Canada's national events. Jennifer Abel, she's mostly a synchronized diver. I didn't even realise it was as big of a deal until this was over, but I guess she kind of set the Canadian record for the most medals ever won in diving from Canadian. We've had one diver who just retired, I think, back in London, and she had medaled in all four Olympics she competed in. So for Jennifer Abel to have done that, it's a huge deal, especially after she changed her diving partner. So another big star in Canada. We have so many stars in the water. What's wrong with you?

BEN WATERWORTH: Because it's not fro- I don't know. It's global warming. Everything's getting hotter. You've got to swim in it now than skate on it. I mean, we shouldn't gel over Madison Keeney winning gold in the one-metre springboard. I mean, she got bronze in Rio in the three-metre synchronized. But I mean, great for, you know, diving. We kind of do well every now and then. And I mean, this high diving, I don't know if this is an Olympic sport yet, but Rhianna Ifland, apparently a cliff diving world champion, and now she's the world champion in normal high diving.

COLIN HILDING: Also, I don't know if this is new. I don't remember watching it a few years ago, but the mixed relay was kind of an interesting idea.

BEN WATERWORTH: I think they've just introduced that, haven't they, for the Tokyo Games from memory. I believe that is going to be a new event, which I look, I think it's a, yeah, I'm with you there. I think it's an interesting aspect. I know the Youth Olympics have done that pretty much ever since they've been around. So, yeah, I mean, I'm for the, is anyone here anti-mixed relay? I don't know. Just another event. Just another event for the Campbells to choke in. So I'm all for it. Hello to the Campbells. If you're listening, you're not, you're probably choking somewhere. I actually just quickly before we move on, I should have mentioned my beloved Eliza McCartney only got seventh in the pole vault at the World Championships. I'm a bit disappointed there.

COLIN HILDING: Was that because you're doing it in a pool? Because we're talking about that.

BEN WATERWORTH: No, but I know I'm backtracking, but I just, I forgot to mention, I just saw a picture of her on my screen and I got excited. So a ninth.

COLIN HILDING: Can we also mention Katinka Hozu, the Hungarian iron lady?

BEN WATERWORTH: Yes.

COLIN HILDING: Dominating in her own country?

BEN WATERWORTH: Of course. I paid attention to that, but no, we should. Yes. The funny Hungarians laughed all the way whenever she won a gold medal. Which is so personable about that. So indeed. Now, we've got other things to cover here, but we want to touch on the Canada games, Colin. Now, explain to Jarrod and our listeners who aren't Canadian, what the fuck are the Canadian games? Because clearly, you haven't been listening to The Brink, one of our other shows now available via iTunes. You wouldn't know what these are.

COLIN HILDING: First, I guess I'll do a bit of backtracking first before moving on with that. I just wanted to bring up, you mentioned Mack Horton, something that we mentioned on your other show, The Brink, that you could download. Can you get it on iTunes? Of course you can, Colin.

BEN WATERWORTH: Of course you can. Download now.

COLIN HILDING: Where I mentioned watching this event and asking my one-year-old son, he'd usually respond, you're like, hey, are we cheering for this person? Huh. And he'd kind of grunt and ask him, you want to cheer for Mack Horton? And I kept probing him like, come on, do you want to go for Mack? Come on, let's cheer for Mack. You think Mack's going to win? And nothing happens. And of course the race is over. I'm like, all right, Casper, you got that one. She just did not want any part of Mack before that.

BEN WATERWORTH: We're over Mack Horton. We're on the Sun Yi or whatever his name is, Ben. What's the guy's name? The Bu Rang? No, that's the mascot. Who's the one who beats? They got into the War of Words with last year.

JARROD LOOBEEK: Oh, yeah. The one he splashed water at?

BEN WATERWORTH: Yeah. It's not Su Rang. Fucking hell, this is not good. The Chinese guy. Yeah, you know how I'm talking about. Anyway, he won the gold.

COLIN HILDING: The guy we can't remember the name of, he's a gold medallist.

BEN WATERWORTH: Yeah, what a legend of China.

COLIN HILDING: Let's talk about Ryan Lochte.

BEN WATERWORTH: Yeah. Oh, God. Don't ever mention that name on the show again. Anyway, the Canada Games.

COLIN HILDING: Canada Games. Speaking of Ryan Lochte, I noticed I think it was Team BC Volleyball decided to all bleach their hair silver like Lochte, their hero, I don't know. No, the Canada Games are basically, I guess this is the 50th anniversary. They were created in 67. And the idea behind them is kind of a prep for the Olympics for Canadian athletes. It's for younger athletes. It depends on the sport you're in. Some sports you have to be under 22. Some of them, like I found out in swimming, you have to be under 15 as we met a swimmer from Northwest Territories that was 17 years old and unable to compete because she was too old. But they use it as a way to prepare them just for the whole experience of the Olympics. And it's just the provinces competing against each other. And Winnipeg is actually the biggest city to ever get the Canada Games. So we were able to spend two weeks kind of living out many, not really Olympics, Olympics here in Winnipeg. It was actually a lot of fun. We got to see quite a few events and the tickets weren't too expensive because compared to what you'd get if you were at the Olympics or Commonwealth Games or Pan Am Games. And we got to go to the closing ceremonies, which was a lot of fun too.

BEN WATERWORTH: And just to confirm for people again who didn't listen to the brink, but did Canada win the medal tally?

COLIN HILDING: Canada won every medal except for one.

BEN WATERWORTH: And what was it that one that they didn't win?

COLIN HILDING: Well, that was the best podcast host on the Canada Games, which went to Ben Waterworth on the brink. Which was the only nominee.

BEN WATERWORTH: Can I put myself now as a Canada Games gold medallist? Yes.

JARROD LOOBEEK: You're the only podcaster on it.

BEN WATERWORTH: I was fascinated. I mean, in all seriousness, people should listen to sort of our coverage on the brink. It was very fascinating. I mean, was this your- because I think you didn't go to- You talked about the Pan Am Games in 99, but I mean, this was your first real taste of like a multi-sport event, I guess. I mean, is it something that, you know, kind of you're going around thinking like, wow, imagine if this was the Olympics or the Commonwealth Games, you know, something on a bigger scale. And does this kind of make you want to- I'm sure you didn't need any encouraging to go to an Olympics, but like make you want to go to something like a bit bigger, even more?

COLIN HILDING: No, I mean, I remember when the Pan Am Games were here, I was just watching 24 or 7. Every single day, I was asking somebody to go to an event with me. I kind of was too timid to go on my own. But I remember telling my wife, Jamie, just before this came, you know, she's like, Oh, can we really afford to go to this and this and this? And I'm like, I missed out on this years ago. It's like I missed out on going to Vancouver because I ended up- it was a voluntary layoff, but I didn't have the same income coming in. My plan was to go to Vancouver even just for one day. You know, at one point, I was debating going to Sochi. I'm already talking about maybe going to Los Angeles, which we'll talk about later. But this is sort of my dream, and it didn't matter to me that, you know, these are just Olympians of the future. Some of the ones we saw, I guarantee, we're going to see in Tokyo. I mean, four years ago, André de Grasse was setting records in the track and field at the Canada Games, and now he's, I guess, the successor to Usain Bolt. And two guys actually beat André de Grasse's Canada Games record just this past games here in Winnipeg. So it kind of was just like, you know, mini Olympics and like I said, the beginning of the show, it kind of reminded me of all the Olympics stuff last year and got me into it. Went out to the Canada Games store last night and got their 50% off merchandise before they closed out. Yeah, I was pretty much just living everything. I mean, there's some events that were free. I would just take like a few minutes. The coolest I think we talked about was the cross-country mountain biking. They built the course behind my work, so I kind of had to hike 10 minutes up a hill and then watch the last place racer cross the finish line in the relay. You know, the tennis was a free event. We were able to go and spend a Saturday sitting front row there and watching a Quebec coach and an Ontario player have an argument. There's a lot of drama that goes on in these things.

BEN WATERWORTH: Ah, wow, I kind of want to see that now. Quebec versus Ontario, French versus non-French.

COLIN HILDING: I will post a video hopefully in the next week or so, but all the stuff that we did get to see here. I tried to run my camera when that fight was going on. By the time I got the camera running, it was over. I was like, all right, sorry, we're done.

BEN WATERWORTH: Yeah, because typical Canadians fight time before it begins. It's like, oh, hey, hey, sorry, sorry, sorry, sorry. Sorry about that, sorry about that.

COLIN HILDING: I'll talk about just quickly the closing ceremonies, which we got tickets to. The TV coverage was pretty awful here, and there was no way for something like this year were going to sell out 40,000 seats in Winnipeg. But even 10,000 seats was good if they had held it indoors. It was great to go to, though. They didn't cheap out because it was a Canada Games. This was, in some ways, felt as big as an Olympic Games closing ceremonies. Performances and the speeches, we had our version of Thomas Bach, we had our Olympians there, all the athletes on the field. The closing ceremonies was actually much bigger than I thought it would be.

BEN WATERWORTH: I know you and I talked about it in the brink, but I'll bring this up to Jarrod. I mean, I'd like to see in Australia Games, wouldn't you? I mean, obviously, with the Canada Games, it's all about Ontario and Quebec dominating everyone. Poor old Prince Edward Island and all these territories do shit. But could you imagine, Jarrod, the Australia Games? Who will win the medal tally? It'll be New South Wales, Victoria, Queensland, and can Tasmania get a fifth place? I mean, I would love to watch it.

JARROD LOOBEEK: Yeah, I'm all for state versus state competitions, and I think, yeah, the Australia Games make it happen.

BEN WATERWORTH: Yeah, just call it the Australia Games, not the Australia Games. The Australian Cunt Games, that's generally what we say. I think I've ever said the C word on this show before, but that just happened. But, yeah, I mean, Jarrod, you obviously, I know we talked about you being in Sydney 2000 competing because clearly you won all the golds, but I mean, I'm now the only one here who hasn't been to a Melbourne e-sport event because I'm similar to Colin about like, oh yeah, we'll definitely go to Sydney 2000, Ben never did. Oh, we'll definitely go to Melbourne 2006, Ben never did. But, yeah, Jarrod, I mean, I guess we can transition into the Commonwealth Games a little bit. I know I'm going to them. I'll talk about that in a minute. Are you planning on going to the Commonwealth Games next year, Jarrod?

JARROD LOOBEEK: It's not on my radar at the moment, but there's still time.

BEN WATERWORTH: Are you excited for the Commonwealth Games though or is this kind of just fading out again? Because I feel every time the Commonwealth Games comes on, there is now officially more, why are they still a thing, than, oh, we're excited for them.

JARROD LOOBEEK: No, I'm excited. Any chance for Australia to actually win some medals and be near the top of the medal tally, it's worth it.

BEN WATERWORTH: But I am so worried about these though, Jarrod, because I mean, again, we lost to England in Glasgow, which, OK, you know, they'd kind of had all this money injected into them. They're not druggies, but because of London two years ago, before the Glasgow Games, they had a lot of this going on and, you know, England's kind of near Scotland, so they kind of had a little bit of hometown advantage. But since those games, they've even gotten even better, I feel. They obviously were second on the medal tally in Rio last year. They've just beaten us at the swimming world championships. Jarrod, are you worried that we might lose the medal tally at our own Commonwealth Games? We can't make that happen.

JARROD LOOBEEK: I'm sure they'll find some way to rig it. We'll claim a couple of non-Australians and just add their medals to our tally like we normally do.

COLIN HILDING: Are you aiming to be the Manitoba of the Commonwealth Games?

BEN WATERWORTH: What, like not do anything well or what?

COLIN HILDING: Yeah, exactly.

BEN WATERWORTH: I mean, it's a source of pride as an Australian that the only form of me not wanting to be a Republic and not get separate from the Commonwealth is we remain in the Commonwealth Games. Because, again, as I always say, this is like what America feels like at the Olympics. It's like you wake up every day and rather than, oh, we want a silver and a bronze, it's like, oh, sadly, we only won 13 gold overnight. Bit of a disappointing day for Australia. And the thing that I love about them too is the fact that, like, everybody knows the name of every gold medallist at the Olympics in Australia because, you know, we win like seven, ten, whatever. So you know them. They're on stamps. Like legitimately, they're a Commonwealth Games gold medallist in fucking squash and lawn bowls that will come up on screen three years later and it will say like Jared Lubik, Commonwealth Games gold medallist. And you're like, oh, did they win it? Oh, that's nice. Good for them. Whereas with the Olympic Games gold medallist, oh, they're awesome. It's like, oh, Commonwealth Games gold medallist. That's something. I mean, it's like you go to the Commonwealth Games if you're in Australia. If you don't win a gold, you're a failure. It's just, I love them. They're great. I'm going. Can I just say, I got a job at the Commonwealth Games, people. Sadly, this show doesn't pay me much money. But I have to go there. So I'm very excited about that. I just thought I'd point that out. So sorry to everybody who's going to go to the Commonwealth Games if I break them or something like that. Like, I don't know.

JARROD LOOBEEK: We need you there to fiddle with the medal tally.

BEN WATERWORTH: OK, I'll do that. I'll go to the... What's that? Australia only won three gold today. Make it 30.

COLIN HILDING: I guess another thing we should talk about is how close that's going to be to the Winter Olympics. We're going to be kind of like a month apart.

BEN WATERWORTH: Yeah, sort of a month and a half. I think the Commonwealth Games begin 4th of April. And I think the Olympics finish what? February 20th or something, no doubt. But yeah, we're going to be covering both. I know we're an Olympics podcast, so we shouldn't really be coming to the Commonwealth Games. But I mean, they're sort of the same, kind of.

COLIN HILDING: Just cover the Canada Games. You're going to draw the line in the Commonwealth?

BEN WATERWORTH: Well, I mean, you know, 100% of our hosts on here are affected by the Commonwealth Games. 33% of our hosts are affected by the... I mean, you know, we could always cover the netball world championships if you want to. Jarrod's probably going to be excited thinking about that. But I mean, yeah, we're going to cover it. It's now, what is it, less than 200 days to go, I believe, to the Commonwealth Games and obviously the same for the... We're going to be busy in February, March and April next year. Let's be honest. But yeah, that's the Commonwealth Games. We'll probably do more of a preview episode, I feel, of those getting closer. We don't really have anything to talk about the Winter Olympics. They're still happening. North Korea haven't destroyed that part of Korea. So Colin, anything to add on the Winter Olympics? Is anything happening in Canada and the Winter Olympics right now in terms of the news?

COLIN HILDING: I'm pretty sure we brought this up last time, but I guess the Olympian that we had, or not quite an Olympian we had, Andy Notti, right after the week that our interview went up, ended up pre-qualifying to be on the Moguls team for Team Canada. So just congratulations to Andy Notti. If we didn't thank you or congratulate you two or three months ago, the last time that we talked about the Winter Olympics.

BEN WATERWORTH: Clearly because of our interview. That's why she had the extra publicity help.

COLIN HILDING: So you're welcome is what I should say, Andy Notti.

BEN WATERWORTH: Exactly. Well done, Andy. Good job. I follow her on Instagram. We're just bragging about who we follow on Instagram. It's not like anyone else can't do that in the world. I'm so unique. But yeah, obviously, we're hoping to have some more interviews in the lead up, so stay tuned to that. Now, just a couple of other things we'll talk about. Actually, just on the Commonwealth Games really quickly, for those who listen to all our other shows, download The Oz Network now via iTunes and all those other channels. We were just talking about Simon Baker on our Day of the Dead episode. How amazing is Simon Baker? He's like an ambassador or something for the Commonwealth Games because he was just the Gold Coast Twitter account, posted a picture of him like all in his Gold Coast shirt with the Queen's Baton relay talking about the Commonwealth Games. So if you've ever wanted to see a very attractive Tasmanian talk about the Commonwealth Games, come to my house and you can also look at Simon Baker talking about the Commonwealth Games. So just get excited. The Olympics in terms of the bids, now this is a big story, I think, that we should have really done a whole episode on, but hey, we can talk about it quickly here. Obviously, we knew for 2024, kind of the only bidders basically whittled down to Paris and Los Angeles. That was due to be officially announced pretty much September, I'm seeing here in Peru at the 131st IOC session. But after long talks and discussions, it kind of basically has been decided that Paris will host in 2024, Los Angeles will host in 2028. Look, I'm going to say this straight out. I think this is a good idea. I think it kind of worked out well, given you only had two candidate cities. So why not basically, you know, do this? I know it's sort of been unpopular with some people, but in a day and age when the Olympics and bidding for them isn't really as popular as it used to be, given the costs and everything along those lines, I think this kind of makes sense. And I, for one, even though France are fucking going to be hosting it, I'm kind of excited that they've done this. Jarrod, I don't know, I mean, do you like how they've done this and just basically said, oh, you know, LA you're going to lose anyway, so we'll give you the next ones.

JARROD LOOBEEK: Yeah, I think it was a fair way to do it. I mean, it's not really that interesting. I'm more interested for Flynn Flon's bid for the Winter Olympics, so just still keeping a keen eye on that.

BEN WATERWORTH: Yeah, fingers crossed. Colin, I mean, do you have any thoughts on kind of them doing this?

COLIN HILDING: No, I mean, I actually like not having to wait several years to find out and, you know, I guess giving it to the second highest bidder. In a way, the second highest bidder always ends up getting a few years anyways. I remember when Vancouver won the bid for 2010. At that point, I think Pyeongchang was second place in the final round of bids. But I guess my biggest complaint is more just that we're getting very, I guess, developed major cities. And I know a lot of people took a lot of shots at Rio, instead of actually looking at it and saying, well, the Olympics is about seeing all these different parts of the world. And if we're just holding it in London or Los Angeles or Tokyo or Beijing every single time, we're not really getting a lot of the world. And I kind of like being able to go to these different cities that aren't as large, aren't as developed, and maybe not quite even completely third world. But second world, let's say. And it just feels like we're getting Tokyo, we're getting Paris, we're getting Los Angeles. We're just kind of getting cities that we've had before and maybe not a lot of variety. And also, are we really getting cities that are going to benefit so much from the games? Like, does Los Angeles need more revenue?

BEN WATERWORTH: Yeah, I agree with that. I was always kind of excited when you had these, you know, cities bidding. Oh, yeah, that'd be kind of cool. Like when Budapest literally, you know, I know it would have been a very boring, unhappy games, but like it still would have been exciting to have Budapest as an Olympic city. And I agree with everything you said. And I also like the whole pizzazz behind the big reveal, the vote, you know, everyone in Australia knows the famous, the winner is city, you know, that these just showed over and over again. But yeah, like, you know, Rio winning it there, you know, I just always remember that photo that they put out just before they, you know, won that election, that map of the world where they're like, this is where all the Olympics have been held. There have been none in South America. So, you know, obviously, you know, we can't have that with like an African city or something like that, because they're the only constant now that haven't had it. So yeah, it's disappointing. I mean, look, let's be honest, Paris had to get it eventually, because I mean, kind of going what you said there about how it generally runs up. I think Paris have basically bid for every Olympics in the last 500 years. So they were due to win, eventually. And look, they will be the second Olympic city behind London to have it three times, which sounds way too many, but you actually kind of analyse it. They haven't had it since 1924. So they are kind of due, as much as I fucking hate the place. But it will be interesting. And LA, look, I'm excited for LA. That will also be a three time Olympic host city. But yeah, I mean, look, the USA were definitely due to host an Olympics. I mean, it kind of seems weird. The fact that they'll go into this being what? 26 years since they've hosted any form of the Olympics. 32 years since the Summer Olympics. And like as a city, I've been to LA multiple times. I would have much preferred, say, a New York hosting it or Boston when they were bidding it, you know, like a different city in the US. But I'd be interesting to see how LA will do. But I mean, I think it makes it a higher chance that I could go to it as well, not as an athlete, but who knows? But yeah, I think I'm just disappointed, though, that we won't have these elections again. As I said, you know, where's the surprise going to be in September? The winner is Paris. Oh, I didn't expect that. And, you know, but now LA, because it's usually what? Seven years you have to build your Olympics. So LA have an unfair advantage. You got 11 years. Yeah, I'll just also. Yeah, sorry. Go Colin.

COLIN HILDING: I was just going to say, maybe like you talk about how long it's been since America's had the Olympics. There was probably a little bit of burnout prior to that. And I would have guessed that they could have gotten it for New York or Boston prior to this, except for the fact that if you really looked at it, you get Los Angeles in 84, Athens 96, and then six years later, Salt Lake City. Probably a little bit of America burnout after a while. But I personally feel like it's been long enough, and I can drive to most of these places, and I'm okay with them going back to Los Angeles, because I think it's still something that we haven't seen in the Olympics for a long time.

BEN WATERWORTH: Well, New York obviously failed 2012. Chicago burned big time in 2016. But yeah, I agree with that. And I mean, look, it's kind of like Asia, isn't it? Like we're going to have a massive Asia burnout where the next three Olympics are all in Asia, you know, Pyeongchang, Tokyo and Beijing. And then Beijing just a few years ago, too. Yeah, well, exactly. So, I mean, it's more, I think, of a state of kind of just, there's a lot more issues around bidding. Obviously, the IOC are trying to rectify that by making smaller cities possibly being able to host and all that sort of stuff. But I mean, you know, I guess we can do a whole episode of this down the track. But I mean, if you just kind of look at the ones now that we won't know about, I mean, the 2026 Winter Olympics, obviously, the people who are kind of throwing their hats in the ring. I mean, Calgary look like they're going to be bidding Colin, which is exciting. So, but then looking at Innsbruck are going to put their hat up. Sapporo, Japan. We know that's not going to happen in Japan, so don't bid for it. But then we've got Sion in Switzerland and the amazing place of Erzurum in Turkey. What a game they would be. The great Erzurum.

COLIN HILDING: And where's Egypt, Jarrod?

BEN WATERWORTH: Yeah, where's the Egypt Winter Olympic bid?

JARROD LOOBEEK: I've signed lots of confidentiality agreements about that. That was really your trip.

BEN WATERWORTH: It was a diplomatic mission from the Olympics.

JARROD LOOBEEK: Joint hosting with Australia.

BEN WATERWORTH: Yes.

JARROD LOOBEEK: Because clearly that makes sense.

BEN WATERWORTH: I mean, look, if Donald Trump become president, a co-winter Olympic bid between Egypt and Australia also makes sense. But one we should just really quickly mention, obviously, now it turns to who will bid in 2032 for the Summer Olympics. But it does officially look like Australia will bid for the 2032 Olympics. Sadly, the Hobart bid, which was just so popular for five minutes. Again, we've been overlooked because it officially looks like Brisbane will be our next bid city. It's always kind of been on the cards. Jarrod, I'm going to say a very unpopular opinion here. I think they should put Melbourne up again. I mean, Melbourne legitimately could host these Olympics tomorrow. It is a spawning capital of the world. I know they've hosted it before, but I mean, Brisbane versus Melbourne. Brisbane's OK. But like, come on, Melbourne surely should have to have another crack, shouldn't they?

JARROD LOOBEEK: I think so. I'd be keen to go to a Melbourne Olympics.

BEN WATERWORTH: I mean, I literally live an hour from the place on a plane. I mean, I've just been biased. But look, nothing against Brisbane. I like Brisbane. And obviously, you know, the Gold Coast is down the road from Brisbane, so we'll see how they go. But in the Commonwealth Games, that is. So, yeah, anyway, so, yeah, we're beating for the next Olympics, which are not for another 15 years. Get your maths correct there, Ben. Now, before we close out, just a couple of sad, obviously, bits of news that we've had recently. In only the last few days, one of our gold medallists from Athens, he was part of the 4000m track pursuit team for Australia, Stephen Wooldridge, sadly, passed away. And, of course, also the legendary Betty Cuthbert also died very recently. Now, Jarrod, I'm going to guess you're probably very similar to me, didn't know a whole lot about Stephen Wooldridge. I mean, I remember vividly us winning all those cycling gold in Athens, but I mean, we're talking about Betty Cuthbert separately. It's probably a weird question. Again, I don't know how much you knew about the guy. You might have been his best mate. I don't know. Obviously sad about Stephen Wooldridge, though.

JARROD LOOBEEK: Yeah, obviously, it's always disappointing when somebody loses their life. And I suppose particularly when it's a public figure who's done so well for the country, it kind of adds that level to things.

BEN WATERWORTH: Yeah, 39 years old. He also won four world championships outside the Olympics and also Commonwealth Games silver medallist. Lots of tributes coming out to him during the week. He was also inducted into the New South Wales Sports Hall of Fame in 2015. So yeah, very sad and mental health issues. I believe he took his own life. So obviously not good news there. And obviously we pass our regards on to Stephen's family and friends. And also, yeah, Betty Cuthbert. I mean, look, we're trying to explain a little bit to Betty, about Betty, to Colin, because I mean, she's just an icon of not just athletics in Australia, but of sport in general. One of the greatest female athletes this country has ever produced. I mean, Jarrod, everybody in this country knew who Betty Cuthbert was. I mean, she's up there with Dawn Fraser, Ian Thorpe as just a legend of Australian Olympics.

JARROD LOOBEEK: Yeah, absolutely. And I think somebody like with such a big legacy, obviously, she's inspired a lot of the other athletes. I think it was Sally Pearson came out like this week saying about how like growing up, she was a big inspiration to her and like her achievements and stuff. So yeah, it's really sad, but she did obviously a lot for the sport and a lot for the country.

BEN WATERWORTH: She had a state funeral during the week. She was one of the torch bearers coming into the stadium for Sydney 2000. She was often rumoured to be one of the people who was going to light the torch. I mean, you know, just records. I mean, she was four time Olympic gold medallist. I mean, she's the only, I think not just woman, but athlete in general, male or female, to win the 100, 200 and 400 gold medals at an Olympics. Not at the same games, but she won the 100 and 200 in Melbourne in 1956, and then she went on to win the 400 metres in Tokyo. I mean, that's outstanding. I mean, swimming, I think it's been done probably. Maybe somebody can correct me on that. But I mean, athletics is a little bit different. Colin, you're obviously into the athletics, but I mean, could you ever imagine somebody winning the 100, 200 and 400 metres? I mean, that's insane.

COLIN HILDING: Even Usain Bolt didn't do it.

BEN WATERWORTH: Yeah, exactly. So I mean, that speaks volumes for itself. But yeah, we were talking a little bit off air about the fact that, you know, behind Ian Thorpe, you know, before Thorpe came out and won all the medals he did, she was equal most ever gold medals won by an Australian Olympian. And just an icon. I mean, we've seen a lot of interviews with, you know, Dawn Fraser throughout the week about they were very good friends. And one of the nicest people apparently that you would ever come across. She has a statue outside the MCG. Just a legend of Australia. So very sad news there. Colin, any Canadians died recently? I mean, I don't want to make a joke out of it, but I mean, I feel we're attributing Australians here. I mean, I don't know if that's happened in Canada.

COLIN HILDING: No. That's good.

BEN WATERWORTH: That's good news.

COLIN HILDING: Very, very touched that you're feeling bad that so many Canadians are left alive here.

BEN WATERWORTH: Damn it. Um, yeah. I mean, Betty Cuthbert here also named an Australian National Treasure in 1998. That's an honour. How do you get named a National Treasure? Inducted into the Sporting Hall of Fame in Australia in 94 and the Athletics Australia Hall of Fame in the year 2000. A very nice picture of Betty on her Wikipedia page. She's holding a pot plant. So she looks like a nice gardener. That's our tribute to Betty Cuthbert. She was a great gardener.

COLIN HILDING: That was also her profile picture on Instagram, which Ben confirmed to us.

BEN WATERWORTH: Yeah, I follow her on Instagram. I think we've covered a lot here, folks. Colin, is there anything else we haven't covered in the most random Out There episode? But I think we've done well.

COLIN HILDING: We covered at least three months' worth, so stay tuned three months when the three of us will finally come together again.

BEN WATERWORTH: I should mention, though, I did touch on interviews possible that we've got coming up. I mean, I know we've got nothing locked in place unless you have and you haven't told us. But I mean, you have? Oh, shit, breaking news. What's happening?

COLIN HILDING: Well, I mean, I didn't mention this story. I probably would have been better to mention it during the Canada Games one, but we had like a festival here every night, like with bands and different acts and everything, and each one was emceed by somebody, and they had a couple of Olympians here to emcee it. One was Katrina Le Maidon, who's probably one of her most famous Olympians, the first Canadian ever went back to back gold. We did not get a response from her, but did get a response from a couple other Olympians, which I'll kind of say winter Olympian for one, who definitely is willing to come on the show, even made sure during the festivals to tweet me that she's interested in coming on the show still. So that one, and then another one who's a rower. So yeah, we got at least a few interviews, and then maybe a weightlifter and a soccer player as well, if we play our cards right.

BEN WATERWORTH: I would be more intrigued if they were a weightlifter and a soccer player, like at the same time. Yeah. I mean, that's a decent Olympian. Jarrod, did you hook up any interviews with any Egyptian Olympians while you were over there?

JARROD LOOBEEK: I did not, but-

BEN WATERWORTH: You had one job!

JARROD LOOBEEK: I've got contacts now, so.

BEN WATERWORTH: I'm glad, you know, the only reason we sent you over there is to get an interview with a great Egyptian runner called, insert name here, I don't know.

COLIN HILDING: Emotap.

BEN WATERWORTH: With Brendan Fraser, the great Egyptian explorer. Yeah, I've got nothing for you, we're trying to get some stuff organised. So, if you're excited for interviews on the-

COLIN HILDING: We've been on vacation, people, sorry.

BEN WATERWORTH: I was in America, I was in Canada, I didn't get anyone. So, stay tuned though, we'll see how we go. But yeah, in all seriousness, it's been a lot of fun doing this episode. We just kind of wanted to come out and do sort of some random things. We thought, we'll talk about Bolt, we'll talk about this, we'll talk about that, but we'll have interviews in the lead up. We're obviously going to do more on the Winter Olympics, the closer they get, Commonwealth Games as well, and everything else. And as always, we like to put out there, if you've got suggestions for athletes that you're dying to hear from, you know, the great Egyptian ski jumper, Mohammed Ski Man, I don't know, anyone that you want us to maybe track down. By all means, we will try our best. If their name is the same Bolt, we might struggle to get them on the show, but we will at least always ask the question. Just say we're an Optus customer. He's still been sponsored by them, isn't he, Jarrod? I don't know. Yeah. But by all means, follow us on Facebook, like us on Facebook, I should say. You can contact us on there. And of course, subscribe on iTunes. You can find all our interviews, past episodes, everything else in between. And stay up to date with the Olympics at least every three months, because that's generally how we roll. Jarrod, always a lot of fun. Thank you for joining us again. And we say it all the time. We won't make it as long between getting you on the show, but we probably won't speak to you again until like December or something like that.

JARROD LOOBEEK: Oh, good. Good to be back. And yeah, look forward to speaking again at some point in the future.

BEN WATERWORTH: And Colin, yeah, you generally know how I feel about you. So thanks.

COLIN HILDING: I'm always happy to make at least one person in Hungary laugh, which I'm sure I did today.

BEN WATERWORTH: That's the hardest thing to do. That's harder than Bolt winning not a gold medal. But yes, thank you for coming here Off The Podium. We'll speak to you next time we review listening to our voice.