Tokyo 2020 Day 14 Review
The third last day of the Tokyo 2020 Olympics is over and we're back to go over everything that happened on another medal winning day for both Australia and Canada. Are we disappointed or satisfied with Australia's beach volleyball silver and boxing bronze today? How do we feel about Canada doing so well in athletics? How pumped are we to have more medals won for Off The Podium? Are we still so in love with modern pentathlon, even without Chloe? How good are we at commentating table tennis? What gets us so excited at the end of the episode? And what can we look forward to over the final couple of days? It's another episode that will keep your Olympic mood high so get to listening and get to being entertained!
EPISODE TRANSCRIPT
Please note this is an automated transcript that may contain errors.
BEN WATERWORTH: It is Off The Podium, an Olympics podcast coming to you for the third last day of the 2020 Tokyo Summer Olympics Day 14. And not quite as busy as yesterday, but there are still plenty of medals to talk about for both Canada and Australia. An exciting day. And joining me on the line is a man who took yesterday off, and he's taken today back on. That makes sense. Jarrod Loobeek, Jarrod, welcome back to Off The Podium.
JARROD LOOBEEK: Thank you, it's good to be back.
BEN WATERWORTH: Now, continuing the trend, though, of you and Colin not being on the same episode together. Clearly, you two hate each other after our little debate the other day. What's going on here, Jarrod? Spill the beans. Why do you not like Colin anymore?
JARROD LOOBEEK: I just feel like his reaction was over the top, and I just didn't agree with it. I thought the athletes that I picked were correct, whether they be Australian or not. I think I picked them because of their achievements in spite of their nationality. So, yeah, I just can't stand the guy at the moment. So I'm just avoiding him.
BEN WATERWORTH: Yeah, he's a bit of a dick, let's be honest. But I mean, as I said, very busy day yesterday. Not so much of a busy day today, but we have medals for both Australia and Canada, including a medal that has literally just been won for Australia as we have come to air a bronze in the women's javelin to that. Remember that javelin thrower that won us a world championship? Kelsey Lee Barber came through for the bronze, the reigning world champion. But you and I were sort of maybe doing some commentary while that was on in the background. But to see the emotion, she was absolutely bawling her eyes there. That was fantastic to see there for Kelsey. Household name in Australia, clearly, as we all remember her name. Another bronze also went to Harry Garcide, who lost his semifinal bout, but will take the bronze. And a fantastic result breakthrough for boxing in this country, our first boxing medal since 1988. And sadly, in the volleyball, we weren't able to claim the gold, but Talika Clancy and Maripa Atacho del Sol took the silver. Still very happy with that. Another drought broken first medal since Sydney. So silver and two bronzes, pretty solid day, we'll take that.
JARROD LOOBEEK: Yeah, I think at the start, kind of we talked about near the end, like would we still be getting medals? And the fact that they're still kind of trickling in is great. And yeah, I just think from today, probably some big boosts to certain sports that, as you say, we haven't won medals in for a while. So good to get back on the board.
BEN WATERWORTH: It is fantastic to get on the board. And just quickly on Kelsie Lee Barber, that is our only second ever medal in the Jamble in Men's All Women's. You've got to go back to Atlanta, where Louise McPaul took silver there. So doing all right in the field events, obviously celebrating still our bronze in the decathlon after yesterday, which I'd like to get your thoughts on in just a moment, because you obviously went on the show yesterday. For Canada, though, they've had a pretty good day. Justin Knight is not the right guy. Why have they got that here on Wikipedia? Thank you, Wikipedia. You've got the wrong Canadian. It was actually Mohamed who got the silver in the men's 5,000. So I don't know who Justin Knight is. It's kind of like the New Zealand-Australia mix up the other day. But Mohamed, silver in the men's 5,000, which I'm pretty sure Colin will be very happy with, because I think he's a big Mohamed fan. But also speaking of being happy for Colin, another Off The Podium medal, ladies and gentlemen, Evan Dunphy, bronze in the 50k walk, got fourth in Rio, gave a great interview on this show. I think he was our first athlete after Rio from memory. And here he is getting another medal. Of course, it's another Colin athlete. So, you know, good for that. But did you catch much of the walk and the 5,000 metres at all, Jarrod, to see these two Canadian wins?
JARROD LOOBEEK: He didn't catch the 5,000, but he did catch the walk. And it was such a good finish for Evan Dunphy to get over the line to that bronze medal. And I think just super deserved and very exciting for him. I know, like, he's been a big critic, as rightly he should be, of the walk being dropped in Paris. So I think winning a medal kind of the last time it's going to be at the Olympics for the time being is just a great achievement.
BEN WATERWORTH: Now, we'll say Canada are set for another medal. It will either be gold or silver because the women's football final is on as we are recording. I can tell you that at the 65th minute mark of the second half, or the 65th minute mark of the game, I should say, that makes more sense, Ben, we do have a one-nothing lead to Sweden. Although right now, the VAR is looking at a potential penalty for Canada. And just looking on that, I got to say that's a penalty. They're reviewing it right now. So with about 25 minutes to go in the gold medal match, similar to what happened in the semi-final the other day between the US and Canada, a potential game-changing penalty coming on here for Canada's quest for gold. They will get a medal. What colour it will be, we will soon find out. Did you watch any of this earlier before we came to air? Jarrod, at all, any of the final of the women's football?
JARROD LOOBEEK: I did not, no.
BEN WATERWORTH: Well, it's on seven, mate, if you want to flick over. And what's the referee deciding? Just gonna talk about some things in a minute. She's going square, square, penalty! Oh, all right, kids, strap yourself in, because Canada are getting ready. Of course, they moved this match. This match was meant to be played about 12 hours ago, but due to the heat, it is obviously been changed. Now, this is very, very interesting right now for Canada, because again, this happened in the semifinal the other day that got them the win. And number 12 here for Canada, she has got a stern look on her face. I tell you what, I'm just going to stick with this right now, because I feel we need to update this. We're also recording. We are about eight minutes away from the women's four by 100 relay on the athletics and then the men's. So we could have double medals for Off The Podium today of Canada medal and a first for Ben Waterworth. Can we just point that out? If Aaron and Brendan help them win a medal, Brendan will bring Ben Waterworth a medal. So that's the main thing. But all right, number 17 is taking this now. Number 12 has given up the ball to number 17 here for Canada. She's looking a lot younger, a little less astern. The Swedish goalkeeper looks like she's shitting herself. I think she's shitting Ikea bricks right now. But we're about to see. Will Canada equalise this? With 24 minutes remaining, all the nation's hopes rest on number 17. It will be Canada's favourite number. The amount of medals, gold medal Australia's won. She kicks, she scores! Canada are equal! Oh, it's on! Canada celebrates. All right, we'll come back to that. We'll see how that's going, because I'm more concerned about the relays. But all right, outside of those medals won by Australia and Canada today, I just want to get your thoughts quickly on yesterday, because obviously you weren't on the episode. Very busy day. Got a couple of gold, a silver, a couple of bronze. It was positivity on the solo sports, but not so much on the team sports. Let's start with the team sports, the Kookaburras. How are you feeling after that?
JARROD LOOBEEK: It was a bit of a letdown. I think it's just a shame that it has to come down to that. I really wish that there was extra time before it went straight to the penalty strokes or whatever they're actually called. But I think a fair result, and I'm happy, I suppose, for Belgium to get their first gold in hockey, considering they've been pretty dominant in the sport over the last couple of years. And I think, too, if we'd managed to pull out of the penalty shootout at the end where there was that whole review, and I felt like it was a bit soft that we even got to take that penalty again. They didn't really seem to be much in it. So I'm kind of, at that point, I was kind of like, I don't know if I really want us to win this way anyway.
BEN WATERWORTH: Yeah, no, I agree. And of course, Classic Australia, they complained that there wasn't the extra time or the actual proper strokes they used to take, not this kind of ice hockey style running. But I mean, we famously won the gold in Athens in extra time, so it was kind of that way. But yeah, just once again, the Kukubara curse, I guess, and also the curse of the boomers, I mean, the headlines halfway through that second quarter. news.com.au had their lead story as Aussies thrashing the Americans. And it was always gonna happen. I seriously was watching that game going, what's going on right now? Andrew Bogan, Andrew Gaze were getting cocky. I was like, guys, this is the US. You even literally say, oh, this is what happened against Spain the other day. Yeah, and exactly what happened. So, I mean, it's kind of a trend too, as they kept pointing out in the coverage, all our semi-final losses are by 20 points or more. This was only 19 points, but it's just a trend of the boomers. So, what's going to happen against Slovenia tomorrow night? I feel we're going to get fourth again.
JARROD LOOBEEK: Yeah, I'm a bit concerned. I feel like I almost bought into the hype at kind of the half, not even the halfway point, like, midway through, I suppose, the second quarter. And then the US just went on, like, an incredible run. It was so frustrating to watch that, like, we just, I think we feel like we scored, like, one basket in the space of 15 minutes. Like, just nothing was happening. Nobody could do anything. And I feel like that's probably gonna, similar thing could happen in the bronze medal match. Well, it just felt like a lot of players weren't performing, like, at their best. And as soon as they start kind of missing the threes and just constantly going for the threes, rather than getting it kind of more into the key for the safer shot, it just feels like we panic and aren't able to stop the momentum of other teams.
BEN WATERWORTH: Kevin Durant stepped up a gear. I mean, that was absolutely crazy what he did. It reminded me of game five or game six against the Raptors when he came back from his injury and he just came out and just fired everything at the Raptors, basically got them into a position, injured himself. So otherwise, if he had to stay there, he would have hurt them even more. But yeah, but no, Slovenia is tricky. I mean, it's a fairy tale story. It's their first time in the Olympic basketball. They missed out by a point, that amazing block. I don't know if you saw the French player there basically on the buzzer. The Slovenian went in for a drive in the basket. The French guy blocked him Lebron style back from game seven in 2016. It was amazing, lost by a point. And now we're going to have a very on fire Luca Donkic. I'll say his name correctly one day, who's just gotten them through. And yeah, I mean, this is Lithuania all over again. It's like one of these countries that Australians don't hear about until it comes in there. But at least, hopefully, if Andrew Gayes and that are commentating, they'll get the name right. It's Slovenia, not Slovakia, as we heard a few times during the coverage. But yeah, I mean, it's just that's we've had such a successful games. We cannot complain about Australia at these Olympics. But if we're to get just one medal of these guys, give that get the boomers a medal. Like, that's it, right? Like, they keep showing the footage from Rio, that Spain game, which is still so painful. But that's that's what we want, right? Like, just cap off these great gains with the bronze for the boomers.
JARROD LOOBEEK: Yeah, absolutely. I feel like to if they if they weren't to medal, then all these players like are going to have just so many regrets. And then they'll have to start like seriously considering Paris. Whereas for some of them, I feel like that like an extra three years might be a little bit little step too far for them. Yeah. So I just hope that they're able to to pull it off. And that would be great for Australia. And then I almost feel like in Paris, we can kind of build on that. Maybe not getting like another medal, but just feels like there needs to be like a bit more like fresh blood in the team moving forward. So it'd be great to get some younger players coming through for Paris.
BEN WATERWORTH: Personally, if we don't win tomorrow, I blame Ben Simmons. Come on, you are our best player. And oh, no, I can't play. Like just play seriously. On yesterday, the two shot golds. Now, I sort of mentioned about how it felt a bit bad for our canoeing guys because they were the forgotten gold. I swear Channel 7 completely forgot about them within two seconds when we got a golden frickin skateboarding and their replay wasn't shown until like one in the morning. But I went over yesterday, the esteemed company that Keegan Palmer now resides in when he's up against the likes of Dawn Fraser, Ian Thorpe, Betty Cuspit, Edwin Flack. Like, this is a guy who, as I said yesterday, I don't even think he realises he's competing for Australia. I mean, you see his interviews, like, Australia, oh, yeah. I mean, great, Keegan, you want us a gold, but I'm still in this mindset of, really? This guy is an Olympic gold medallist for Australia.
JARROD LOOBEEK: Yeah, it's such an odd one. I feel like the park was definitely better than the street. But just to echo everything you guys said on yesterday's episode, it just feels weird and wrong that these, like, it just is not serious or prestigious enough. It's just really different to the winter games. You think it would be similar to some of the sports there, like snowboarding and some of those big air and the ski cross or whatever, but it's just, it's not, there's not the level of seriousness, there's not the level of competitiveness. Everybody was cheering on how supportive everybody was of each other, which I get is great. But to me, it was kind of frustrating because I'm like, I want them, like, there's no issue with them being proud of people from other countries, but I want them to win for themselves. And I just felt like there wasn't any sense of I want to do the best I possibly can. It was like, well, if I have won a medal, great. If I don't, whatever. I just, I don't feel like that's in the spirit of the Olympics. Even Pixie, like you should be trying your hardest.
BEN WATERWORTH: Yeah, no, I definitely, I definitely agree. And if you think it can't get any worse, let's all just have a friendly reminder that breakdancing is a part of Paris. So I think that's even going to be worse come 2024. And as we hear 158, 7000 times a day, remember Paris is only three years away, Jarrod, just to to clarify that one there. But I mean, do you have anything to say on the on the canoes? Because that was great. That was fantastic. I mean, Tom Green, talk this guy out more again, literally, I want to get better at surf life saving. I'll take up canoeing and maybe just go to the Olympics as some extra practice. And he wins a frickin Olympic gold medal. Can I take up something for practice to improve my podcasting and win an Olympic gold medal? Please tell me what sport I can do that in.
JARROD LOOBEEK: Yeah, this was just so unexpected. And like the pole, this was the polar opposite of the skateboarding. Like you could see how like happy they were with their achievement. They were like crying on the podium. It was just wonderful to see them be so emotional about this medal. And that's just what the Olympics should be like. And it was just we mentioned that we might there's got to be like this shock moment of the games. And I feel like the decathlon probably is more that moment, but this is right up there as well.
BEN WATERWORTH: I think the one thing I will say about canoe kayak is I think this is one of those sports that I forget how much I love. And like to me, it's almost treated, I think, in this country is like rowing's ugly stepsister, because it's sort of, it's all about the rowing. And then this happens. And then we usually get a sneaky silver, a sneaky bronze. But they kept talking up Ken Wallace, who, of course, won a gold for us in Beijing, a steam champion. I think he's our vice chief to mission or something like that, because they keep talking about how he's there with Team Australia. I mean, he's an absolute legend in this country, but he's somebody who very rarely gets talked about. It's a great sport to watch. And like, I love the fact that you've got slalom, then you've kind of got the canoe, which is more you're kneeling in a boat. Like, it's just it's a fun sport to watch. And then you look at someone like Lisa Carrington, who's obviously in with another medal shot tomorrow. I mean, I just want to say this right now. I want to talk this up more in Paris, because I feel this is that sport that every time it comes on the Olympics, I forget how great it is. And then the slalom too is fantastic, and not just because of Jess before Colin yells at us. Canoe slalom has always been a sport that I've liked watching.
JARROD LOOBEEK: Yeah, this is great. And the fact that we have kind of a bit of like we're building a bit of like a history here in like the sport as well is something that I think we should be celebrating more, looking forward to putting more money and effort into it as something that I think we could generally do really good at. And I think it just yeah, it does feel like it's the ugly step sister of the rowing, I think, too, because it's so like late in the Olympics and rowing is so early. Yeah, it feels like it's almost an afterthought where they schedule it. So it'd be great to see if it could get scheduled earlier in the mix and then maybe switch it around and put it at the front and put rowing at the end for once.
BEN WATERWORTH: Meanwhile, just as we talk, Jamaica have just won gold in the women's four by one. So they've had a pretty poor games when it comes to the men's side of things. But I know they got the hurdles, but gold here. So that will be Shelly Anne Fraser prices first. And is that Elaine Thompson's third gold of these games? And I believe so pretty, pretty dominant performance, she's almost as good as Lisa Carrington. So there you go. She's won the same amount of gold. And it looks like USA got silver and possibly Britain bronze. She had to make her happy. Thrilled. Jamaica cannot stop celebrating. My goodness. They're happy to win a gold medal. Wow. Meanwhile, on the soccer 13 minutes ago, still won all. So we'll maybe switch focus to the four by one men's and then we'll switch back to the soccer if it goes extra time and penalties. So outside, actually, you listened to the show yesterday. So you heard my reaction to realising Sam Marino won another fucking medal yesterday. I mean, how is this, Jarrod, from having none to three?
JARROD LOOBEEK: Yeah, this is the story of the games. Yeah. The fact that it's always so exciting when a country wins their first Olympic medal, and you expect that when it happens, it's just going to be the one in the games of like, okay, they broke the drought, they got one. And then maybe, who knows, like, how long we're going to be waiting till they get another. For a first time country to get three medals in the same Olympics kind of out of nowhere is just so exciting. And the fact that it's Sam Marino and has that tied to Eurovision as well. And just it's just such a fun country in Eurovision. And the fact that they broke through like at these Olympics is just it's perfect. I love how you said on the episode yesterday that these Olympics have been great because we had so many like first time countries winning medals, which is true. It feels like it's been more spread out than than Olympics in the past, and a lot of surprise medals here and there. So, yeah, it's just it's been it's been a great games from that point of view.
BEN WATERWORTH: Sam Marino has a population of 33,000 people. To put that into context, India, a country with a population of about one and a half billion people, has only won two more medals than Sam Marino. So, yeah, absolutely crazy. It'd be interesting to sort of check the stat books and see how many. So 89 countries have won medals at these Olympics. So I'm not sure what the record is, but yeah, absolutely incredible. And I'm glad to see that the Americans winning silver are more excited than the Jamaicans winning gold. So we've lost the same bolt, haven't we? We miss the same bolt. These Jamaican girls must hate each other, clearly. So other results today, just while we've still got a couple going on, of course. The men's 5000 metres, as I said, Canada got the silver, it was gold. To Joshua Chaptagay of Uganda, bronze went to the US. The 50k walk, as we said, Off The Podiums, Evan Dumphy got bronze. While Dawid Tomala of Poland took the gold ahead of Germany's Jonathan Hilbert. Women's 400, Shawnee Mila Ayobu, back-to-back gold for her from the Bahamas. Silver to Dominican Republic's Mariladie Polino and Alison Felix, her 10th Olympic medal, most decorated female athlete of all time in athletics from the US. Great result there. Her name might come up later on today in the episode, who knows. The women's 1500 metres, Faith Kipagon of Kenya in the Olympic record ahead of Britain's Laura Muir and Netherlands Safan Hassan, 20k walk, went to Italy, Antonio Palamissiano. Silver to Colombia, bronze to China, and the women's javelin, as we just talked about, Kelsie Lee Barber, our world champion, bronze for Australia. It was gold to China's Shi Yinglu, and Poland got the silver in that one. Now in the boxing, wow, the Cubans are still on fire. Julio Cisaya La Cruz took the gold in the men's heavyweight ahead of rock. And of course, that was one that David Nyikko got the bronze for New Zealand, as well as Brazil getting the other bronze in that one. Cycling, the Dutch got the men's sprint with Harry Laverson against his own teammate, Jeffrey Hoegland. Gold and silver and bronze went to Britain. Britain got the women's Madison ahead of Denmark and rock. Field hockey, the Dutch women got the gold ahead of the Argentinians. And Britain, it couldn't be double bronze, sadly, for India. That was a bit sad. But Britain got the bronze there. I could say the Indian PM still congratulated the women on getting fourth. So good work there for India. They've had a great games in hockey. US, as we know, got the bronze in the soccer yesterday. We know that it's Canada's. We had any thoughts on the Matildas, Jarrod? I mean, still obviously great fourth. And we should have mentioned Sam Kerr is now officially the highest ever scorer in women's football in Australia.
JARROD LOOBEEK: Yeah, I think it was a great result. There was obviously a lot of hype to live up to that they've kind of generated over the past couple of years to the fact that they're able to get their best result to make the semis and to put in a really credible effort against the US too, because I feel like the US easily could have run away with that game the way it was going. And the fact that we kept it to just a one goal loss was really impressive.
BEN WATERWORTH: I have to say, as much as Australians whinge at referee calls, I did catch the controversy at the end there where the referee basically didn't add extra time on to the additional time when there was all this controversy. That was a bit bullshit. I'll jump on the Australian complaining for that one. Karate, which I want to get your thoughts on to see if you've watched any of it. The men's 75 kilos went to Italy. Luigi Bussard took the gold ahead of Azerbaijan, Hungary and Ukraine, got the bronzes there, and the men's kata. Is this the first Japanese gold? Because I feel Japanese should win this all the time, shouldn't they? Gold in the men's kata to Rio Kiuna ahead of Spain and the US and Turkey. I think that would be the US's first ever karate medal. And I've got an answer to our stat from yesterday too, the question I posed about sports the USA have never won medals in. I'll get to that shortly. Women's 61 kilos went to Serbia, Jovana Perekovic ahead of China and Egypt and Turkey got the bronzes there. Modern pentathlon, oh, I've been watching this all day. I've got lots of stories to talk about this. But gold to Britain, of course it had to be frickin Britain taking Chloe's title. Kate French took it. And not only that, she beat Chloe's Olympic record. Screw you, Kate French. Congratulations on the gold though. Silver to Laura Azades, I heard her name pronounced about 50 times today, but I'm not even gonna get there. Lithuania became the first ever modern pentathlete female athlete to win two medals in the sport. So her name might come out later on today as a possible nominee for something. And bronze went to the happy Hungarians. Sport climbing, it was Slovenia taking the gold and the women's combined. Janya Garnbret, ahead of Japan and Japan. Table tennis, China took the men's team, surprise, surprise. Germany, the silver and Japan, the bronze. You may hear some more table tennis very shortly in our commentary segment. Volleyball, as we know, gold went to the US with Australia getting the silver. And Switzerland, the great beach and volleyball nation of Switzerland, took the bronze. And in the wrestling, it was gold to Rox Zorobik Sidakov in the men's freestyle, 74 kilos ahead of Belarus, it was Uzbekistan in the US. In the men's freestyle, 125 kilos. Gold to the US, Gable Stevenson. What a name, Gable Stevenson. Sounds like a Bond villain. Took the gold ahead of Georgia, and bronze went to Iran and Turkey, while in the women's freestyle, 53 kilos. Mayu Mukeda from Japan ahead of China, Belarus, and Mongolia. Before I get the medal table up, Jarrod, have you caught any of the karate? And what did you think of the karate?
JARROD LOOBEEK: I caught a little bit of the karate. My biggest question was, I only saw the one match about whatever it's called. Is it normal that they yell so much in the karate? Just on every hit or punch? Or it just happened to be the match that I was watching? These two women were just screaming at each other.
BEN WATERWORTH: I saw a bit of yelling. I'm guessing it's a bit common. But the one I saw today, the Aussie, didn't do very well. But at one point, he got his competitor on the ground. And apparently, you'll have to punch him while they're down, because as he was on the ground, he led in and led in a couple of punches. If that's how this sport works, maybe I need to watch more of it. Kick him while they're down. Literally, it was great.
JARROD LOOBEEK: It's enough that the commentators would be happy with that. I was listening to the commentary, and it was actually quite nice, because they were doing a lot of explaining the sport and how it worked, which was good, because they just had no idea. But they kept going on about how, and this is not when they're not trying to injure the opponent or get in a strong hit. It's more about the technique and form here. So it's more about grazing the opponent with the strike. I'm like, what is this? No, hit them as hard as you can. Where's the knockout as a last resort?
BEN WATERWORTH: Actually, I think the commentary for that, I think they're the same taekwondo guys I was trying to tell you about with the greats. And it's a Scottish guy. I think he was the one who was doing the great sort of, you know, all the puns and everything the other night. So I don't think he was quite on form in the karate, but, yeah, it's sad. It's sad that this is kind of it for the Olympics, because, I mean, it's much better than skateboarding. So anyway, the medal table, as of right now, we'll see again with at least, what, one more to go, or two more with the soccer and the men's 4x1. So China, I've got to say, China's probably secured it now, the top there. Five gold ahead, although we've got lots of gold being decided tomorrow, so I guess plenty still can happen for the US. 36 gold, 26 silver, 17 bronze for China, 79. The US are only two medals away from getting that 100. 31 gold, 36 silver, 31 bronze, 98 in total. Japan, 24 gold, 11 silver, 16 bronze, 51 in total. It's their most successful Olympics ever. Congratulations, Japan. Sadly for Australia, the inevitable has happened. We've fallen from fourth and fifth. Australia dropped to sixth. I'll get to that in a minute, but Britain have jumped up into fourth. 18 gold, 19 silver, 20 bronze, 57 in total. ROK, 17 gold, 23 silver, 22 bronze, 62 in total. Australia, six, 17 gold, six silver, 21 bronze, 44. We're about 10 away from our 54 projection, Jarrod, but the Boomers can get this bronze. Then 45, nine away, not too bad. We'll take that. Canada, 15th, five gold, six silver, nine bronze. We're obviously waiting for the four by one men, so a good shot at another medal here for Canada. With no US, it'll be interesting. Of course, if they get the gold here in the soccer, it's still one-all with three minutes to go. They could jump up to seven, and if they were to get to seven tonight, that would move them in above New Zealand, because they've won more bronzes. So no pressure, Canada. Art rivals New Zealand going on there. Before I go through some Australia and Canada results, why don't we ask, what did we watch today? Jarrod, get this one done with for the day.
JARROD LOOBEEK: I caught a bit of both the walks, which was great to see the Aussies do so well in both of those. And I think they mentioned some said about the men's, the fact that I think we finished in the top 10, every racewalk since Atlanta or something like that, which I thought was impressive. And then outside of that, the rhythmic gymnastics caught a bit of that.
BEN WATERWORTH: He would love that. You were messing with us today. The real Olympics have begun.
JARROD LOOBEEK: It's so good. It's just such a random combination of things. It's just so good to be able to see all these different types of disciplines. Obviously, a bit of the field events, the javelin, some track events as well. And then I did see, I did see the Mon and Pentathlon as well. I made a point of watching that because I just love that finish. That's what I was going to, like, I like that the decathlon is point space, but I would almost love if the decathlon had the same end, that they're all spaced out on the track, because it was very hard to tell. Although that did add to the excitement yesterday, hard to tell, like, he's got to finish within a certain time with these people, but, like, not knowing each person's time as they cross, like, having to wait as well. But I just love that format of them being spaced out based on their previous adults and them having to run people down who are ahead of them. I think it's just, it's great to watch.
BEN WATERWORTH: Yeah, I agree. And they always bring up Chloe, because why wouldn't we? I mean, that's kind of what she got famously winning that in Rio. But the thing that I loved about the modern pentathlon, they went all out for the stadium experience. I don't think they usually do this. I think generally they kind of share it around the venue. So they'll have the swimming in the aquatic centre. They'll have the equestrian at the equestrian park, things like that. They literally, at a stadium, had everything under one roof. You had a custom built pool in the corner. You had like a fencing little stadium thing with like inflatable arches above it. You had a show jumping course, and then the running was around the show jumping with the shooting in the middle of it. That was brilliant. I'll tell you one thing, if they do that in Brisbane, do that at Suncorp, do that at the Gabba, do that down in Metricon. I'm buying front row tickets for that. That's a fantastic idea.
JARROD LOOBEEK: Yeah, and I think that is the kind of preferred format moving forward. I feel like I read that somewhere. So yeah, I just think it's so cool to see all of the, like you say, all of the apparatus in like the one venue, the swimming pool, the fact that there's a swimming pool in there as well, it's just so good.
BEN WATERWORTH: Just all those long shots they kept showing where it was just like, here's this fricking pool sitting in the corner, just like ready to go. That would have been epic to see if like crowds were allowed. Like would they sold that stadium out? Like imagine you got like a nosebleed, what do you got? Oh, modern-men Tathlons. Oh, which event? All of them. They're all in the one stadium. Like get on board with it. Ah, so good. And I'm still wearing the shirt because I'm glad I bought this one basically. Yeah, I caught a lot of the modern-men Tathlons. I mainly watched the majority of that today. I watched the boxing. I watched Harry fight. I actually missed the beach volleyball this morning, but I kind of wasn't very... I wasn't feeling it very well for Harry.
JARROD LOOBEEK: I wasn't very close in the beach volleyball either. It was a bit kind of a let down. We did kind of stage a bit of a comeback, but it was bad. I think we were up 2-0 in the second set, and next thing you know, we were down 10-2, so it just wasn't their day.
BEN WATERWORTH: I think beating Canada was our gold medal. I think anything from that was a bonus, because they were not talked about at all, I think, for a medal chance, were they? And Harry, I will say, Harry's so humble in defeat. He was basically almost talking about how he was so excited to fight him, because he'd been looking at this guy for years. I mean, he got dominated. It wasn't even a chance there. And Harry's so humble. It wasn't like one of these ones with the boxes, even when they've clearly lost. They're like, oh yeah, I've definitely won. He was clapping this guy, basically, knowing that he'd won. Yeah, I mainly watched the modern pentathlon today. I just had that on basically all day in the background. So a bit of the diving, a bit of the cycling, mainly athletics tonight. And obviously I've seen a bit of the soccer out of the corner from my eye right now. And a bit of the karate. We are 90 minutes plus 90 seconds of additional time. Still one all here. Sweden are pushing into attack with the last disc. Last dish, ditch, that's the word I'm looking for. Effort to try and get something here now. So I might just keep this on here for the final two minutes because the four by one won't start before that. Yeah, I'm going to save the results very short because that will take a bit of time. Let's go to the commentary right now. Colin and I again, Colin and Jarrod don't want to be in the same room to each other. We watched some table tennis because, you know, it's a fun sport and we wanted to commentate on it. So here's Colin and I commentating table tennis. Yes, welcome to the Tokyo Metropolitan Gymnasium for the event that everybody in table tennis has been talking about for five years. It is the matchup between bitter, bitter table tennis rivals, Japan and Sweden. We are deep into this match, and we're about to see the third and final set. But to talk about this and get ourselves even more excited for this, it's 1984 table tennis, 87th place finisher Colin Hilding. Colin, first of all, welcome back. It's a pleasure to have you here in the commentary box.
COLIN HILDING: Always thrilled to be here for the epic battle between tables and tennis.
BEN WATERWORTH: Always, always a battle between those two apparatuses. We've got Koki Niwa of Japan here wiping his face, getting the sweat off the brow, ready to go up against his bitter rival from Sweden, Matthias Falk. Now, Colin, you talk about bitter rivals in sport. You think of the Red Sox and the Yankees, the Leafs and the Canadians, Canada and USA, Australia versus New Zealand, but you think of Sweden and Japan, the number one, don't you?
COLIN HILDING: I mean, if it's not number one, it's second behind Lubick and Waterworth.
BEN WATERWORTH: Oh, so much so, as we're seeing right now, the third set beginning, of course. Niwa is leading this one, two sets of love. This is a team competition, and if Japan win this, they will move through to the semifinal, and oh, what a shot there for Niwa. That's a Niwa special, isn't it, Colin?
COLIN HILDING: I think that he may have greased that ball a little bit with his brow sweat. Debatable whether it's a legal move or not, but we'll see how the judges rule on this by the end.
BEN WATERWORTH: Of course, it's first to 11, and first to 11 gets to pants the other competitor as well.
COLIN HILDING: Look at this Swede just spat on the ball.
BEN WATERWORTH: Wow.
COLIN HILDING: He's like, I raise your sweat with my saliva.
BEN WATERWORTH: Very traditional Swedish table tennis move there. As you see, the spit there just fly off the ball, and as he tried to flick it back there, Niwa says, no, I will not take your spit. I prefer to swallow, and he does exactly that, and the ball bounces off the table. Three-nothing Japan here, Colin. Can the Swedes come back as he sips on the Swedish special sauce?
COLIN HILDING: Yeah, well, you know, and the coach is wearing a mask because he knows the saliva is all over the place. You don't want to run any risks with COVID wandering around the athletes' village. We got spit, we got sweat. It's just very unsanitary here. Let's give him a lecture about it right now.
BEN WATERWORTH: I do believe the Swedish special sauce is otherwise known as Waterloo, of course, named after the very famous song by that Swedish band that some people have heard of. But I also believe you have to construct it with pieces bought at IKEA before you can drink the Swedish special sauce.
COLIN HILDING: Well, also, little known fact, the Swedish table tennis player here also is built from pieces from IKEA.
BEN WATERWORTH: Wow, that's fantastic. In fact, Colin Hilding with the Facts area, remember to tweet us at hashtag ColinFacts if you've got any that you want to read out. Now, interesting move here from Niwa, just bowing to the judges to say, look, I'm going to win this, and he nods and says that was a good bow. Gets a bit more spit on the fingers and wipes the snow.
COLIN HILDING: There's a little bit of snot this time.
BEN WATERWORTH: Yeah, he likes the liquid there, but a 3-0 lead here in the third set. Do you think the Swedish special sauce will help Matthias here as he gets ready to kind of go for this little flick spit serve that he's going through, about to go through now?
COLIN HILDING: Well, I think he's got a full spit drool there that he just labelled the paddle with there. Oh, and it's working for him.
BEN WATERWORTH: Working if he wants to lose a match 4-0 now for Niwa. And he just eyes his opponents, bounces the ball on the ground, which is an interesting move. The table's in front of you, Niwa, but he goes for the ground instead. He pings. He pongs. He pings. He pongs. Oh, it's off. It's ponged. It's ponged. It's very pongy there from Matthias.
COLIN HILDING: Ponged right to the floor. There was some authority with that swing.
BEN WATERWORTH: The Swedes love it. He ponged all over that one. Now for Japan. The ping. The pong. The ping. The pong. Oh, the pong from Sweden again. It's got some stench on it, Colin Hilding. It smells like Swedish meatballs. What a shot there from Fout.
COLIN HILDING: I can smell it all the way over here, and it's making me hungry.
BEN WATERWORTH: I have not seen Swedish action like that since Pierce Brosnan in Mamma Mia. My goodness me. 4-2 now. Sorry. Sorry. That's a dark moment in Swedish history. Matthias got 2 points back now.
COLIN HILDING: What can he do? You know what? He's changing it up here. You can tell by the form. He's going for the pong to the ping, not the ping to the pong.
BEN WATERWORTH: Oh, you're right.
COLIN HILDING: Pong to the ping.
BEN WATERWORTH: Pong to the ping.
COLIN HILDING: Oh. Well, there goes that strategy.
BEN WATERWORTH: Speechless. Speechless. When you flick the pong up to the ping, Japan are going to ping on that pong straight away, and he did immediately. That's what makes Niwa so good at this sport, Colin Hilding.
COLIN HILDING: I think I just ponged in my pants watching that exchange. Wow.
BEN WATERWORTH: Didn't we all? All right, now what's he going to flicks up? Well, I think he's going to table the tennis instead now. He tables. Oh, tennis. Table. Tennis. Table. Oh, no. Too much table on that tennis.
COLIN HILDING: I think he took one on the eye.
BEN WATERWORTH: He did, I think. I think you picked up on that one, Colin. But as we know in Sweden, it just takes a bit of instructions, and you can just put it back in there. So he's whipped out the Swedish instructions, and oh, there you go. Flat packed it back up. Great work there.
COLIN HILDING: Are we positive that's the ball and not the Swedes eye?
BEN WATERWORTH: Well, I don't know. There's a bit of blood on the table there.
COLIN HILDING: Oh.
BEN WATERWORTH: And so Japan are clapping the blood. They like the blood, the Japanese sea blood here, Colin. They're like sharks in the water.
COLIN HILDING: Table tennis death match.
BEN WATERWORTH: Wow, this got personal. Niwa wipes his snot back on the ball. He bounces an eye. I can see the eye there. Now, will this help Matthias? Because maybe he can see a little bit better when he hits himself on the racket. Oh, he's on his butt.
COLIN HILDING: Oh, no, look at this. He's lost his balance. He has vertigo or something.
BEN WATERWORTH: Well, when you're playing with one eye, that often happens. He's on the ground now.
COLIN HILDING: Yes.
BEN WATERWORTH: Now, he's playing with his shoelace. Now, that is an injured shoelace that he has held throughout this tournament. Now, take a look here as he falls on his butt. Just there, he goes, oh, no, as you said, vertigo. And oh, no, it's that shoelace injury. That's not looking good for him as he just goes back on. Oh, no.
COLIN HILDING: He wanted to tape the shoelace up with rock tape, but there's been a lot of controversy at these Olympics about injuries and rock tape.
BEN WATERWORTH: Yes, because we know that a lot of the rock tape are still waiting their positive or negative drug test results. So they may not or may not be legal to do that. Now we've got the change of ends here. So the more Swedish sauce. What's what's Neewa drinking here? What's the the juice of choice when it comes for Japanese table tennis athletes?
COLIN HILDING: So that's replacement saliva from the coaches that they've supplied. It is drying up in the mouth right now. So they do need more saliva often brought in from the outside.
BEN WATERWORTH: Interesting strategy there. Now it's interesting here to see Matthias not going for the replacement eyeball, instead he's going for the saliva on the racket here. Is it a racket or a paddle cone? I always get my terminologies confused in the ball sports with tennis in them.
COLIN HILDING: I think we could just err on the safe side and call it a packet.
BEN WATERWORTH: Right. I'll go with that. Of course, we haven't seen a packet hitter as good as the great F Gump, who took on China all those years ago. Now, Matthias, one-eyed Matthias, just in the steeps of history. Now, he pings it, he pongs, he pings, he pongs. Oh, he pongs it back, he pings it. Oh, the sweep over, pong on the ping.
COLIN HILDING: That was a double pong.
BEN WATERWORTH: Goodness me.
COLIN HILDING: And I think he may have locked this up.
BEN WATERWORTH: 8-3, he's pulled a point back. This is the closest Sweden have ever been to Japan in a game of table tennis at the Olympics in history. We are seeing history in front of us right now as he pings, he pongs, he pings, he pongs. Double ping, and he misses it.
COLIN HILDING: He took it across, and look at it, the Japanese did not even sell that.
BEN WATERWORTH: Oh, my goodness. The blood that got sniffed before, and now Japan moved two points away from a semi-final spot in this team event. Matthias can't believe it. The double pong, it's his special move. He's been practising that so much, Colin. He'll be regretting that for the rest of his life.
COLIN HILDING: Yeah, you know what, bad things happen when you're playing with one eye.
BEN WATERWORTH: Oh, well, you'd think that Niwa had one eye there, because I think he tried to aim that for another table in the set next to him there, but the Swedes love it.
COLIN HILDING: He was aiming for the coaches, saying, you know what, this alive is not doing me any favours.
BEN WATERWORTH: Niwa is going to tennis this one up. Tennis, table, tennis, table. Oh, and he's missed the table, Matthias. And you know what that means, Colin, that's six match points, which you know what that means. We're going to play this sound. Niwa bring it on. Wow. I do love a good Gobbly Gook. This is exciting now. Japan with the Gobbly Gook chance for the first time. Matthias serves. Back to Niwa. Oh, and Matthias has pulled one back. He's prevented the first Gobbly Gook point.
COLIN HILDING: And see, interesting strategy. He's now oiling up his forearms with the sweat. He may be ditching the packet altogether and just playing this all with his hands and arms.
BEN WATERWORTH: Now, what is the purpose behind that? Does that bring him some strategy to prevent the Gobbly Gook? I mean, at what point does that really help him along the way here?
COLIN HILDING: It's all mind games. It's just saying to your opponent, look at me, I own you. I don't even need a paddle, a racket or a packet. I can do this all on my own. See, and they brought in new saliva. He looks happier with this one. It's a little more chilled.
BEN WATERWORTH: Definitely. Another great Colin Hilding fact. Hashtag Colin Facts. Now, 10-5 here in the third. Of course, Niwa took the first 12-10, and 11-5. Now, Matthias here.
COLIN HILDING: Oh, look at that. They are playing against the clock. We got 31 seconds left before the nuke detonates. Who will cut the blue wire?
BEN WATERWORTH: I don't know. That's usually Matthias' job, but he's got one eye, Colin. I don't know. This could be dangerous. We've got gobbledygooks.
COLIN HILDING: We've got nukes. Will he be able to determine the colour with one eye?
BEN WATERWORTH: I don't know. Tell you what, Colin, I mean...
COLIN HILDING: I'm actually regretting coming in to the studio to record this year today, because we are very close to that table and that nuke.
BEN WATERWORTH: Well, look, at the end of the day, we're all going to go out some way. What better way to go out when you've got gobbledygooks and one-eyed table tennis players around us? I mean, I was just about to say, I mean, look at the crowd here just going off, and the kids around the... The kids love table tennis, Colin, don't they?
COLIN HILDING: This is what they're here for, yeah. You know what? There will be, combining in Paris, table tennis and break dancing. That's going to be the new sport. You think the kids are going crazy here. Wait till you get break table tennis.
BEN WATERWORTH: Breaking news from Tokyo today as we got the final point. Possibly here's pings the pong. The pong back to ping.
COLIN HILDING: Oh, what a pong! Oh, my goodness! From about 45 feet away. Jeez.
BEN WATERWORTH: He's within four now, Matthias.
COLIN HILDING: This is...
BEN WATERWORTH: Stockholm's going off. I haven't seen them go off this bad since their last one, Eurovision. This is incredible. He saved another gobblegook. What can Niwa do here? He pongs, he pings, he pongs, he pings! It's in the air! It's over!
COLIN HILDING: Oh, victory for Japan! Listen to the victory music!
BEN WATERWORTH: Japan are through to the semis. Niwa, look at the emotion on this young kid's face. He is going off, Colin Hilding.
COLIN HILDING: Proving once and for all, two eyes beats one. And proving once and for all, if the Japanese throw a nuke out there, you better watch out.
BEN WATERWORTH: Oh, you better watch out. You better not cry. You better not shout. I'm telling you why. Japan are coming to the semifinals. And what sportsmanship here from the Swedes coming up to the Japanese. We know they hate each other. That nuclear bomb was set deliberately by the Swedes. They wanted to bring back Nagasaki. They wanted to bring back Hiroshima. But Japan stood up firm and said, No, this is not 1945. This is 2020. And we are going to stand up to this. And they have done it big time here in Tokyo, Colin Hilding. The home crowd are going off.
COLIN HILDING: Not on their watch. This is all Japan right now. This will be the headline story at the end of these games. Forget about Naomi choking. Forget about treadmills. It's all the table tennis as they move on to the semifinals. They're pretty much guaranteed a medal at this point. I mean, let's just say it.
BEN WATERWORTH: Look, I'm going to say this right now, Colin. It's something that people haven't been wanting to say, but I'm going to be the first to say it. Koki Niwa was robbed of lighting the cauldron at the opening ceremony. Let's be honest. He's relieved all the pressure. Naomi couldn't deal with the pressure. She's done. But he did. And look at this performance. Absolutely. I'm the only one of his teammates to go three donut. And look at that. Doesn't even need to have his teammate play. That's how much he cares about his team. He cares about his country. He stops nuclear bombs. He gets the spit on everything. And what a man. What a man. My man of the Olympics, Colin Hilding. Bring him up here. I want to give him a lick. I want to give him a lick all over.
COLIN HILDING: Niwa, come here. Come here. You have anything to save? Here, Niwa. Oh, it doesn't work well with the mask. You can come back later when you can unmask.
BEN WATERWORTH: Let me lick that man later on. But right now, we're going to lick ourselves back to the Off The Podium studio, because that's all we've got time for today. It's back to Ben and Colin and maybe Jarrod. Wow, I didn't know that the pings and the pongs were so prominent in that sport, Jarrod. So that was exciting. Have you ever watched Table Tennis Live before?
JARROD LOOBEEK: I've watched a bit. I did see a couple of days ago, like when the Aussie men got knocked out, and one of the players just chucked his paddle across the room. I was waiting for the call of racket abuse, but evidently no rules in Table Tennis surrounding that.
BEN WATERWORTH: It was one of the sports I was lucky to see live at the Commonwealth Games because the boxing where that was at Movie World was at the same site. You had squash and Table Tennis, so in between sessions of boxing, I could just go in and watch it. And I often enjoyed watching it because you kind of got the three or four courts in front of you, so you kind of choose which one you're watching. And I got to see Badminton too. So all those sports, kind of those like I love tennis. I'm like you. I absolutely adore tennis. But I mean, some of those sports are kind of very interesting to watch. And squash, too, is actually weirdly entertaining as well. So I know you're a big advocate for squash becoming an Olympic sport, Jarrod. So have you ever seen squash live or play squash?
JARROD LOOBEEK: It should be back. It should be back. Like, just bring it back. Bring back all the sports.
BEN WATERWORTH: Yeah, skateboarding, bringing squash, bringing squash, skateboarding, kick it out, bringing cricket, which is a big chance. I think they're actually talking about really bringing that in for LA, like not even Brisbane. Like it could already be on the cards for LA, which is a unique one. But it'll be interesting to see here. There's about 10 seconds ago here of additional time. The referee is looking at a watch. Are they going to blow it here? It's right in the centre of the pitch. You're going to have to blow the whistle here, love. Yep. Oh, no, they're letting Sweden have one more attack. No, they're blowing the whistle. Extra time for the gold medal. I do like Channel 7's go-to now is, oh, let's just do what they do in the high jump and share the medal. Like that's what they wanted to do in the hockey, which, you know, yes, no, maybe. All right, OK, before we get, we've got the four by ones about to start now. No USA in this event, Jarrod. And of course, Jamaica, Johan Blake's running. He didn't run any of the individuals, did he? But he's in the relay team. So DeGrasse has got he's got he's got rid of the gold glasses because he's won the gold. So all right. Are you excited for this? This is an Off The Podium medal. This is a Ben Waterworth medal being the medal drought for Ben Waterworth. It's my last chance. Literally my last chance.
JARROD LOOBEEK: I am excited. I feel like watching all the like the heats of this, the changeovers were so bad, I'm just excited to see if they can improve. Some of them were just like horrible.
BEN WATERWORTH: I think I mentioned last night, I enjoy the athletics relays more than the swimming. There's just something about them. That's just fun. And we kind of bring sort of commentary to this, but not really commentary. Their butts are in the air. They're off. All right. Canada are in lane six, Jamaica lane five. And you can never tell who's winning these around the bend. But Canada's got the baton. That's good. They haven't dropped it. That's a good start. All right. I don't know which Canadian's got it. Yep. I think Degrass would be last, no doubt. And they still got the baton. That's good. They're coming in the bend here. They're looking good, Canada. Looks like Britain are in front right now. Not Britain. Don't give Britain another freaking gold. Oh, all right. This is the last one. Degrass is marching him down. Britain's going to win this. It's Italy. Italy's going to win another gold in this goddamn event. And China's... Oh, Canada's got bronze. Ben Waterworth's got a medal, initially.
JARROD LOOBEEK: It's finished.
COLIN HILDING: What the hell?
BEN WATERWORTH: Italy winning this. Stop it. I can't have Italy keep winning medals in sprinting.
JARROD LOOBEEK: Well, you know, when you got the fastest man in the world.
BEN WATERWORTH: I mean, in all seriousness, Britain got prevented. And I think Canada pipped the bronze there. So Degrass is 100% still. We talked about that last night. He's six from six, so he's equal second now in the history of great Canadian medallists. Hundred percent, if you don't mind. And that means that Ben Waterworth has an athlete who got a medal. Brendan Rodney's got a medal. Yes. Colin Hilding's had a great game, though. Three to Kylie, one to Evan, one to Aaron. Five medals. Britain are choking each other there.
JARROD LOOBEEK: If you want people to win, who to send them to?
BEN WATERWORTH: Well, I mean, the Australians are not looking too well for Ben. We'll see how that goes for the winter. But holy crap balls, Italy. Who knew they could run so fast? I'm just waiting for confirmation. DeGrasse is looking up. The Brits are choking each other still. I don't get this choking of the Brits. Did the women, the women got a bronze. So the good sprinting from the Brits shouldn't be praising it. And this Italian guy is happy. Look at him. And is he crying, the other Italian? He is. Oh, look at him. Oh, he's going to break down. Oh, don't you love to see it? This is great, great podcasting right now, obviously. Oh, they've got packets. There we go. There's the flags. Did you see that? They've got packets. They've just gone down to the reject shop.
JARROD LOOBEEK: That's why they have an extra stripe on the Union Jack.
BEN WATERWORTH: Yeah, they've just gone down to the local store. Now just wait, what's the last change? Are they looking for an encroachment? The British guy nearly ran into the other lane. Is that what they're looking at there? Maybe Canada could get silver here if they are.
JARROD LOOBEEK: Disqualify them.
BEN WATERWORTH: Yeah, possibly. I'll tell you one thing, China came barnstorming home. Was that Zhu, the one who made the final the other day? But the Italian who won the 100, he didn't even run the last lane. That's ballsy by Italy. So this last guy, where was he? And Jamaica hasn't even medaled. That's crazy. Look at China mow down Jamaica. Degrass, he just has that extra burn on him. And I think Degrass is well ahead of China there. So Canada, what are they waiting for? Canada's clearly got the bronze. And check out the bulge on Degrass. No wonder he wins so many medals. Holy crap, it's bouncing everywhere. I should have Jamie's listening. She'll be appreciating that. Jamaica got fifth, Jamaica got beaten by China. There you go. Canada with the bronze, Italy gold, Italy gold. I can't even, wow. All right. Well, Off The Podium has won two medals today. Good job. Meanwhile, the soccer, I think we're still in the intermission. So anyway, all right. So Canada's added a couple of medals to the tally tonight. That's good. So outside of that, results for them. Obviously, the women are playing right now. I should say Matthew Bilodeau in the walk finished 45th. And also, this was Canada's first ever medal in the 50k walk for Evan Dumphy there. So congratulations to him. We already said Mo Ahmed got the silver tonight. Now Gabriella de Bustafford was about, what, 7th or 8th in the 1500? Has this updated itself? No, it hasn't. In the canoe kayak, Lawrence Vincent LaPointe, after winning a silver medal yesterday, she was in the C2 500 with Katie Vincent, and they are through to the semi-finals. Roland Vaga and Connor Fitzpatrick were in the C1 1000 metres. Vaga did not make it through the quarterfinals, but Fitzpatrick is into the semi-finals, and Canada did not get through in the K4 500 metres or the K4 500 for men and women. Laurean Jeunesse and Kelsey Mitchell were back in the sprint, and they are through to the quarterfinals. Both of them. There you go. Congratulations to them. Artistic swimming, one of our favourites. Great sport. Of course, Claudia Holzner and Jacqueline Simonneau got fifth in the duet, and they are currently sitting fifth in the team technical routine, so good for them. In the 10-metre platform diving, Nathan Zomber-Murray was fifth and is through to the semis, while Rylan Vens did not make it through. Golf, Brooke Henderson is in 40th, and Alaina Sharp is in 44th. And in wrestling, the last Canadian was Jordan Steen in the men's 97 kilos, and he had to go up against the reigning Olympic champion of Kyle Snyder, and he lost. So sadly, that is how Canada's day, but I mean, they've won a silver and two bronzes today, and they're right now pushing through an attack in the soccer, they're on a very good run here. Here's an opportunity, and she shanked it big time. Okay, she must play for Australia. I don't know. Another medal is coming for Canada here. We just got to wait and see what colour it is. For Australia, in the modern pentathlon, sadly, it wasn't back to back gold. Marina Carrier, she was 27th. I think she was about 10th before the run wasn't.
JARROD LOOBEEK: She didn't have a good laser tag leg or whatever it's called.
BEN WATERWORTH: I love how it's called laser, laser sprint or whatever it is.
JARROD LOOBEEK: Laser run.
BEN WATERWORTH: Laser run. Like, that's actually what it's called, fantastic way of calling it. So there you go. So sadly, couldn't back up with the Chloe there. In rhythmic, Jarrod's final favourite sport, Lydia Lakalova was 23rd and did not progress through. In the canoe kayak, in the women's K4 500, Australia is through to the semifinals. And as we should mention, Lisa Carrington also through to the semifinals with New Zealand. So on chance to win a fourth medal, fantastic, good for her. In the women's C2 500, Australia did not progress through to the semifinals in that one. In the K4 500, Australia did and will be in the semifinals up against Canada too in their same semifinal. In the men's C1 1000, Australia did not have a boat in that one. So we do not need to talk about that, apparently. In the golf, we talk about a sneaky bronze for the boomers. We should really talk about a sneaky possible bronze for Hannah Green, currently in a four-way tie for third, but there's some weather in Tokyo at the moment, which could prevent this from even happening tomorrow. So lots of rain predicted, which are a lot of rain in the modern pentathlon, but they're going to start early tomorrow. The real threat is lightning. They cannot have lightning in golf. They're scared of lightning, the golfers. So if they do call that off, I believe they will award four bronze medals there. So Hannah Green in a four-way tie, she's five shots off the lead, two shots off silver. Currently held by India, Adhika Ashok, and gold medal so far going to the US. So I mean, we'll take a sneaky bronze in golf, won't we, Jarrod?
JARROD LOOBEEK: Yeah, I'll be praying for rain.
BEN WATERWORTH: Yeah, bloody hell, go to golf. In Equestrian, we do not have a team in the jumping team, so we don't need to talk about that. Diving, Cassiel Rousseau is through to the semifinals after being eighth in the qualifiers. The TikTok guy, Samuel Fricke though, Jesus, they gave him some promotion in the last 24 hours. He dutted out 28th. There you go. And Tom Daley, for those wondering, he finished knitting his cardigan. See, he's knitting something else. I saw him on the diving today, but he's in fourth currently at the moment. So, good for Tom. In the cycling, Australia was seventh in the Madison. I believe we crashed, though, didn't we? We were fighting for a bronze, and I think I read a headline that we did crash out eventually on that one. So, unfortunate, but we'll take it. In the 1500 metres, we had Hull and Hall. Have we gotten around that one yet? With it, they seemed very happy with their performance, and their performance saw Hull finish in sixth, and Hall finish in eleventh. So great result there. And I will say, to correct myself, Gabriella Dubieu Stafford finished one spot ahead of Hull there. Fifth place. As we know, Kelsey Lebarba got the bronze in the javelin, but Catherine Mitchell got sixth, and Mackenzie Little got eighth. Apparently, that's the first time in any field event, men's or women's, that we've had three Australians finish in the top eight. So great result there. And you mentioned the walk before, the women's 20K. Jemima Montag was sixth. Great result there for Jemima. And our two other Aussies, Katie Haywood was 37th, and Rebecca Henderson was in 38th. And in the men's walk, we continue that top ten trend you mentioned about. Raidi and Cowley, eighth place there. Good for him. And that was our only competitor in that one. So, yes, Karate, I should mention. Why am I saying it like Ross? I feel like I'm talking like Ross from Friends here at the moment. I'm saying it like Nagi. Suneri, Yahiro lost all three of his bouts today, and I believe he's only our only Karate competitor. So there you go. And outside of that, we've talked about everything now. Sweden's got a corner here, and Canada has defended it very, very well. Now, before we get to Athlete of the Day, because that often takes up a bit of time, and well, you and I don't. It's that other one that does. I wanted to just go over a little question I posed yesterday to ourselves, the dominance of the US at the Olympics. I was wondering what sports they had never meddled in. Now, handball, I will say, is one of the ones I correctly guessed. There are five, six. One, two, three, four, no, five. There are five sports. Now, this doesn't include the new sports. So they've meddled in karate. I don't think they meddled in sport climbing, so you can count that. They meddled in skateboarding. They meddled in surfing, I think. Softball, they did, and they will in, well, baseball and softball, they've already meddled in. I'll double check on the surfing and skateboarding, but guess, outside of handball, can you guess the four other sports? That the US have never meddled in in the Olympics.
JARROD LOOBEEK: Yeah, are there any track events?
BEN WATERWORTH: No, so it's not that specific. It's sort of, one is specific, it's a certain type of one sport, and I'll be able to explain that. But no, I mean, I'm sure there are track events, I haven't, but they've not gone into specifics of saying they've never medaled in the high jump or something like that. Yeah.
JARROD LOOBEEK: Badminton?
BEN WATERWORTH: You are correct. Badminton is one of the sports the US had never medaled in.
JARROD LOOBEEK: Do we just go for a similar line then and say table tennis?
BEN WATERWORTH: You would be correct. Table tennis is another sport the US had never medaled in. So badminton, handball, table tennis. And just quickly, before you go on the two others, the US did medal in sports climbing, the US did medal in skateboarding, and the US did medal in surfing as well as karate. So good on you, US for being so dominant that you've even won in all of the new sports. So well done. I will say the other two, and this might give it away, fall under the same sport. They're two different types of the same sport. And the other one, they're very dominant in. That's a big clue. You'll kick yourself when you hear it.
JARROD LOOBEEK: Is this like some form of swimming?
BEN WATERWORTH: No, no. Gymnastics. They have never meddled in rhythmic gymnastics, and they have never meddled in trampoline, believe it or not. So, there you go. They're the five. And there's one winter sport. Jarrod, I was shocked with this one. Give me one winter sport you think the US have never meddled in, only one.
JARROD LOOBEEK: The, what's that called? The, is it like the ski, ski jump?
BEN WATERWORTH: No, they've meddled in ski jump, biathlon. They've never meddled in biathlon, which it's got a gun in it, America. Like, you can meddle in cross-country skiing, but you can't meddle in biathlon. Apparently, there was an athlete, I believe it might have been in Pyeongchang or Sochi. There was an American who was in a medal position, and basically they missed their last shot. And had they got their last shot, they would have won a medal. So, God, all the hopes of biathletes in the US fell on that one athlete's shoulder. That's fascinating. That's amazing. That is incredible. I can't think of another country. Maybe Russia. Maybe I'll have to look up Russia. But I mean, I don't think Russia's meddling in badminton. I don't think Russia's meddling in trampoline, yes. Obviously, rhythmic gymnastics, but handball maybe. But yeah, I mean, China, I can't imagine, would meddle in, well, but I mean, China's not gonna be meddling like some of these other sports. There's an episode for us. We'll do this. We'll try and find out in terms of medals won in all the sports. Who is the most successful? Athlete of the day. Now, Colin actually did not submit a nominee. So Colin, I think the only things you listen to on these episodes is you skip through to this. So you can't go off at us right now. I mean, in all seriousness, I will put up an honourable mention to André de Grasse because I'm sure he's yelling at us right now. André de Grasse, André de Grasse. In all seriousness, we probably should. I mean, 100%, six from six. I mean, the same bolt is not 100% at the Olympics. He didn't medal in Athens. So André de Grasse, better than the same bolt, let's be honest. But he's now won a gold, a silver and four bronzes. So pretty crazy there. So I'm just going to put an honourable mention to him because he wasn't on my list before. But Jarrod, who have you got today?
JARROD LOOBEEK: So my nominee comes from the Monpentathlon, and she has been mentioned. It is the Lithuanian Laura Azadeskaiti.
BEN WATERWORTH: How could you go?
JARROD LOOBEEK: Partly because she just has an amazing surname. But then other than that, the fact that she finished second when she went into this run in 13th, 52 seconds behind the leader, she holds the world record in the event. So you would assume she did great. But she was sprinting the whole time. It was incredible to watch. Her running form was a bit flaily arms weird. But she was going so fast. I couldn't believe it. The fact that she's done these other events beforehand, she just made everybody else look really slow. Even the girl who won, she made look slow.
BEN WATERWORTH: Yeah. No, look, I think we're going to give it to her today because she was my main one. The only other one I have, another modern pentathlete here as a potential. But I just want to give a nod to Alison Felix because I feel if Column wasn't nominating Andre de Grasse, she would nominate Alison Felix. Ten medals now she has won at the Olympic Games. Going back to Beijing, which is absolutely crazy. So she won the 200 metres in London. All her other golds have come in relays. But then you got to look, she won a silver. Actually, she goes back to Athens. It's even before that. So silver in Athens in the 200, silver in the 200 in Beijing, a silver in the 400 in Rio, and now a bronze in the 400 in Tokyo. The most decorated female athlete in athletics in the history of the sport. So such an amazing result there. But I mean, I'm agreeing with Laura, but I do want to give a special shout out to Anika Schlei, the German. Did you watch this? This was heartbreaking. She set an Olympic record in the, was it the fencing? I think she held like a massive, massive lead going into the show jumping section. And the horse wouldn't do anything. Like it wasn't even her fault. The horse would not move. It was just like standing there, and she is bawling her eyes out. She is absolutely in hysterics. She is whapping the shit out of this horse with the crop. And like, you could just see the frustration. It was really, really hard to watch. And then as she got it going, the horse finally got going, it then started off well. It was like, okay, like the horse is, you know, here we go. And then the horse at one point just completely smashed into one of the barriers, knocked everything off. The horse is called Saint Boy, by the way. And she like just, she was in absolute hysterics. Even the commentators, and we'll get to the commentary a bit in a moment, because I realised we skipped over that. Even she said, she was like, this is hard to watch. This is hard to commentate on. She apparently was fourth in Rio. And again, looking in such a great position, having set the Olympic record in fencing. So it was heartbreaking. It really was hard to watch. It was kind of like how we put up the rock sports climber the other day. But yeah, God, I mean, it's so hard to watch it.
JARROD LOOBEEK: Not even the, couldn't even blame it on the sumo wrestler gate that they have, the show jumping that wasn't here.
BEN WATERWORTH: I'm telling you now, based on the history of Germany, and I don't really want to use stereotypes here, but that horse is meat. That horse is dead. It's gonna be, I mean, they shoot a horse at the Melbourne Cup if it breaks a leg. I mean, this horse cost Germany a medal. Like, I'm sorry, St. Boyd, but you are St. Dead. Just, you know, put it out there, put it in the grinder, put the sumo in there. I mean, how else, you know, like, you can't do this to any other athletes at the games. I love horses, I love animals, but I'm saying it right now, St. Boyd, put it in the meat grinder.
JARROD LOOBEEK: I just want to add to, I don't know if you saw at the ending of the modern pentathlon, did you see that the person responsible for holding up the ribbon at the end?
BEN WATERWORTH: Yes.
JARROD LOOBEEK: The guy only just got like a cross before she made it through. I was not paying attention. One volunteer is holding one side and the other guy, you just see him like literally a second before she crossed, like run sprint in front of her so she could actually go through.
BEN WATERWORTH: I did note that down as something. I did see that. That was hilarious. I mean, this is a photo that you want on your wall for years to come. Katie Fred, she's like, oh, like this is a thing. What's she going to have? Like a half cocked volunteer going, fuck, put the ribbon up.
JARROD LOOBEEK: I see the blur of him running across as she's running through.
BEN WATERWORTH: Like the volunteers at these games have been brilliant. Like they really have been amazing doing their jobs and all these different stuff.
JARROD LOOBEEK: But this is she's let it down as much as as as St. Boy, like shoot the volunteer, put her in the meat grinder with St. Boy, you could imagine like so easily, though, being in that position, though, you get the job of holding up the ribbon and you're just standing there forever, having a chat to the other person on the other end. And next thing you know, you turn around and then, oh, quick.
BEN WATERWORTH: Yep.
JARROD LOOBEEK: Shit.
BEN WATERWORTH: There it is. My bad. Oh, well, it is half extra time in the gold medal match. It is still one all. So we're 15 minutes away from penalties. I feel we need to drag this out. I think we need to be on air if this goes to a penalty shootout, because why not? Commentary fails, moments, fun bits today. Jarrod again, Colin didn't send any in. So we're only being those pesky Australians today.
JARROD LOOBEEK: I didn't have much to add outside of just like the normal. It was just typical. Like there was a lot of hyping us up in the in the javelin, like beforehand in the lead up. And just today was frustrating that they just kept doing replays of sports. And it's like, I understand that there's kind of less on at the moment, but they've gotten a lot worse in terms of they're not showing anything live and pretending that it isn't just it's it's so frustrating that you just have to like resort to the app all the time. And you can't kind of like, don't get me wrong, the app's great that you can watch a sport from start to finish. But sometimes you do just want that. Okay, like what's happening? Give me like a little snippet of things around the ground that alive as they're happening. And you just couldn't get it on seven. It was just everything was not live. You'd already seen it before. You'd seen it on seven made, and then it was on seven. They had the same thing on the same time. It's just it's just gotten really bad as the games have gone along.
BEN WATERWORTH: Do you remember in Athens when SBS had they they came to some agreement with SBS? And this is obviously before digital channels, but they gave SBS a bunch of events. So you could actually watch like the handball would always be on and like vote, like random sports would just be on. And that was, I mean, look, as much as we bag out Channel 7, we got much of the app sucks. I mean, the fact that we can live in a world where we can jump on an app and watch any sport we want is pretty and for free, because I know when nine did that during London, you had to pay for it and it was through Foxtel. And then I believe back in Rio, you could get it for free with seven. And I paid like a $20 fee to get no ads, but they still put ads in it. This time around is literally completely free. So, I mean, good for them. But that SBS one during Athens, I remember that as being like groundbreaking because it was just fun to be able to like, yeah, you watch the Channel 7 coverage, but then all of a sudden you'd flick it over and just there was Les Murray hosting like, hey, let's cross now to the hand, like fucking Les Murray doing the Olympics. So I don't know if you remember that.
JARROD LOOBEEK: I do, and it was just, it's always nice. I think we've said before to see the sports that aren't traditionally televised. Like as soon as we don't have an Australian in something, they're not going to show it. And half the time, even if we do have an Australian in it, they won't show it. But yeah, that was kind of groundbreaking at the time that we would get to see these sports that we wouldn't normally get on the Olympic coverage.
BEN WATERWORTH: Yeah, I mean, you think back for like four years prior to that Sydney, you know, you'd think you would almost have a sort of a dedicated channel for that. But I mean, again, like you kind of, I mean, God, what's it going to be like in Brisbane? The technology will have an 11 years. So there you go. I've got a few to do today. And as always, it's kind of some fun moments here and there with it. So I want to give a special note to the US women's basketball team, because the way, like I'll give props to the commentators, the way they were talking it up, because they went out and said, are they the most dominant team in Olympic history? Because it's what now 55 games in a row they've won. They've not lost a match since Barcelona. I mean, that's insane. I mean, them and the Korean archery team are probably the most dominant teams out there. Yeah, it was absolutely crazy to kind of see that. I did like how during the boxing, they said that Kevin Smith is in Australia's corner. What is with Australia having all these athletes who are like famous Hollywood people? Kevin Smith, Tom Green, like are they out of work? And they just decided to kind of go out there and do that. I did like the commentator though, when Harry lost. Harry Garcide, when you look in the mirror tomorrow, you'll see a bronzed Aussie. Like, okay. As much as I praise the modern pentathlon commentators for kind of, you know, dealing with anarchists, some of the things they said there were a little bit odd. At one point there, there was something to do with the technical fault. So their line was, oh, technical fault. Nobody likes a technical fault. That's pretty standard there. I like that they said, horses in training can be difficult. They also feel adrenaline. So they love it when they're in the actual competition. Like, okay. Sure. The funniest one, though, probably came from the fact that when it started to rain, it was pissing down in that stadium. They showed this shot. It was bucketing down. And to which the commentator says, well, we hope the rain isn't too heavy. And then they said, if it is, the ground will be slippery. It was pissing down. It was like a typhoon or something was going on in that stadium at the time. And then you had some competitor was like, I think just on a horse riding around, waiting for it. They go, oh, well, she's having a shower. Hopefully enjoying being cooled off in a very heavy moment or something like that. I did like the boxing before the boxing for Harry's match. They cut to the ringside reporter, and he's all like, yes, thanks, Joe, we'll be here in 15 minutes. Harry's getting pumped up, history making moment. This is a great day for Australian boxing. Meanwhile, in the background, obviously a boxer must have gotten injured or something bad had happened because there was about 50 ambulance workers in the ring carrying somebody off on a stretcher. It looked pretty serious. You've got this Aussie going, oh, it's a great day for boxing. It's a great day for the, there's somebody dead behind him. I was pretty worried about that going on there. Yeah, other than that, oh yeah, I've written here, Tokyo organizers bad on the tape, which was pretty interesting and yeah, a bit of a dick moment for Dave Colbert, talking about Catherine Mitchell and Jaffelin, talking about how she was struggling. She was having a bit of a hard time. He literally said the words, oh, she's going to conjure something out of the ageing bones. I mean, I think he followed it up with, I'm sure she won't mind me saying that, but do you think that's the case, Jarrod? Is Catherine Mitchell going to watch that back? Oh, that's just Dave calling me old.
JARROD LOOBEEK: Yeah, I heard that as well and did like a double take, because the way that he said afterwards, oh, I know she won't mind me saying that. I'm like, are you guys friends outside of this? There just was no context. And I'm like, even if she doesn't, she says she doesn't mind you saying that, she probably does. It just wasn't like a very, I'm like, she's made the Olympic final. Just say, well, let's hope she can conjure something up special for this final throw. Like it just wasn't needed.
BEN WATERWORTH: One thing I want to add, I did have a bit of a laugh last night during Shinya, and I forgot to bring it up with Colin. Our athlete of the day yesterday, of course, was the Indian wrestler, and we talked about how he got bitten. And they were showing that on Shinya. And I love the little back and forth between Andy Marr and Andrew Gaze, because Andrew Gaze basically went on this rant where he said something along the lines of, oh, well, it's desperation. You need to do it sometimes. Andy Marr's like, are you trying to say you're pro-bachi guy, you Andrew? He's like, no, I'm not. And then he just kind of went on this rant, like, no biting, no biting, no, no, I'm very anti-biting. Kids, don't bite if you're going to do it, don't bite. Did you see that?
JARROD LOOBEEK: I did. Junya has just, it's really grown on me.
BEN WATERWORTH: Me too.
JARROD LOOBEEK: Like at points in time, they annoy me because they're like super loud. And no matter what volume you set to, they're just that loud. Like you can't change it because it's just they're so much louder than everybody else on the show. But they just had some really great moments. That was great. I continue to love. I would legitimately purchase a bunch of the stamps that they keep bringing up like each day.
BEN WATERWORTH: I would buy that in a heartbeat.
JARROD LOOBEEK: Yes, the fish, the boat from the triathlon, then they'll put in a serious one. And I'm like, no, only stupid things, please. But just, yeah, the fact that they've come up with that, I think is really clever and just it's it's really fun. It's like obviously not as good as Roy and HG, and nothing is ever going to be that good. But the fact that it's better than what we've had in previous years, it's that time, too, like that it's on like late and you're just like, oh, I don't want to like go to bed. There's not like many events left on. But it's just fun that it's a nice little recap of the day.
BEN WATERWORTH: Did you see the Basil interview the other night when he was selling the Perth pins and everything and Basil was going off because they weren't showing his commentary?
JARROD LOOBEEK: So good. And him promising, she is she Lisa?
BEN WATERWORTH: I like her.
JARROD LOOBEEK: I'll get I'll get a pin to you when I'm when I'm when we're at the Cricket or in Perth or whatever.
BEN WATERWORTH: Where is she? Is she like in lockdown in Sydney or something? Or like what?
JARROD LOOBEEK: I'm just like, why can't she be there? Nobody else is social distancing or doing anything properly. Like just just let her in the studio.
BEN WATERWORTH: She's at the beginning. She reminded me of like Mel McLaughlin B. I just thought she was like a Mel, but she's better than Mel McLaughlin. I'm sure she's more entertaining. I like her. I've never seen Channel Seven's cricket coverage because I've not been in the country for the last few years since they've had that. To me, it's weird to think that Channel Seven had the cricket. That's that's weirder than when Nine had the Olympics. But you're right. I think it's grown on me too, and I think it's probably the best sort of entertainment show. The closest, the funniest thing we've ever had after Royal NHG was probably when they had Mick Malloy during Vancouver. And he would do kind of like some commentary on. He got into a bit of trouble, I think, on some of his comments on some of the figure skaters. But I mean, that rave in Rio that they did or whatever the hell was, that was terrible. Even with like Roy and HG when they brought him back for Sochi, it wasn't the same. Like, I don't know what that was during Sochi. But yeah, it's grown on me. And I did like it when they were going on their little rant because they did the whole Beijing preview with Laura Peele. And then they were like, oh, this is just a dress rehearsal, isn't it? We're going to be in Beijing. And they were like, oh, but we know Shinya is Japanese for Good Evening or whatever. Like, what's Chinese for Good Evening? And like, I think what works too with it is that on Fox Sports, they have a nightly sort of wrap up show. I think Bill Woods hosts that show, and he's got like Mark Bosnich on it, and Mark Bosnich is hilarious. But you see Andrew Gaze is on that, on some of those sort of Fox Sports shows. He does a lot of the AFL ones, which I'm a bit weirded out, like you've got this basketball legend, but he suits it. And obviously, Andy Ma does the front bar. So yeah, it's kind of... The front bar is one of those shows that I forget that I actually quite like. Even if you're not really an AFL fan, they obviously do sort of... I remember the Pyeongchang one they did a few years ago was funny, and I didn't see the one they did before Tokyo, but my dad was telling me it was quite funny. So yeah, props to Channel 7. Let's praise Channel 7 for once, because I'm about to bag them out for another thing. If I see one more ad for The Voice, I am going to go to the Channel 7 studios and burn it to the ground. We get it, Channel 7. The Voice starts this Sunday. I understand. I understand there's some 16-year-old girl who is the sister of a boy, and that she's got a good voice too. I understand there's some woman with a kid who goes, I love you, mummy. Like, it's just, if I hear that Justin Timberlake song sung one more time as they're going up the elevator and stop trying to transition it into some commercial for the Olympics where they're like, oh, it's like the Olympics when they're playing. I get it. The voice is on Channel 7. I am so fed up with the voice ads.
JARROD LOOBEEK: I agree. This is the same as how like every year at the tennis, you get the after the tennis ads, and by the end, I'm definitely not going to like watch the show just out of protest. I wasn't going to watch the voice anyway, but the ads are so annoying. I cannot stand that one with the sister. Oh, would you like, have you ever thought about competing? I'm like, yes, this is how, this is how television shows work. There hasn't been an audition process. She's just rocked up on the day and they said, oh, well, you can sing. Why don't you go out? There was no vetting of her. She just happens to be great. They had no idea, but she just happens to be great. They have just happened to have her music queued up ready to go. Yep. I'm like, clearly this did not happen. It's so frustrating to watch. I'm like, I'm not buying this stupid story you're trying to spin. I also hate the sub story of the person who got left at sea on a scuba diving trip. And the judges could just tell that she had a traumatic experience. Like the story hasn't been fed to them to ask that. I'm like, I don't care. You got left at sea. You survived. There's no story here.
BEN WATERWORTH: Can I just point out some of the other ads though? Because you're absolutely right. But Home and Away, I haven't watched it in a long time. I've been out of this country. I don't know who any of these people are in the goddamn time. I don't care that you're getting married and you're in a car accident. I hope you die in the car accident. And if I see that girl on the stage going, come on, everyone, let's go one more time. Like, holy crap. I know it's a soap opera, but that's gotten worse. Also, nurses, you save one person, you're a hero. You save a thousand people, you're a nurse. And that SAS Australia bullshit, like yelling at freaking Yana Pitman and Alicia Molyk. Like, what's going on? Channel 7, I swear, are just getting worse.
JARROD LOOBEEK: I just, I have never understood like the need and like the armed forces to just yell like 10 centimetres from somebody's face. But then just also in the current COVID climate too, it's a really bad look just seeing them right in front of them spitting like all over them. Like, no, what are you doing? You can't do this. And it's stupid. If that was me, I'd start laughing because I'm like, why are you so like angry yelling like this far from my face? It's just, it's bad. And then the other ones that whatever that investigation show is.
BEN WATERWORTH: Oh, God, that guy. I wanted to be a murder investigator when I was a kid.
JARROD LOOBEEK: That typical like a cold case show. And I'm like, who even wants to watch this? You already know the result is going to be at the end. So we're still not sure. And the hunt continues for the kill. They never solve anything on any of these shows. You don't need to watch it.
BEN WATERWORTH: It's also like these true crime podcasts. Like, I mean, have they solved anything? The other ones, what's the other ones that are like really annoying? Actually, I wouldn't mind watching that RFDS. It kind of looks OK, but I'm just getting sick of seeing the ads. I've also noticed they've started advertising some underbelly ripoff, which is like, you know, gang something around. I'm like, Jesus Christ, Channel 7, it's taking you 13 years to do your own version of underbelly. The only ad that I like is their sports one, where they do it to the smoke on the water epic trailer music, and, you know, kind of pumping up like the AFL, the cricket. They've got the Paralympics on there, the Winter Olympics on there. Obviously, as we said, they've started promoting the Winter Olympics. Oh, Sweden! Oh, they nearly scored. Sorry, I'm getting excited here. Oh, Canada are just parking the bus here in defence. Are you watching this? This is crazy. They're like, Sweden are peppering this so much. Anyway, yeah, Channel 7. And then it gets worse on 7Mate, when you got to see ads for the world's sexiest tradie and fat pizza. I used to love fat pizza back in the day, but now it just looks like a joke. God, we're really stretching for time here, because we're hoping this goes to penalties. But let's, I wish Colin was here, because I want to know, do Canada do this? Like on CBCs, it's like, after the Olympics, Degrassi, the next generation, they're in a car accident. Like, I want to know, or is it just a uniquely Australian thing?
JARROD LOOBEEK: It's just, it's so bad. And the fact that they're all the same, like even if you're advertising the same show, pick a different ad. I see that lady walk into the pizza shop and ask for a lemon one more time in a joke that's not even funny.
BEN WATERWORTH: Oh, the farmer wants a wha- I didn't even know that was a thing still. Didn't that end like a dick? What's the name? Natalie Gliss, whatever it is. She's like Ben Dark. I thought she went into obscurity. Like, Jesus, Channel 7's just recycling all these shows that die. Uh, I mean, like, I- Do you remember when Nine had the Olympics? Like, I've always- I've grown up- I don't know if you were like this growing up. Like, you have a network which is kind of your network. Like, you personally have a preference. I've always been a Channel Nine guy. I've always preferred Channel Nine. So when they had the Olympics, I actually really loved- I love Eddie McGuire. I love Eddie McGuire doing the Olympics, James Brayshaw. And I do love the fact that you can clearly tell when Channel 7 are using footage from, like, London, that they've gone and gotten their own commentators to dub over the top. Like, Basil Zemplas was commentating, I think, on Sally or Bruce or something like that, because obviously they weren't doing the- And I remember they did that during Pyeongchang when they showed, like, Lydia. No, that was actually- No, it was Lydia. They showed Lydia's gold in Vancouver last night when they were pumping up Beijing, and she had Basil commentating Lydia. That was James Brayshaw and Eddie McGuire commentating that. I remember that. So, yeah, and Channel 10 in Sochi wasn't actually that bad either. So, I mean, I think Beijing's the last one they contracted to. From memory, they only held the rights through to 2022, and there was a bit of a fight over Beijing, because the winter ones are usually the ones that nobody ever wants. So are we hopeful that after Beijing that they put these up again, and maybe 9 or 10 can sneak it, or are they gonna go to Stan or Prime or something for, like, Paris?
JARROD LOOBEEK: Yeah, I feel like in my head, it's gonna go, like, Stan and 9, surely. Like, 9 will be the, like, main channel, and then, which hopefully doesn't happen, but then I feel like the extra sports, if you want to be able to watch every sport, then it will be on Stan Sport, and you have to pay for that subscription.
BEN WATERWORTH: I mean, I'm not against Fox Sports having it. Like, I mean, I know people wouldn't want to pay for it in Olympics. I think it's the anti-siphoning rules. You have to have the Olympics on free to air. But, you know, when Fox did it, it was pretty good. Like, Fox are really good with it. That was when Shervo started back then, and that Shervington is one of the good ones on TV. So, um...
JARROD LOOBEEK: Just give it to Aspius.
BEN WATERWORTH: Yeah, bloody hell. Give it to us. Give it to Off The Podium. We'll do it. Like, I think we've done well with our commentary these Olympics. We're doing a good audition. But remember, Jarrod, Paris is only three years away. So, um, it's not that far away. Um, we've got 40 seconds left in extra time. I think we're going to penalties. I will just say before... We'll close it out with a penalty shootout, but, um, tomorrow is our busiest day of the Olympics. 34 events are being decided tomorrow. It is the, uh, the absolute busiest. Um, we've got a lot going on. Uh, for Australia, realistically, it's tricky over the last couple of days. There's not a whole lot. Golf, obviously, we're in the shot with that. We've got the basketball. Hopefully, we can finally get that medal for the Boomers. The men's 1500, possibly there. Women's high jump. We've got some there as well. But outside of that, realistically, not much going on. I mean, is there anything that you're kind of looking to in the final couple of days, Jarrod?
JARROD LOOBEEK: Not really, I suppose, in terms of if we're going to get another gold, which is not going to happen, but if we're going to, then it feels like it has to come from the high jump. But I even feel there, like we're probably looking more realistically at a silver or a bronze.
BEN WATERWORTH: Yeah, and maybe a sneaky medal in one of the canoe events. Who knows? Nicola McDermott, of course, is our highest qualifier. Now we've got two Aussies in the final, Eleanor Patterson. I mean, I want to see Stewie McSwain for Tasmania. I mean, we've already, you know, we're two gold, two gold, what are we, two silver and a bronze at these Olympics with Eddie and Stewie Belts getting the medal last night with the Kookaburras. So there's a couple of Tasmanians already going on there, but we'll see how that goes. Yeah, 34 busy day tomorrow. So artistic swimming teams tomorrow, baseball tomorrow, the basketball. We've got the men's modern pentathlon as well, the water polo, some more wrestling going on. So there you go. We're off to penalties. We're going to penalties. So we'll stick this out right now to see if this is golden for celebration for Canada or silver celebration. Now, if they win a gold here, they will go up to 12th on the medal tally. They will overtake South Korea and Cuba. And if I'm not mistaken off the top of my head, this will be their biggest gold medal hole since Barcelona, which I think they got 7 in Barcelona from memory. They did. So if they can pull off another gold in the last couple of days, who knows, they could go to that magical, towards that magical 10 that they got in LA in the half games. Again, we don't call them real games, right? I mean, you and I could have won a gold medal if we went to LA. No one showed up. The Russians weren't there, and Moscow, obviously, none of the Americans. But who are you picking here, Jarrod? Canada or Sweden?
JARROD LOOBEEK: I mean, the heart says Canada, but the head says Sweden.
BEN WATERWORTH: Well, they were peppering the shit out of that gold at the end. I'll tell you what. This would be Sweden's third gold if they win this, and they would move up because they've got a bunch of silvers in the bank. So they would move up into 21st. They're currently in 26th. So there you go. Scandinavian nations have been doing very well. I mean, Norway, you talk about countries punching above their weight. Norway doing very well. Finland, I know, had a bronze. Have they added to that? No, they got two bronzes now. So there you go. The Canadians are getting shoulder rubs right now. They're getting pumped up. It's Ikea versus Bieber, basically. Is that the correct way of doing this? I wonder if Colin...
JARROD LOOBEEK: That's how Channel 7 would hype it up.
BEN WATERWORTH: Oh, wouldn't they? I'm sure they're probably blaming the referees for something. Colin obviously not with it. I think Colin just pulled a sickie because he just wants to witness all this in the glory going on to this. But has the women's football ever gone to a penalty shootout before? There's a trivia question of the day. I can find that out for you quickly. Surely, yeah. I feel the US won it on penalties one year. Or was that the World Cup? I feel like it did. Of course, the men's in Rio went to penalties. So there was that one. Stupid Brazil beat Germany. Still not over that. Can we find out here? So this is the women's. No, it has never gone to penalties shootout before. It's going to extra time. But yes, the US have won every gold medal at the Olympics, with the exception of 2000 in Sydney, where they lost to Norway. There you go, Norway again. And of course, in Rio, they didn't even make the final. So this is only the second time they've never made the final, believe it or not. Germany beat Sweden two once. Sweden have never won a gold in Olympic football. And I doubt they would have in the men's as well. So their previous best result was a silver in Rio and a fourth in Athens. So there you go. And in the men's, I'll correct myself, Sweden won a bronze in 1924, a bronze in 1952, and never made the final. Mexico, by the way, took the bronze in the men's football today. We should probably mention that, beat the host nations, Japan. Gee, they dragged this out. Come on. I'm surprised you haven't put in about 48 ads for The Voice right now. I don't know when it's starting, Jarrod. When's The Voice starting?
JARROD LOOBEEK: And they know the stories. I don't know the start date.
BEN WATERWORTH: Oh, God. There was one of them that I watched. Once, I was like, yeah, what happens to them? And I'm like, no, OK, no.
JARROD LOOBEEK: Don't get sucked in.
BEN WATERWORTH: Don't do it, Penn. No.
JARROD LOOBEEK: You know, you won't find out to the very end of the show, and it will run half an hour over time anyway.
BEN WATERWORTH: Like if you get the greatest singer of all time, and they're like, OK, if you got anything, any stories to tell? No? Any bad childhood memories? No? Your parents beat? No? Lose your job? No. COVID? No. Fuck. We need to make something up.
JARROD LOOBEEK: We can't have you on the show.
BEN WATERWORTH: The great, like Mariah Carey just goes in there and goes to sing, and she doesn't do it. Looking here, actually, at the overall statistics of women's football at the Olympics, Germany fifth in Atlanta, bronze in Sydney, bronze in Athens, bronze in Beijing, didn't qualify for London, gold in Rio didn't qualify for Tokyo. How's that for a record? That's pretty crazy. All right, come on, get on with it. It's late. Some of us have got editing to do, Sweden and Canada. I don't even think about the podcast, do they?
JARROD LOOBEEK: I mean, this should have already been over, and I'm probably lagging behind you anyway.
BEN WATERWORTH: You think if we were any sort of podcast, we would just go cut and then come back in, but nah, we can't be bothered. Training gold, people, is happy. It's all the voice. You're the voice. Why do they use you're the voice as a promo? Did you happen to catch the Boomers yesterday? They're like, all Aussie playlists, we're playing all Aussie songs to help the Boomers. Could you get any more Australian the way they did it? All right, finally, here we go. First kick for Sweden.
JARROD LOOBEEK: Good for you. She's still juggling the ball on my screen.
BEN WATERWORTH: Do you want me to spoil it for you, or do you want me to calm down?
JARROD LOOBEEK: You're welcome to spoil.
BEN WATERWORTH: All right, we've got Abba versus Nickelback. And they're pumped up. Nickelback's dancing on the line. She's dancing, she's jumping, she's doing the YMCA. In comes Abba, and she's hit the post! She's hit the post!
JARROD LOOBEEK: She's hit the post!
COLIN HILDING: Canada erupts!
BEN WATERWORTH: Come on, Canada! In your face, Ikea! I prefer the Bay over Ikea any day of the week, let's be honest. Okay, don't get ahead of yourselves. We know the US... It wasn't US, sorry, it was Brazil saved the first penalty against Canada in the quarter. Oh, and aren't the Canadians happy? They're wearing my T-shirt, I've got that T-shirt! Look at that! My T-shirt's on TV! Well, you know they're going to win gold now. I will say to Colin, if you're listening, that, you know, it's great that obviously we've got a couple of medals today for Off The Podium. We still haven't won a gold for Off The Podium. So, the curse may be in the purse for Colin, and sort of in the purse for Ben. I've gotten a bronze, but... All right. I've got a Nickelback reverse back now with Aberangoles. And Canada are looking on. They're excited. They're tense.
JARROD LOOBEEK: Poutine versus meatballs.
BEN WATERWORTH: Oh, poutine all the way. Come on. All right. Come on. You can kick it any day of the week now, Canada. Here we go. And she's got it in. There we go. I'm nothing, Canada. Come on. Maple leafs versus those trees in Sweden. Come on now. I mean, if this was Eurovision, you would be on board with the Swedes to handle the pressure. Although they didn't do very well this year, did they? I still haven't even watched or listened to any Eurovision from this year. I will say that. But I think they finished out the top 10 for the first time in a while. From memory?
JARROD LOOBEEK: Yeah, not great. Not the best effort.
BEN WATERWORTH: All right. Good old Sweden. All right. Now, interesting tactic here by the Canadian goalkeeper. She's just left the ball at a foot and is not even passing it back to the Swedish. She's saying, you come and pick it up and put it on the spot yourself. Now, why don't they do the field hockey style, like dribble in? You know, like...
JARROD LOOBEEK: Yeah, I think take it from halfway.
BEN WATERWORTH: Yeah. Come on. Trick shot it up. All right. Inga Sweden is looking quite tense right now. She kicks. Oh, she's got it in. All right. There we go. Sweden's on the board. She's pumped. She's out there. She's getting the crowd involved. One question about getting the crowd involved. Why do these field athletes still try and clap to get the crowd involved? There's no one there.
JARROD LOOBEEK: They get the coaching staff.
BEN WATERWORTH: The other day, it was like she was getting to clap and they were like, oh, why is she doing that? Because I don't think the opposition coaches are going to be clapping around.
JARROD LOOBEEK: Brennan Stuck's roommates, normally they're clapping somewhere.
BEN WATERWORTH: The whole Aussie cricket team took a break in their training the other day to watch him. So that was nice. Are you calling the Yo Bro curse broken? I mean.
JARROD LOOBEEK: Yeah, I think so. Like, it's.
BEN WATERWORTH: Oh, Sweden saved. Sorry. Sweden just saved it. Sorry. Back to you.
JARROD LOOBEEK: Yeah, I mean, what? So what did we get? We got like a Kyle got a silver body, got a bronze in the in the mix, though. And then Brandon didn't medal. He got fifth, though.
BEN WATERWORTH: Didn't Kyle get a bronze in the four by one as well?
JARROD LOOBEEK: I'm not sure about like the team, like the relays or like the team events. I feel like it was it should more be like an individual medal. It's just hard. There wasn't a lot of data to go on. The Swiss jinx.
BEN WATERWORTH: Yeah.
JARROD LOOBEEK: They were they sponsored about like 10 athletes each Olympics.
BEN WATERWORTH: That's true.
JARROD LOOBEEK: And the only person who ever got anything was Scotty James, which was a bronze, which was kind of let down anyway. So that was definitely a thing. This one, it's harder to judge.
BEN WATERWORTH: The Off The Podium curse in on that notion. I mean, Kylie Masks got the individuals and so did Evan. So outside of that, the team ones for the for the relay, a couple of relays with Kylie and Aaron and Brendan.
JARROD LOOBEEK: All right.
BEN WATERWORTH: Come on, Sweden. You got to get this one in. Come on, Canada. Save it, save it, save it. Sweden's in there in front for the first time. And I love how this Swedish last name is Bjorn. I mean, is that every Swedish players last name? Bjorn.
JARROD LOOBEEK: There's a couple of Benny's there as well.
BEN WATERWORTH: Benny's and Agnethers. Oh, she's pumped up. All right. How far behind are you now?
JARROD LOOBEEK: The Swedish girl's just about to take a gold kick to put them up 2-1.
BEN WATERWORTH: All right. This is again, I'm glad if everybody's stuck around right now for the end of this episode, again, you know the result. But it's 2-1 Sweden right now. All right. Here comes Captain Canuck, Dudley Do-Right, ready to get on board with Marcus Ericsson. There's a Formula One reference for everyone at home. I'm sure they get that one. All right. Dudley Do-Right's nervous. What can she do? She's ironing her off the Swedish. She's dancing like she's dancing ABBA. Canada kicks.
COLIN HILDING: Oh, she's hit the post! She's hit the post!
BEN WATERWORTH: Canada are choking! Canada are pulling in Australia right now. Oh, and the Canadian coach, is she abusing her own player? She's yelling at something. They had the lead. I did the commentary curse. I said it was what happened with Brazil. Brazil took the lead. Oh, okay. Sweden get this. This is it, right? It is. Sweden get this. They win the gold. And they're looking cocky, the Swedes. They're smiling at each other. They're thinking about what they're going to spending their bonus Swedish crowns on. I think they get bonus entry to Eurovision, don't they, if they win this. Having said that, we said to Colin yesterday that Colin wants them to win the silver because he's already got their correct gold tally on his prediction. So, all right, Sweden for the gold medal. Oh, it's on! Oh, my goodness! Sorry! I'm getting excited. This has got it all, Jarrod.
JARROD LOOBEEK: It's really good for me because I can be less nervous about things having already knowing about them ahead of time.
BEN WATERWORTH: Holy crap balls. Justin Trudeau just went off. He just blew something there. My goodness. Remember the streets of Toronto when the Raptors won the championship? I'm sure there's at least three people on the streets of Toronto watching this right now. Okay. Canada need this to tie it back up. The poutine gravy sweats flowing. The Caesar salad drinks are flowing as well. The Beaver Tales and Nanaimo bars, they're going everywhere. That's about enough Canadian cuisine.
JARROD LOOBEEK: Nanaimo bars.
BEN WATERWORTH: No, save, Sweden saved. This is insane. I cannot believe this, Jarrod.
JARROD LOOBEEK: You like never see this many saves in Ability Shooter.
BEN WATERWORTH: I haven't seen this many saves since David Hasselhoff. This is something else. So now Sweden get another chance at gold. I love the reaction of the Canadian. She's just like, fuck. She's just got such a blank look on her face. Oh, this Swedish player, she's been around. She looks like she's a veteran of this team. Wow. This for the gold. Stockholm right now is ready to explode. They're going to open up seven new Ikea stores if she gets this. The amount of money that's going to be influxed into the Swedish Olympic Committee. All right. Gold for Sweden. Is she going to do it? Is she going to do it? She's thinking. She's getting ready. She's sidestepping. She comes in.
JARROD LOOBEEK: Gosh, she's gone over the bar. This is magnificent. I could not believe it.
BEN WATERWORTH: That was insane. She did like she beat the keeper.
JARROD LOOBEEK: She beat her.
BEN WATERWORTH: She went over as a captain. God, get rid of your captain's armband. You're a shame to your nation. I'm quarter Swedish, Jarrod, and I'm ashamed. My goodness. Okay, so we've had five shots Sweden. They're 2-1 up. Canada's only got one. They've missed their last three. She misses. Sweden win the gold. And based on how things are going, Sweden are gonna win the gold. Canada have not scored since the first one. The weight of a nation on this player's face. She's got it! Oh, we're going to extra, extra penalties. Why not add some extra gravy to your poutine, folks? Not going anywhere. You can go to bed. I'll call it myself.
JARROD LOOBEEK: It's 12.45am.
BEN WATERWORTH: 12.45am. What is it? 10.45am in Toronto right now. 9.45am. 7.45am in Vancouver. Everyone's getting excited. What a way to wake up. All right. Now Sweden. You've missed the last two. Number two's coming in, of course. Canadian goalie's just looking... I like the pink headband. Suits her well. So basically now, of course, this works. Sweden missed Canada score. They win gold. Sweden score, Canada miss, they win gold. It's that simple. It's not like that cycling one they were trying to explain to me last night, which I was like... Did you watch that? The Omnium?
JARROD LOOBEEK: They've taken them over by a lapse. They get this many points. If they catch back on, this happens.
BEN WATERWORTH: All right, here we go. Inge comes in.
JARROD LOOBEEK: Oh, this is brilliant.
BEN WATERWORTH: This is the best thing I've ever watched.
JARROD LOOBEEK: Come on, Canada. Get my predictions up. Get that gold medal tally up.
BEN WATERWORTH: What did you have for Canada?
JARROD LOOBEEK: Seven, seven, then seven. You did.
BEN WATERWORTH: I had three. I'm fucked. This would be double if they get this. I've gotten closest with the Australian one. I think I had the highest, didn't I? I had 13. You had 11. Colin had seven. Jesus, Colin. All right. Number seven. Speaking of which, for Canada, for the gold.
JARROD LOOBEEK: Oh, she's got it.
BEN WATERWORTH: Canada, a gold medallist.
JARROD LOOBEEK: Canada, Canada. Oh, Canada.
BEN WATERWORTH: Oh, what a win. What a magnificent win. Wow, stacks on the mill.
JARROD LOOBEEK: Party time.
BEN WATERWORTH: It's poutine central. Vancouver's going off. Toronto's going off. Winnipeg's going off. Flynn Flon's going off. Jarrod, get on board the Canadians.
JARROD LOOBEEK: I'm just excited to watch the penalty. I'll get it at some point.
BEN WATERWORTH: Emu Plains TV.
JARROD LOOBEEK: She got a hand to it as well. Wow.
BEN WATERWORTH: Oh, my goodness.
JARROD LOOBEEK: She just finished that earlier. She could have been athlete of the day. What would you rather, a gold medallist athlete of the day?
BEN WATERWORTH: Colin, right now, if you've gotten this far, which you haven't, because unlike Jarrod, you don't listen to these. But you can't go off on us for saying, Oh, you should have gotten such from Canada because they got the gold. We probably would have, but we've locked it in. It's in the banks right now. But I'm saying this right now. I'm speaking for Colin. He'll come on and talk about this. This is arguably one of Canada's greatest ever Olympic gold medal. This is insane. I mean, just, and you can see it on the faces of these players right now. They are just absolutely in shock. If you were to say a country's got to win an Olympic gold medal in soccer, Canada's not going to be in my top five. They haven't qualified for a men's World Cup since like the 80s. They're hosting the 2026 World Cup with the US and Mexico. And there's not even guaranteed they will get an automatic qualification spot, because FIFA haven't decided that yet. Yeah, they're a lot better in the women's World Cup. I don't know if they've ever made the semis in the women's World Cup, but this is huge. This is amazing. And Sweden is like one of the top nations in women's football. They are by far one of the best. Let's like saying like Spain or Germany in the men's game. Like it's crazy, crazy, Jarrod.
JARROD LOOBEEK: And they've dominated like all the other matches as well, that like starting off the tournament with that three-nil win over the US and then just going from there to strength to strength. Like it feels like is the Swedish football team the equivalent of the Kookaburras? And just that they're always ranked up high and they just can't pull it off.
BEN WATERWORTH: That's a great comparison. Quickly, Canada made the semis in 2003. They finished in fourth at the 2003 World Cup loss to the US. And Sweden lost the same year, 2003, in extra time to Germany and have finished third, third, and third. So, a dominant nation. But that's a good comparison with the Kukaburras there. So, wow. Wow. Wow. What a way to feel. I'm glad we stayed on the line. That was exciting. So, there you go. It has been Off The Podium. Thank you for listening. Golden day for Canada! Get on board! Well done. I've got some more work to do now for the social media before I go to bed. Thanks, Canada. Jarrod, it's been fun. Sad that Colin wasn't here, but I'm sure you'll sort your beef out before the end. Because I think we've only got one more chance for you guys. Tomorrow night's it. Because I know you're not going to be on Sunday night, and you'll be on Monday night, and Colin won't be on Monday night. So, tomorrow night's it for you two to mend it. So, how's that going to turn out?
JARROD LOOBEEK: We'll see. In the spirit of the Olympics, anything is possible.
BEN WATERWORTH: Well, we just saw Canada win a gold medal in soccer. Anything is possible. Absolutely. Thanks for tuning in, everyone. Follow us on social media, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram. Get on board at all, and remember to subscribe and stay up to date with all the episodes. Only a couple more days to go, but we've still got plenty of stuff to come for you. My name is Ben. So, Off The Podium. We'll speak to you next time.
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