Tokyo 2020 Day 5 Review
An absolutely epic and history making day 5 of the Tokyo 2020 Olympics is in the books with so many medals coming our way (for Australia, sorry Canada) that we barely know where to start! We talk up just how Tasmania is higher on the medal tally than most nations, and just how they are comparing to Canada right now. We also find out just how good rowing is and why it deserved more attention than it got. We also celebrate queen Penny Oleksiak and her history making day for Canadian Olympic history, bring you some epic badminton commentary and see if we can actually agree today on an athlete of the day. It's all here on a massively golden day at the 2020 Olympics!
EPISODE TRANSCRIPT
Please note this is an automated transcript that may contain errors.
BEN WATERWORTH: It is Off The Podium, An Olympics Podcast coming to you today for a record breaking day for Tasmania, our second gold medal of the Olympics. We've won more gold, double the gold in New Zealand. Stick it up your face, New Zealand. Tasmania is on the medal tally and has got the same amount of gold as Canada. Yay, go Tasmania. Australia is also doing pretty well as well, but it's a big day for medals. Australian medals, that is. Canada won one, which is kind of groundbreaking, but we'll get to that eventually. Seven medals for Australia today. Seven medals. I think we officially now know what it's like to be America. You just can't keep up with it. It's like, oh my goodness, and they all happen within like an hour. I'm still trying to catch up with what's going on. I believe it is our second most successful day in the history of the Olympics, an equal most successful day in terms of gold medals, one in a single day of the Olympic Games. Big, big day. And to help me recap it, I have Emu Plain's number one rower viewer. It is Mr. Jarrod Loobeek. Jarrod, welcome back to Off The Podium.
JARROD LOOBEEK: Thank you. It's great to be back on such a momentous day for Australia. Smartly avoiding the silver. I feel like there's more to come there, hopefully. Just balance out that discrepancy a little bit. But yeah, what a great day for medals.
BEN WATERWORTH: Jarrod, you did this in Rio. This is what you did in Rio, and then we just couldn't stop winning silver. Gosh, damn it, Jarrod. Also joining us, in all seriousness, a record breaking day for Canada. We all know that one bronze is the biggest thing that they can ever do, but the bronze was a record breaker indeed. From Winnipeg, Winnipeg's number one bronze medal fan. Is Colin Hilding. Colin, welcome back to Off The Podium.
COLIN HILDING: Yeah, and record breaking slash record equaling. I mean, the Canadian records are so confusing that nobody gets it right, including CBC. But record breaking for the summer and record tying for overall. And I'll actually say this, record breaking for non-Winnipeg athletes, because Penny is now tied for the all-time most medals won, but she is tied with two Winnipeg athletes, who also have six medals. So she can become the greatest non-Winnipeg who would ever play in the Olympics.
BEN WATERWORTH: Well, we're going to talk up Penny. And bless Canada's heart for the fact that they think five medals and six medals is a lot by a single athlete. We'll get to that. But I mean, seriously, it has been an amazing day for Australia. Seven medals, Jarrod, just absolutely insane. Three gold. And a lot of these did come basically within an hour. Woke up this morning, put on Channel 7, our favourite network, to see gold for the Women's Coxless Four in the rowing. Lucy Steffen, Rosemary Popper, Jessica Morrison, and Annabel McIntyre as part of that one. Then straight after, the Men's Coxless Four, Alexander Pannell, Spencer Turin, Jack Hargrives, and Alexander Hill. We've got double awesome, foursome returns. Haven't we heard that a lot today? Fantastic for that. Queen Ariana Titmuss, Tasmania's own, took the gold. She took the double in the 200 free, becomes only the third Australian to ever do that after the great survivor player of Shane Gould and the great commentator Ian Thorpe. Fantastic to see that. And then to add to the three golds, we added four bronzes, because why wouldn't you? Got a bronze in the 4x200m freestyle relay. Great to see Kyle Chalmers breaking the Yo Bro curse there with another medal. We'll see if we can do it tomorrow. Probably just put the Mickey on in there. In the rowing, we then had the quadruple skulls take bronze for both the women's and the men's. Rhea Thompson, Rowena Meredith, Harriet Hudson, and Caitlin Cronin in the women's, and in the men's, Jack Cleary, Caleb Antill, Cameron Girdstone, and Luke Letcher. And I'll just mention in the men's relay, I should say, in the swimming, that was Kyle Chalmers, as I mentioned. Zach Inserti, Thomas Neal, and Alexander Graham. And then to add to that, we got a bronze in the men's time trial, and it wasn't Richie Tasmania could have had another one. Richie choked out about 30th, but we did end up getting a bronze thanks to Rowan Dennis, who got a medal for us in that, which was great. See, our first road cycling medal, Jarrod, since 2004, which was a bit interesting. So there you go. I mean, are you recovered? Are you excited? I mean, a big, big day for Australia.
JARROD LOOBEEK: Still recovering, I think. It was just, like you said, they came in such quick succession of one another. Speaking of quick succession of one another, 2-0 to Edgewood in the soccer.
BEN WATERWORTH: Yeah, I was ignoring that. I was excited talking about seven medals. Do not see another one of our teams choke.
JARROD LOOBEEK: But yeah, it was nice to see, good to see the rowing team keeping things even between the men and women. Often a complaint that one gender will pull in some more medals, but the rowing team, they know how to do it. And yeah, the bronze at the end of the day in the time trial, I think long overdue to get another medal in the road cycling and justification for Rowan Dennis to have sat out the road race.
BEN WATERWORTH: Which, I mean, look, I'm going to be a biased Tasmanian here, and I was hoping it would be Richie. But unfortunately, I think he got about 30 second or something along those lines. There was a Canadian leading that for a long time. I sort of left the TV, came back, and the Canadian was still winning. I'm like, oh, here we go, he's a shot for this one. But poor to Canada and didn't win a medal. Outside of the strangeness, let's talk up Canada's bronze, because it's all well and good to joke about a one bronze to Canada, but it was a record breaking bronze. Penny Oleksiak, her sixth Olympic medal, makes her the most successful Canadian summer athlete ever at Olympics and ties the record for overall medals with Clara Hughes and is it Cindy Klassen for winter? Am I getting them both right? Look at me knowing my Canadian athletes. So if Penny is part of the four by two, or if she can go back to back in the 100 tomorrow, she will become the most successful Canadian Olympian of all time. Absolutely insane. And I think this is where we need to check in with the This Is The Cold Call campaign to see if that is the the real one that helps you get success. None of these Swiss multivitamins or yo pro bros or coming on off the podium. So I gotta say, we've been very close to getting Penny on a couple of times. So thankfully she didn't come on the show. I'm glad she has not come on the show.
COLIN HILDING: Kylie broke the curse, but Ben's keeping it alive. I think the exciting thing about this is that Canadians didn't really know what to make a penny coming into this, because again, she did struggle after Rio. She has not been very vocal in the media. And even in the interviews she had, it's just, yeah, I'm just happy, like with the previous win, I'm just happy to be here and everything. The most exciting thing wasn't necessarily that she won. It was that she won an event that she hadn't competed in before. She wasn't necessarily expected to medal. And despite, as I said yesterday, the Canadian media is saying, Penny set up for another medal tonight. Like she actually wasn't. That was what was really exciting about it. I mean, she barely qualified for the finals. I don't think that she was expected to do better than fourth at best, maybe even fifth. And she sort of came out of nowhere in those last 50 metres, as she usually does and won it. But it was the interview afterwards that has everybody excited because they talked about, OK, you've tied this record now. You could potentially break this record. And basically, she just looks at the camera and says, yeah, it's amazing to be part of this group, but I'm not done yet. And just sort of left it at that. And all of a sudden, everybody's like this, I'm not done yet comment. It's like, oh, Penny is back. She's competitive. She's going to break this thing. She is the new Michael Phelps.
BEN WATERWORTH: I love Penny. I can vocally say that now that she's 21. I feel like I can get away with it more so than I could back in Rio. But I mean, she's fun to follow on social media and not just for those reasons. She just seems like so nonchalant. She just seems like she's like, as much as I love Kayleigh McEwen and kind of for various reasons, and I feel that Penny would just be that sort of just chill person who's just hanging out and just whatever, whereas Kayleigh is kind of going to be like, no, you can go home now. You're creepy. So I think that Penny is just chill, whereas Kayleigh is like, go away.
COLIN HILDING: And you can tell that based on so many of the athletes where they're posting their training, they're posting their their diet plans. Penny, 90 percent of her Instagram is just her and her dog. So you know that she's a pretty relaxed, you know, down to earth person and also humble. I mean, you could say humble too. I mean, when you're 16, of course, anybody's humble coming to Rio when they're not expected to necessarily maybe pick up a bronze, but not pick up four medals. And then you come into these games where there's so much pressure on you and so many expectations. And, you know, she doesn't pull out of her event. She's not a knock against the mobiles, but let's they're very similar. And I guess there are roads to this Olympics here. And when she starts succeeding, she basically just takes up the challenge and says, Yeah, you know, I'm going to go further than this. Just keep watching me.
BEN WATERWORTH: And I will say guests of the show, Tessa Virtue has been very vocal on social media and congratulating Penny. So I thought had Tessa what she won four or five medals. She was up there.
COLIN HILDING: Well, she was at four. Yeah.
BEN WATERWORTH: Well, there you go. So one more for Penny to get that. Katie Ledecky. I'm sure we didn't hear that at all that she finished fifth like it was like a national inquiry from Australia here. And I've got to say, I think it's a bit cruel because she clearly had the 1500 metre. I mean, it's a big discrepancy to go from the 200 to the 15. So, I mean, if I had to look at it, I'm assuming she's probably more focused on the 15 and maybe thought, oh, I'll do what I can in the 200. So, yeah, I mean, I think Australian media were being a bit cruel to Katie Ledecky. A bit cocky, Jarrod. I feel that, oh, she's beaten her twice and, oh, Ledecky didn't even meddle.
JARROD LOOBEEK: Just a little bit, yeah. Especially as you say, this is her least preferred event of all the events that she's in. So it just, it was stupid. The whole rivalry in itself and the fact that Ariane's won 2.0, gets set for 3.0. And I'm like, can we just, can we not?
BEN WATERWORTH: Yeah, I mean, even they were having the 4x2 heats tonight and they were kind of like, oh, and she deserves a rest. She's won two gold, so she won't swim the heats. And like, okay, I get it. It's a great achievement. As I said, only the third Australian to ever do the 4x2, the 4 and 2 double. The second woman, and obviously Thorpey did in Athens. So it's a great achievement kind of when you do something along those lines. But the thing that kind of frustrated me a little bit, I mean, this was a great day for Australia in terms of the medals we won. But typical Channel 7, and maybe just also typical Australia, it was all about Ariane's win. It's all like, cool, great, fantastic. Let's show this again. Let's interview her mum, her dad, her grandpa, her granddad, her dog, her neighbour, all this kind of stuff. We won two gold in rowing in the space of like five minutes. You have Nick Green commentating, one of the original Awesome Foursome members. You know, you've got all this connection, the fact that Australia, in the men's at least, have a 25-year drought. Britain had been undefeated in this event since we last won in Atlanta. And then we come along and win this. And then such a steep history in this event. I mean, Jarrod, you would remember growing up, all the Awesome Foursome ads we had on TV. Like the Awesome Foursome was like some of the most famous athletes in Australia. And then you go and look at the women who do it just before then too. Like this is Australia's most successful ever day in the history of Olympic rowing. Like huge, huge, like two gold, two bronze. And those bronzes were almost more exciting than the gold, if I'm being honest, particularly in the women's. That was fantastic to watch. I just, I feel like the rowers are getting very shortchanged here, Jarrod, just because, great, not to take away from Ariana's result, but it's just kind of annoying.
JARROD LOOBEEK: Yeah, but it's just, it's always the way. It's always the way that swimming gets all the focus, all the attention, all the replays. And I just think if we gave some, a bit more of that media attention to the other sports, then you would also see a flow on of better results moving forward in those sports.
BEN WATERWORTH: Absolutely, 100%. I mean, the one thing I will say, though, with the swimming is that this is our most successful swimming meet to date since Beijing. We've eclipsed both London and Rio. So maybe we're not quite have choked as much as some of those other ones. One thing I want to say, though, I feel bad for a certain swimmer, Mr. Mack Horton, our 400-metre former reigning champion who didn't qualify, swam the slowest leg of the 4x2 in the heats. Didn't even get a call up to the final in the 4x2. I mean, the 4x2 was a great result. That was really, really exciting to watch. That's the first time the US have never medaled in this event where they've been competing, except for 1980 when they boycotted the Olympics. So big deal there for the US. So we snuck home for the bronze era. It wasn't looking good. And I have to say, Basil and Liesl and Thorpe, for that entire match, were saying, oh, we're in third, we're in third. Match, swimming, what am I saying? But certain points of that, we were like sixth. And they're like, oh, look, they're still in the bronze. I'm like, no, we're not. We were not in the top three. But I mean, that was a great result. Again, even our bronzes today, I feel like celebrating almost like gold.
JARROD LOOBEEK: Yeah, absolutely. I love that you mentioned them saying that, oh, they're still in third when they're way down the pool. It's like they always do the just a little bit of work to do in the second half. When somebody's sitting in last, I'm like a little bit of work. I'm like a lot of work. And also, it's not going to happen from like this position when they're like half a pool length behind.
BEN WATERWORTH: Frustrating, yeah, Jesus. Colin, in terms of outside of Penny's result, I mean, actually, I would just ask with Penny's result, like you sort of mentioned the interview and everything like that. But I mean, outside of your CBCs and your sort of Olympic media, have there been like, is this a big talking point in Canada outside of the, I mean, is this like the number one story in Canada right now that you kind of have this new record holder for summer games?
COLIN HILDING: Yeah, by far, and along with the fact that it wasn't necessarily an event that she was considered, she should medal in, and then we still have more to go. What I think is more exciting that nobody's talking about is her reaction to winning this, because you could see that she was like almost crying, but it wasn't tears of joy, it was tears of pain. She even said afterwards that like her legs were just done. And that's really the difference we saw with Katie Ledecky. She was reserving what she had because she had another race that night, you know. Penny didn't have another race. And I don't think I've ever seen her push so hard where she was visibly in pain and is going on and on about how much she hurt. It just shows how willing she is to win all these medals and to break all these records. So, you know, her comment, like I said earlier about, you know, there's still more to come or whatever. I mean, that has kind of been the big talking point. It's like Penny not only set this record, but like she's going to shatter it. She's going to keep going. And who knows how many more Olympics she's going to have after this.
BEN WATERWORTH: It's incredible to look at the statistics of the most successful Canadian Olympians, because obviously dominated mainly by winter here. But in getting her sixth medal, she was tied previously for five with Lesley Thompson, a rower I'm seeing here, who went from 1984 through to 2016, a gold, three silvers and a bronze. And Phil Edwards in athletics in 1928, 32 and 36, who won five bronze. I mean, good for him. He won five Olympic medals, but five bronze. But with Clara Hughes, how do you classify that? Because she won two of those bronzes at the summer.
COLIN HILDING: Yeah, so she's split between speed skating and cycling, which to me is almost more impressive. I mean, there are a lot of athletes who will compete in both Olympics, but often it's just so that they can keep their stamina up and everything. We have one Canadian track star who decided to get into bobsled just so she had an excuse to really run and sprint during the winter months. But with Clara Hughes, I mean, she just sort of decided speed skating, cycling. I can do both and manages to medal in both. She's actually from Winnipeg as well, like I said, but she's become like a huge ambassador. I'm sure you've heard of it when you were here, Ben, that this Bell Let's Talk Day for mental health, which we know Simone Biles is going to become the new American correspondent of, she's just taken this record, which she's almost considered an afterthought because she was in speed skating with Cindy Clausen, who is obviously won all of her medals in one sport. Clara Hughes was often considered an afterthought, but now is probably the most well known of these Olympians. And I just always consider that to be more impressive that you can medal in two sports you don't even necessarily consider should be connected in both winter and the summer.
BEN WATERWORTH: Which I'm just trying to see here. Is she the most successful summer, winter, like dual Olympics medal winner? Because I'm scrolling through here the most successful Olympians of all time, and they're all just from the one games, like either summer or winter. So I'm just trying to see here. She might be the most successful ever. So I think, I mean, this list I'm looking at only goes to people who have won seven or more medals, and there are no dual summer slash winter Olympians on this. So that would make her, unless there's another one who's won six in both summer and winter, which I mean, like I admire, I mean, I admire any Olympian. I will say that straight away. But for these athletes who can go to dual games, I admire them. And for athletes to win medals at both, I admire them as well. I mean, one of the one of the athletes I mentioned that I was keeping an eye on Georgia Similing, you know, she she a cyclist. She won a medal. She was bronze in your team pursuit in Rio, but she alternates basically every two years between going between skiing and cycling. And she basically pulled out of Pyeongchang only because she like shattered her leg like a couple of months beforehand, and she still wants to go to Beijing. So like, I mean, I just I admire that. I mean, in Australia, I think the only one we've ever had Jarrod in that maybe back in like the 50s or something along those lines. But obviously, of course, Yana Pitman, Yana Rollinson, whatever her name is this week, she switched over to Bobsleigh for Sochi. So yeah, it's just admiration for these people that can do that. It's absolutely incredible that they can do that. So good for them. Breaking news, we choked against Egypt. That's Australia, as in we. And we are officially out of the men's soccer to nothing. Jarrod, all that hype over the Argentina game, you called it. We got a little bit too much, didn't it?
JARROD LOOBEEK: Yeah, I mean, who would have predicted at the start of the tournament that we would have beat Argentina, but also that our worst result would come against Egypt from that pool.
BEN WATERWORTH: Yeah, exactly. In the hockey, the last time I checked, too, the Kookaburras won all against New Zealand. Like, come on, Australia, pick your game up. We'll go over the medallists now. Speaking of New Zealand, oh, Brew, it's such a silver day for us. We've won. Well, I can't comment more on that because I might be ruining a result for somebody on this podcast, and I'm not meant to be ruining. Colin, close your ears for a second.
COLIN HILDING: Well, we know that they medaled something.
BEN WATERWORTH: They won two silver today for New Zealand, a silver in the rowing, and they choked in the rugby, which is fantastic. Fiji, back to back gold. How excited are we for Fiji winning another gold?
JARROD LOOBEEK: So good. Such a wonderful success story of the Summer Olympics and the fact that they've gone back to back is just the cherry on top.
BEN WATERWORTH: And I just want to mention this before I get Colin back, because he's taped it and he doesn't want to watch it. I just love the emotion of these players. Argentina won the bronze. They were bawling their eyes out. The commentators were basically saying, like, some of these people are going to go back home. They don't even know if they've got jobs. And they beat Britain as well, so it was even better. But then, like, the Fijians in the anthem before the game were bawling their eyes out. Like, it was just, I love that emotion. I love it so much. And rugby sevens, like, keep it in the Olympics forever. I love it, because these countries that can win these medals are fantastic.
JARROD LOOBEEK: Yeah, it's always nice to see when it really means a lot to the athletes, even just being there. But then, yeah, when they end up meddling on top of that, it's just, yeah, it's really good stuff.
BEN WATERWORTH: All right, let's get Colin. Colin, you can put the headphones on, because that is why that Ethiopia won the rugby. So there you go. The other New Zealand, yeah, so the women's double skulls, Brooke Donohoe and Hannah Osborne, got the silver for them behind Romania. Oh, look at that. Octopussy won a gold medal today. So as always, of course, in recording this, when we're recording this, there are still some results to be had. The men's and women's 3X3 basketball is happening as we speak. Now, Colin, am I spoiling this if I give away the bronze medallist in this or?
COLIN HILDING: I saw the bronze medal, so you can give it.
BEN WATERWORTH: OK, so the men's, Serbia took the bronze in that one, and China's taken the gold. The women's gold medal match is on as we speak between Russia and Rock, traditional 3X3 rivals, and the USA are currently leading that one at the moment. Cycling, the gold in the men's, of course, we got the bronze for Australia. Let's try and pronounce this one. Primoz Roglic of Slovenia took the gold there. The Dutch are finally broken through. Actually, they got a couple of gold today, so the Dutch, the golden showers, that sounds a bit inappropriate, are happening for the Dutch. They're used to it there in the Netherlands. They're quite open. Annemiek van Vleuten took the gold in that one, and Australia nearly got double bronze today. Unfortunately, Grace Brown, fourth in that one, so so close to getting another medal in that event. In the diving, it was gold to China, no surprise there. Equestrian, the individual dressage went to Germany. They took the team dressage last night. That was one event that happened after we stopped recording last night. Jessica von Bredow-Werndal got the gold there for Germany. South Korea took the men's team saver in fencing, beating Italy. I don't think Italy have got a gold yet so far in the fencing, which is a bit of a turn up for the books. The men's all-around gymnastics is happening as we speak, so I hope we'll have a result before the end of that. In the judo, the men's 90 kilos, Alasha Bakauri of Georgia took the gold, Wachizuru Are for Japan took the gold, and the women's 70 kilos. Outside of the rolling, we've already talked about, France took the men's double skulls, the Dutch took the men's quad skulls, Romania, as I mentioned, the double skulls in the women's, and China in the women's quad skulls there. I didn't realise China were very prevalent in rolling, but let's be honest, China are good in everything. So, surprise, surprise. Rugby, we already mentioned that. I won't spoil it for Colin again. And in the swimming outside of what we talked about, as I mentioned, Katie Ledecky took the 1,500 metres. Debut event, of course, in the Olympics for that one. The Brits won the 4x2, those bastards. China took the... Actually, no, sorry, I'm jumping ahead. That's weightlifting. Yui Oshay took the double, the 400 individual medley, and now the 200 individual medley. First time, I believe, since Stephanie Rice back in Beijing to do that, so good to see. And one of my new favourite athletes, Kristóf Milák of Hungary, took the men's 200-metre butterfly. Even I think... I don't even know who it was. There was some Twitter account today were trolling this poor guy because Colin sends his picture off of dear old Kristóf Milák living up to expectations of what we have, the Hungarians, of just this, he won a gold medal and he looks so bored. But they put a side-by-side picture between him and the silver medallist of tomorrow, Honda, who was smiling. And they were like, guess which one just won a gold medal? I love this guy. I love Kristóf Milák. He could be a possible nominee for Athlete of the Day for me. And in the weightlifting, in the men's 73-kilo, Zsiong Xi has taken the gold in a world record. Good for him. So there you go. Busy, busy day today on all the Olympic sports. One all, Australia and New Zealand. I'm seeing that right now on the men's hockey. Colin, outside of Penny, how did Canada go today? How did the rugby go today for Canada? Any update for that?
COLIN HILDING: I did see that one. It wasn't...
BEN WATERWORTH: I'll say this.
COLIN HILDING: It was probably a more impressive showing than some of our preliminary matches we had. But, yeah, we're out, obviously.
BEN WATERWORTH: Well, I mean, it was a placing. Australia beat Canada 7-8, for the seventh place, I should say. So, you know, ha-ha, go ask where seventh or eighth. Suck it, Canada.
COLIN HILDING: Suck it, Canada!
BEN WATERWORTH: I mean, outside of that, clearly the disappointment Canada is reeling in that one. National Day and morning tomorrow. How else did Canada do today?
COLIN HILDING: Are we going over the results here?
BEN WATERWORTH: Yeah, that's generally my question when I say how Canada is going today.
COLIN HILDING: There's very little to go over that we haven't covered already. But, well, Penny obviously won the bronze. But Sydney Pickrum, where is she on here? I don't know. Sydney Pickrum didn't. There we go. Sydney Pickrum. Yeah, she finished sixth overall. Two of our males, they were in the semifinals. It didn't advance. Yuri Kissel and Joshua Alindo. Again, that is the big moment, that relay that we had a couple days ago. And Kelsey Wogg, also from Winnipeg, also competed in champics, as we discovered on the Team of Canada website. I still saw that up a couple days ago, that her Olympics she's competed in 1924, champics in 2020 Tokyo. But she is 16th overall, so she doesn't advance. And in the 4x200 relay, we were 4th overall qualifying for the finals, so actually in a decent position, that one. Rowing, I'm kind of disappointed with. I mean, there's not much to say. We were in a couple of finals last night. We didn't place. This is one of these sports. I guess it's one of the sports that Canada and Australia sort of share, that this is, you know, a really successful sport, and we pretty much always will win rowing medals. But really, I'm discovering the big difference between Australia and Canada is that this gets huge TV coverage here. Even when we're not meddling or not even expected to meddle, I mean, this is one of our primetime events, along with swimming and diving and athletics that we get here. But we still are in it. We have a couple of pairs that have advanced to the finals that are going to be coming up.
BEN WATERWORTH: I'm excited for one of your pairs. Sorry to interrupt you.
COLIN HILDING: Which one? Tell me which one you're excited about.
BEN WATERWORTH: I am excited for the women's coxless pair for Kayleigh Filmer, who's a Victorian rower, and I had some brief discussions with her to come on the show, and I'm sure we could probably get her on the show. So clearly she might win a medal now that she didn't come on the show. But she was a bit of a talking point for local sporting circles there in Victoria and trained on a lake, which was about a five-minute walk from where I first lived in Victoria. So I'll be interested to see how she goes tomorrow.
COLIN HILDING: I mean, that means you could have trained with her and even made the team for Paris.
BEN WATERWORTH: I mean, you know, she did ask me, but you know, I didn't quite say yes. So there you go.
COLIN HILDING: But yeah, Kayleigh Filmer and Hilary Jansen, they are going on to the finals, as are Conlon McCabe and Kai Langerfeld. Both are moving on. And I guess our big one that we kind of expected could have medaled, Keen and Latimer, they were finishing fifth overall in their semifinal. So again, some disappointing results there. Mixed doubles, tennis, Dabrowski and Felix, they're out. Canoe, kayak, slalom. It's just sort of an honour to be in these events, at least for me, because as I said, I love the canoe and kayak events. But we finished, Haley Daniels finished at 21st overall, and Michael Taylor finished 24th. Road cycle, as you said, we did have a Canadian who was in the lead. Was that the Hugo, Hugo Huel guy?
BEN WATERWORTH: Yeah, for a long time, yeah.
COLIN HILDING: Yeah, and let's be honest, finished 13th. So that's not a terrible finish there. Badminton, Michelle Lee beat Slovakia, and Brian Yang says put up a good fight against second seed Chow Ting Chen of Chinese Taipei, but ended up losing 2 to 1. Boxer, this is one of the ones that I think Canada is getting more excited about. And it's almost sad that we had two boxers who were considered real contenders, that Mandy Bujold, I'm not knocking Mandy Bujold, again, her story was huge with the whole, you know, qualifying, not qualifying due to pregnancy or whatever. But she saw so much media attention, it's almost like Canada doesn't realise we actually had two boxers who were contenders in there. One of them is out, Caroline Vare is out in the quarterfinals. She lost to Irma Tessa from Italy. But Tamara Tebal is moving on. And she's actually a... Do you remember her?
BEN WATERWORTH: She bronze in Gold Coast, I think. She was actually, she was one of the ones, because I think I remember sending you all the photos, because I took photos of all the Canadians with their medals. They were the only ones that I did. And she was, I think, one of the ones that reached out to me on Instagram. I was like, oh, can I have that photo? So I sent her the photo that I took of her in the Commonwealth Games.
COLIN HILDING: Another one who just wanted to wait until after Tokyo to come on the show. Running up a list of these people who didn't want to run the risk. All the more reason Kylie should have been given credit for athlete of the day yesterday. The only one willing to run the risk of losing a medal by appearing on our show. But yeah, Tamara Tebow, that's great, because she actually went on to the Worlds and ended up meddling there as well. Sailing, as I said, we've got sailors in there. I can't wait to commentate sailing. I'm seriously so excited. Rugby, as we said, we ended up losing. But we get the eighth place, and it wasn't terrible, I guess. Volleyball, men pick up their first win, and it was actually a big win against Iran. That was actually getting a lot of attention here as well. Traditional rivals, yes, the Iranians and the Canadians. This all goes back to the hostage crisis of 1980. There's still some bad blood there. And the water polo Canadians ended up picking up a big win there. Nine to one win. Wait, were you looking at the score?
BEN WATERWORTH: It was not nine to one, you absolutely murdered South Africa 21 to one.
COLIN HILDING: Oh, it was a nine to one at half time. There we go.
BEN WATERWORTH: I'm looking there, I think you're underselling this. 21 to one in water polo is a natural holiday for Canada.
COLIN HILDING: It is, of course, our first win, but we'll take it. South Africa, suck it. That's how Canada went today.
BEN WATERWORTH: Well, there you go. I'm glad that you went over those in-depth results. Well, I think before I go over Australia's results, and I actually want to talk a little bit about the tennis with you, Jarrod, because there's some interesting results, not only for Australia, but just where we're at right now with the semifinals and the quarterfinals. I was talking about Canada's history with medals, and basically that most of your top ones are laced, of course, with summer Olympians, as are, sorry, winter Olympians, and ours are mostly laced with summer Olympians. But the one that I wanted to pull up here was I just, I'm so fascinated by the winter Olympics, I know I'm kind of a little bit ahead, and I legitimately think we can tick off most of these medallists eventually, slowly over the years, because we haven't really got that many. But here's a question for you, Jarrod, here's a trivia question, maybe Colin can chime in here too. Who is Australia's most successful ever winter Olympian? Anyone can guess.
COLIN HILDING: I have a guess who will become Beijing, but I doubt that that's current standing.
BEN WATERWORTH: Who are you thinking?
COLIN HILDING: Who is your speed skater guy? Who is that big speed skater? Yeah, was it him?
BEN WATERWORTH: He is one of our...
JARROD LOOBEEK: Sorry, is it him and Lydia? Are they tied?
BEN WATERWORTH: I'll put this out to you both. We have five multiple Winter Olympic medallists. Three of them have won a gold and a bronze. Two of them have won a gold and a silver. So it's equal top. Can you remember who our top two are? It is not Lydia. It is not Steven. The other is Alyssa Campland, who got a gold and a bronze. One of these guys is an icon of sport, and if we get him on this show, we win the world.
COLIN HILDING: Dale Begg?
BEN WATERWORTH: Dale Begg Smith, a gold and silver medallist. Come on, Australia.
COLIN HILDING: That's my sport. How did I not instantly think of that? Because again, it's weird. We sort of associate him as being Canadian still here.
BEN WATERWORTH: Jarrod, think hard. You'll get the female one. She was a gold medallist in Vancouver. Yeah, silver medallist in Sochi.
JARROD LOOBEEK: Tora Bright?
BEN WATERWORTH: Tora Bright, exactly. Bright like a diamond, gold and silver for her. I just love these little stats. In terms of summer, anyone want to hedge a bet of who our most successful? You should know this one, Jarrod. Everyone knows this one, don't they, in Australia?
JARROD LOOBEEK: Do they?
BEN WATERWORTH: Well...
COLIN HILDING: Everybody but Jarrod.
BEN WATERWORTH: Colin, you don't even know this one. I reckon if you just put a name out right now, you'd probably get it right.
COLIN HILDING: Thorpe?
BEN WATERWORTH: Yeah, Thorpey. Five gold, three silver, and a bronze, and only two Olympics as well, because he only ever went to two. Who's our second most successful then, Colin?
JARROD LOOBEEK: That other swimmer.
COLIN HILDING: Tidmas. Tidmas.
BEN WATERWORTH: It's only one of the two. We're not Canada. Dawn Fraser with eight medals, four gold, four silver. Libby Trickett, third. Four gold, one silver, two bronze. And outside of our swimmers, Betty Cuthbert, athletics. She's in fifth. Shirley Strickland in ninth. And Rohwer Drew Ginn is 12th. And equestrian Andrew Hoy. There he is, 13th on our list. And field hockey, Rachelle Hawks, great legend of the sport. Sorry, Colin, yes, hello.
COLIN HILDING: So hold on, so this is most medals by a summer athlete, right?
BEN WATERWORTH: Well, and Olympian in general.
COLIN HILDING: Most medals?
BEN WATERWORTH: Our winter athletes have only won two at maximum, so they're not making the top.
COLIN HILDING: And how many did Thorpe have?
BEN WATERWORTH: Thorpe's got nine in total, so we've got five gold, three silver, and a bronze.
COLIN HILDING: So Penny could potentially beat even Thorpe by the end of these games, which would give Kanna ultimate bragging rights.
BEN WATERWORTH: Well, actually, I will say that if I sort it by medals, so Lethal Jones actually is equal to the amount of...
COLIN HILDING: He's speechless.
BEN WATERWORTH: Clearly, I'm cutting out. This is great. Lethal Jones has the same amount as Thorpe in terms of nine. So that commentary box is stacked, Jarrod.
JARROD LOOBEEK: It is, and there's Basil with his two seg of an Olympic medal, but one meh ship.
BEN WATERWORTH: I mean, at the end of the day, I don't think Thorpe and Lethal can walk down the street with their Olympic medals and run the city of Perth, can they? So, you know, like, come on. All right, let's go over some Australian results. I don't know what is happening right now. I feel like I'm being laughed at. But sure, we'll just pretend...
COLIN HILDING: I don't know if Ben can hear us, but just to mess with them, let's just start every once in a while freezing in place and go, uh, uh, and just see if he catches on.
BEN WATERWORTH: See, the thing is, it's beautiful about this. Some of this you think I'd edit out, and the other part is that they're completely normal to me for some reason. And they're just making fun of me.
COLIN HILDING: The struggles of a daily podcast. No time for editing.
BEN WATERWORTH: Exactly. God, like, you think I do editing on, like, our weekly ones, but yeah, it's not quite the same. So for Australia today, I mean, right now, as we're talking, it's still one all in the hockey. We can't, like, tie with New Zealand. I mean, my goodness. Australia won the basketball. The Boomers showed the Opels how it's done. It was actually a very close game. I don't know if you caught much of it, Jarrah, but 86-83 against Italy. So that would put us in good stead going through to quarterfinals. Should mention the US did bounce back slightly from choking against France. 120-66 against Canada's traditional rivals of Iran. So there you go. In the beach volleyball, bad news for McHugh and Schumann in the men's. They were beaten by Harara and Gavira of Spain. 2-0. I believe they have been eliminated. But good news for the women, Del Soler, Attacho and Clancy beat the Italians. So those traditional beach goalers of Italy. So good news going on in there. Bit of a bad day for Australia in boxing, unfortunately. Caitlin Parker, a silver medallist at the Commonwealth Games, she was routed by Athenia Panbilon of Panama.
COLIN HILDING: That sounds filthy, Ben.
BEN WATERWORTH: Well, you know how I work. And the women's a bit of a wait till you hear our commentary soon. You'll really understand how I work. She went out, sadly, in the round of 16. Paolo Alcauso went out in the round of 16 in the men's light heavy to Spain's Gazimag Jaliv Gafforo. And the real sad one, it was of such a tight bout, I watched all of it. And so close. Skye Nicholson, sadly, out in the quarterfinals, she lost to Britain's Karis Artingsol in a 3-2 split decision. And might bring up Skye at one point again in this episode, because her interview was heartbreaking. In the men's and women's canoe, this is of course the, is it the C1 today, I believe, Jarrod? The first time that the women have had the C1. Our Golden Hope, no pressure on you, Jess, qualified fifth for the semifinals. I believe she was second after the first round and then went down to fifth. And in the men's, Lucian del Four, I believe, was second fastest. So there you go, all the pressure on Jess. Meanwhile, the men are showing it how it's done, apparently. So get up there, Lucian. I like that name, Lucian. As I said, the hockey right now, it is currently 1-0, but the women remain undefeated. The hockey roos, they had a nice 1-0 win over Japan today. Australia out in the men's football, sadly. So again, the women showing how it's done in that one. In the judo, Aofi Coughlin won her round of 32 bout, but then was eliminated in the round of 16 to a German. So sad, sad. No, Canadian judokus today, Colin, not looking good for them?
COLIN HILDING: No, I mean, it's the sport of the future, not the sport of the present. Freak results. But hey, if we pull off another one, then, wow, something is in the water, in the judo compound there at Tokyo Village.
BEN WATERWORTH: It might have been a great day for rowing today, but it wasn't after all the finals, because none of our rowers have qualified for any of the finals tomorrow, so we'll be not tuning in early on. In the rugby, as we bragged about before, Australia finished seventh in the men's, 26-7 over Canada in the seventh place playoff. We lost to South Africa to not go for fierce, so, oh well, sailing, as Colin mentioned, it's happening. Can't tell you much more than that. In terms of swimming, decent day, though, ahead for some interesting finals happening tomorrow. Kyle Chalmers did qualify for the men's 100m, the defending champion, of course. Don't really think anyone's got high hopes for him going back to back, but it's good to get him in there as well. Jack McLaughlin is the seventh fastest for the 800m freestyle there. The big one here, though, I think I made fun of his name a few days ago, but Zach Stubbidly Cook, what a name.
COLIN HILDING: I love this guy's name.
BEN WATERWORTH: Apparently, the number one ranked swimmer in the men's 200m breaststroke, and he's the fastest qualifier for this tomorrow. So you wait for all the pressure that we label on him tomorrow until he gets a silver, so go for him. Brenna Thrustle is the seventh fastest in the 200m butterfly, and our women, the 4x200 relay, fastest qualifier through. Kate Campbell apparently pulled out of this one or something, but good news for Kate, she qualified through for the semis of the 100m, as did Penny. They were in the same heat, Colin. I don't know if you caught those two swimming against each other.
COLIN HILDING: Can we also just lay to rest my girl Katinka here? We have to. Jamie really has a grudge against this woman.
BEN WATERWORTH: I don't get the appeal.
COLIN HILDING: I love Katinka, but Jamie now has determined that what she doesn't like about Katinka's face is that she looks like she has a superhero body but a munchkin face, which I don't quite see.
BEN WATERWORTH: I often get told that my about me. So what can I say?
COLIN HILDING: You know, you talk about how cruel the Australian commentators are, like the Canadian swimming commentators. They're definitely a lot more generous, like even with Ledecky, you know, they were basically saying it's like, oh, well, Ledecky, obviously, just conserving your energy because her more important race and longer race is coming up. With Katinka, it's like they take every possible shot they can at her. It's like, oh, I don't know what has happened to this woman. This is not the Katinka that we saw even one year ago, let alone five years ago. She is done. She is out. Bury her. It's just really hating on Katinka.
BEN WATERWORTH: She's Hungarian.
COLIN HILDING: I'm the only Katinka fan in the world, I think, at this point.
BEN WATERWORTH: Breaking news, the US have won the women's 3X3, so congratulations, USA. Tennis, again, I want to talk about this in just a second with you, Jarrod, but it wasn't a very good day for most of Australia. Sammy Stoser and Perez went out in straight sets to Bencic and Golbic. Now, I want to say, you talk about curses. I know I mentioned I've interviewed Barty and Stoser. I've interviewed Bencic, too. So, I mean, there was always one that was going to make it through, and she's in the singles and the doubles, Jarrod. So, you know, not me.
JARROD LOOBEEK: But you're saying she's going to lose both of her semifinals and finish fourth.
BEN WATERWORTH: She will, now that I've said that out loud. She will. Sadly, the Storm Sanders Barty party is over. I caught most of that one. They won the first set against the Czech No. 1 seed, but lost in the super tiebreaker. I like how they caught that. But Barty has another chance to be eliminated in the quarters, as she is through in the mixed doubles with John Pierce. They beat Argentinians Poroska and Zabalos. But Nick Chista, of all people, messaged me to say, what the hell, we've got a doubles pair in the semis of tennis. Even New Zealand is shocked by Venus and Danielle going through here. With a name like Venus, you've got to be good at tennis. But just quickly on the tennis, Novak also went through, we should mention that. What are your thoughts on the tennis where we're at right now? Because particularly on the women's side of things, that's very interesting how that's looking.
JARROD LOOBEEK: It is. Because it feels like, I mean, kind of typical women's tennis that most of the seeds have bombed out early. But really, it could go any which way. The fact, like, Svidalina is looking like the favourite there based on ranking. But it really feels like anything can happen there. I'm just still getting over the doubles and the fact that we had two pairs in the quarterfinals on opposite sides of the draw. The fact that if both of them won, we were guaranteed a medal of some description. Both of them lost. You say the Yo Pro Mojo is over. I don't think it counts with charmers in, like, the teams' events. Like, these curses are more so individual because even the Campbell sisters won medals in the team events. So the Yo Pro Mojo is really on Ash Buddies' back in the doubles. I'm not expecting much out of that. I mean, they're up against the Greek combo in the mixed necks, so that may not go the way we want it to go.
BEN WATERWORTH: Which we could have been up against the Canadian pair that lost because the Greeks beat the Canadians. So, yeah, the number two seeds there in Sicarii and Sephardi. I'm not even going to bother with that one. But just looking at the women's draw, so Bencic and Rabakina and Selena and Von Drosková of the Czech Republic. So, I mean, I've heard of Bencic because I've interviewed her. And in the men's, Novak, I mean, look, this is actually a decent quarterfinal against K. Nishikori. It's fucking hell, Ben. I know his name, Nishikori. I got it right that time, didn't I? Thank you. Sort of. Oh, and Australia just hit the post in the hockey. Jesus.
COLIN HILDING: Sorry.
BEN WATERWORTH: Just to be distracted.
COLIN HILDING: Are we going to pick sides in Nishikori and Jokovic?
BEN WATERWORTH: Oh, Jokovic. Come on. I'm team Jokovic. You guys can be on the hater, right? No way. I love Jokovic.
JARROD LOOBEEK: Whoever is against Jokovic all day, any day.
BEN WATERWORTH: Oh, screw you all. This is my Matinka.
COLIN HILDING: Nishikori is just like, I don't know, he's like the flash on the court. I just love to watch the guy move.
BEN WATERWORTH: Is this a shock to have a New Zealand pair in the men's doubles? Like in the semi, what the fuck, New Zealand? You're not good at tennis?
COLIN HILDING: I don't know if you think New Zealand is good at anything.
JARROD LOOBEEK: Like Michael Venus has been around for a while, and like he generally does well in doubles events. So it's not too out there.
BEN WATERWORTH: I actually think, if I'm not mistaken, is Michael Venus from Southland? No, he's from Auckland. When I lived there, there was a doubles player from where I was from, and they always talked him up. Is it Marcus Daniel? No, okay. Must be another one. Maybe I'm just making that up. But Croatia is guaranteed of a medal. They've got two pairs in equal size of the draw there, so that's interesting. I see Novak's not playing the doubles, but he's playing the mixed doubles. I didn't realise that Novak was a share. I didn't realise he liked to play doubles, Jarrod.
JARROD LOOBEEK: Yeah, obviously, drafted him in last minute. Let's hope if he does win a medal, that's where it comes from.
BEN WATERWORTH: Doesn't count the Golden Grand Slam if you win it in doubles, right? And also in the, I should say in the women, so yeah, Belina Bencic and Victoria Gulbic of Switzerland, who beat Stoza and the other one. And Barbara, I'm not even going to try and say the Czechs. They beat Sanders and Bardi up against Rock. Just a quick little mention. I've talked up how Philippines, Turkmenistan, Philippines and Bermuda won their first gold. Obviously Turkmenistan won their very first Olympics. I feel like we've undersold Rock. They've won their very first ever Olympic medals in these Olympics. So Rock's very overachieved these Olympics. Like, they've finally broken through for their first medals.
JARROD LOOBEEK: I keep missing the medal presentations, and I'm upset because I want to hear Tchaikovsky play. I keep missing it.
BEN WATERWORTH: Me too. Yeah, actually I keep forgetting about that. Let's go to, I usually go to What We Watch. Let's go to Athlete Of The Day now, because I feel like this got a bit heated yesterday. So maybe we need to... I want to do this Athlete Of The Day, and then we're going to go to our commentary. I haven't gotten a lot of commentary, but all right, Colin, hit me up with yours. And is this one from like five Olympics ago, or somebody that you think that your rim was a lock and we're just going to shoot it down?
COLIN HILDING: No, well, I'm actually, let's talk about Simone Biles for a second because it's not going to be her. But I don't want to knock Simone Biles to us. I actually applaud somebody who is willing to step away who's maybe been pressured. Because I think if we really look at what the full story is, it's actually very similar to Penny Oleksiak. You know, there was basically the pressure of, you are this team, we can't do this without you. And just from what I gather, I think that she probably wasn't feeling ready to compete in Tokyo or wasn't feeling mentally able to compete in Tokyo. And they basically said, well, we can't have it without Simone Biles. You are the Olympics, not just gymnastics. You are the Olympics. She wasn't performing the way she thought she would. She thought she'd cost them a medal, so she pulls herself out. I applaud that. What bothers me is all the attention is still on Simone Biles, even though she wasn't in the event. And that's not a knock against her. That's a knock against the media, not just American media, every media. I mean, Canada is still Simone Biles pulls out.
BEN WATERWORTH: Striders, too.
COLIN HILDING: I'm sure it's everywhere. And meanwhile, Jordan Childs, who was an alternate, and just reading up a little bit on her story, she was basically out of gymnastics, and she competed, she hadn't had a lot of success. She's like, I'm done with this. And the offer was given for her to come and kind of train with Simone Biles and sort of work as her number two, to be her alternate. And she took it up, and they're like apparently very good friends. Simone decides to pull out of this. And Jordan, who is basically immediately up to the event that she cacked on in qualifying, which was the bars, they say, okay, you're in, you're going, this is the one that you failed on, this is why you're not on the team in the first place, you're up, Simone's out, you're in. And she goes in there and she nails it and pretty much nails every other event. I mean, there's some talk about whether or not she costs them in the final floor exercise or whatever, and that's why they end up getting silver. But the fact is, the whole reason Simone Biles was pressured into being in the Olympics in the first place was because we can't do this without Simone Biles. She pulls out and they held the gold position all the way up until the end and still won a silver. And I'm going to give it to Jordan Childs today. Somebody needs to give credit to Jordan Childs for stepping up, especially after her performance didn't warrant her being in there in the first place, and essentially kept them almost in Simone Biles' territory.
BEN WATERWORTH: Well, let's just point out the obvious fact that once again, Colin, that event happened yesterday, so therefore she is ineligible to be nominated back.
COLIN HILDING: See, this gets so confusing because for me it was today, you know?
BEN WATERWORTH: Sorry, Colin.
COLIN HILDING: Can we make the exception since it happened after the episode?
BEN WATERWORTH: No. Again, you sell it so well. You've had two really great ones that I would probably agree with. But again, it was yesterday.
COLIN HILDING: We need to get in the same time zone here. This is getting so complicated.
BEN WATERWORTH: Jarrod, anyone from today that you would like to nominate?
JARROD LOOBEEK: You know what? I don't really have an athlete of the day today.
BEN WATERWORTH: A day that Australia wins seven medals. You just think, nah.
JARROD LOOBEEK: I've seen better.
BEN WATERWORTH: Look, the couple of guys that I want to put up, I legitimately want to put the whole Argentinian rugby team up just for their emotions. It was so amazing.
COLIN HILDING: That's not a spoiler. It's just for emotions, right?
BEN WATERWORTH: They're just emotional people, Colin. Just their emotions. Outside of that, I mean, Penny is a special one just because she's broken this record for Summer Olympics. I thought that was pretty prominent. Didn't even mention the silver medallist in that 200-metre freestyle event, Siobhan Hawhee. Is that how you say him? Hawhee, Hong Kong's first ever swimming medallist. So I think that's pretty prominent. Or the other one I was going to put up. Actually, the two that I'm going to put up, I'll let you two decide, because Colin's obviously been disqualified. Jarrod doesn't have one. I'm putting up...
COLIN HILDING: I've got one. I've got a substitute if you don't say it.
BEN WATERWORTH: All right. Well, I'm putting up Christoph Malak.
COLIN HILDING: That was my substitute.
BEN WATERWORTH: Just because Mr. Stoneface Hungarian, who shows us how happy Hungarians are. But I legitimately do want to nominate Skye Nicholson, because just watch her interview. She's literally in tears. She's so distraught that she lost this match. She was so thoughtful that she was going to win a gold and everything. I have to actually give really props to whoever the interviewer was on Channel 7 with her, because I've seen when Ariane broke down crying the other day, what's his face? So we didn't really know how to react. You had the rower who broke down today, which is great. And even the guy there was just kind of like, it's all right, love. You're all right. But this female, whoever she was interviewing, she was just so professional and so supportive of Skye Nicholson. She's just basically like, because Skye Nicholson is apologising, she's like, I'm so sorry I let everyone down. She's like, don't be stupid. You don't have to apologise. You've done Australia so proud. Your story is amazing. You're so good. You keep your chin up, love. And I just felt so bad for Skye Nicholson, and it was a tight fought bout, could have gone either way. So I feel like I'm going to be outvoted here just because Colin's on board with Christoph. But I don't know, Jarrod, maybe you are the deciding vote here.
JARROD LOOBEEK: I feel like I disappointed Colin yesterday. And just because I mean, Hungarians being angry has such a history on this show. So I think it has to be Christoph.
COLIN HILDING: Do we? We haven't even talked about the reasoning behind his reaction. Has anybody heard that?
BEN WATERWORTH: I have not, please inform us.
COLIN HILDING: Not only did he win gold, not only did he sit an Olympic record, but he was expecting to set the world record. So he becomes the first athlete ever to have open disappointment that he won a gold and set an Olympic record just because it was not the world record. That makes me love him even more. That's a competitive guy.
BEN WATERWORTH: Let's be honest. We should be thrilled that we were named in the top four Olympic podcasts according to... Oh, Stratus got another one. Sorry, we're three one up now. Stick it up, you hockey sticks, New Zealand. But we were disappointed that we weren't in the top three. So, you know, there was that. I was going to bring up Simone Biles, but she's been talked about too much today. Jarrod, do you have anything to add on Simone pulling out of the Olympics?
JARROD LOOBEEK: Not really. I feel slightly sorry for her, because I can imagine it'd be bad enough to be the face of your sport, but she literally is the face of the Olympics. Any official Olympic news or media or the official Olympic website or advertising, she's just kind of everywhere. So I just imagine the pressure of just, I think, being like an Australian swimmer of like a Campbell's sister, being like the poster child for your sport, but then being the poster child of the Olympics is just on a whole other level. But I do hope that we get to see, like, the media kind of backs down from it a bit, and we do get to see her compete at some stage in one of the individual apparatus finals.
BEN WATERWORTH: The thing that I had sort of heard mainly was that, like, Colin, as you were kind of pointing out before, like, I think she kind of trained herself to peak for last year, and then kind of, obviously, because it got delayed, it was sort of, it was difficult. But yeah, like, I agree completely with you, Jarrod. It was similar to, I can't remember his name, but the Chinese, the hurdler, there was kind of like the face of Beijing that he basically, what, pulled out in the heat and ran off, and you just, I remember those images of just the crowd, like, so shocked. I mean, that would have been like if Kathy Freeman had pulled out of the heats in Sydney. You know, or, yeah, like Sydney Crosby all of a sudden, you know, pulled out after one round of Vancouver or something like that, you know, like.
COLIN HILDING: Like, we should, we also should talk about how unprecedented this is. It's not unusual to have people, like, we've had swimmers even here in Tokyo who just decided to pull out of an event before it really started because like, oh, I need to focus on this. But we're talking about the finals, one of the main events of the Olympics. And she pulls out in the middle of the event. We're talking about the star of it. And she pulls out because she's like, you know, I'm going to cost us a medal here, which it's a selfless act. Again, it's a media thing that bothers me more than what she did. But I don't know if this has ever happened before. Have we ever had an event of this size where in the finals, somebody says, you know what, I'm done. I'm going home. She stayed there and she cheered on the team, not literally going home. But I mean, I don't think I've ever seen this before.
BEN WATERWORTH: I famously pulled out of Olympic contention to give other people a chance because I would have won plenty of golds in my career. So, I mean, I was very selfless in doing that. Colin, does that count?
COLIN HILDING: Yeah, that's why you're not rowing with Kaylee Filmer.
BEN WATERWORTH: Actually, the one thing that was interesting kind of on that note, similar page, but not really. But Jarrod, I'm sure you saw on the Channel 7 coverage this morning in the 200 IM for the women. That they subtly mentioned about 100 times that Kaylee McEwen was the number one ranked swimmer in this event in the world. But she decided to, she qualified for the Olympics, but she decided to say, and I'm not going to do that one. I'm going to just concentrate on the 100 back, which obviously works. She won the gold. But I did love the fact that when Yui Yoshie won, that they basically had to point out that her time was about the same as Kaylee's best time this year. So probably Kaylee would have won the gold. So it's just like subtle little digs there.
COLIN HILDING: I was going to make a joke and say, I bet you that they were like, you know what? We might as well just claim this as a gold for ourselves. They basically did that.
BEN WATERWORTH: But in the entire race, like you've got this great swim by the hometown hero, and they're basically going, oh, remember Kaylee McEwen could have been in this event. She's the number one ranked swimmer in this event in the world this year. It's like, get over it.
JARROD LOOBEEK: I'm surprised they didn't have a Kaylee lineup instead of a world record line.
BEN WATERWORTH: Yeah, that is a very good point. Before we get to what we watched and the things, I should really play our commentary for the day. This is an interesting one. Let's just say that we decided to try our hand at badminton today. And let's just say that badminton isn't the easiest sport to commentate on. And let's just say one of us gets very inappropriate. Jarrod, I was disgusted in you. Like this is disgusting. Why did you get so inappropriate?
JARROD LOOBEEK: Yeah, I'm getting a bad reputation on this show.
BEN WATERWORTH: All right. Colin, anything to say before we play the clip?
COLIN HILDING: Yeah, you know, you've heard commentary just from me and Ben. You've heard commentary from me, Ben and Jarrod. But we have a surprise cameo of somebody who comes in to help us commentate this one, which I think made it particularly exciting.
BEN WATERWORTH: All right. Let's do this now. Let's play our badminton commentary that we recorded earlier. Thanks, Ben, and welcome to the Mushanee Forest Plaza, Court One, or as they're calling it here in Tokyo, the Caucasium for this round-robin match in badminton between Fei Yu Chen of China and Yejit Neslan of Turkey. Traditional rivals in badminton, badminton and Turkey. That makes no sense. I meant China and Turkey. I'm so excited by the badminton today that I can't even speak properly.
COLIN HILDING: The People's Republic of Badminton just missed out on this finale, just for clarification.
BEN WATERWORTH: They did, yes. Thank you very much. Thank you for that clarification. That voice you did just hear as I was about to introduce him is the former number nine mixed doubles player from Eritrea, Colin Hilding. Colin, thank you very much for joining us. It's a pleasure to have you next to me in the commentary box today.
COLIN HILDING: Thank you, and thank you for also being my partner in those mixed doubles.
BEN WATERWORTH: It's my pleasure. And also joining us is a guy who's never watched a game of badminton in his life, but for some reason joined us today. I don't know why. It's Jarrod Lubick. Jarrod, what the hell are you doing here?
JARROD LOOBEEK: Oh, you've got to appeal to the common man. And most people haven't watched badminton in a day in their life, so I'm just representing them.
BEN WATERWORTH: Well, I'm glad that you have, because when it comes to the common man, particularly in the People's Republic of China, everyone just badminton. You walk down the street in Beijing, they're playing badminton. You walk down the streets in Shanghai, playing badminton. Kidnapped by the communist regime, you play badminton. It's just everywhere you go. And as for Turkey, I hear that due to the success here of Neslihan, I mean, the streets of Istanbul have just been going crazy. Colin, as a badminton expert yourself, I mean, what does it mean to a country like Turkey to have a hero like Neslihan?
COLIN HILDING: Well, actually, it doesn't mean that much, because they're all heroes in Turkey. As you said, badminton is everywhere. It's all over the streets. They do it in the delivery room during births. So the guy who served the coffee this morning for the judges also was an all-star badminton player. It's just luck of the draw.
BEN WATERWORTH: Jarrod, for yourself, someone who's never watched this sport, what do you expect? I mean, what's your knowledge of badminton? I know you're a big tennis fan, but is badminton kind of the redheaded stepchild of the racket sports family, and this is something that you just want to mock at when you're watching this today?
JARROD LOOBEEK: Yeah, it's clearly the easiest sport, a lot less prestigious.
COLIN HILDING: Take a step back, Jarrod!
JARROD LOOBEEK: People complain about tennis being in the Olympics, but seem to overlook this sport, but I suppose that's why, because they forget that it's actually in the Olympics, so they can't complain about this there.
BEN WATERWORTH: Well, let's take a look at our players here. Neslihan Yücit, born in the esteemed city of Bursa in Turkey, and what an absolute icon of the sport she is in her country. She has just done wonders for the sport in Turkey, and she cannot walk down the streets without being at least harassed by seven men, but generally that's a Turkish thing anyway. Her hobbies include spending time with her family and friends, and she actually is a teacher outside of playing badminton. So good is she at badminton that she teaches herself how to play. That's how she rolls. But when it comes to Yufei Chen, former number one player in the world, she's that bloody good. She, of course, is from the esteemed city of Hangzhou in China. You think Beijing loves their badminton. Hangzhou, it's called the city of badminton for a reason. Her occupation is an athlete, which is a bit of a weird thing to do if you are a badminton player. And her coach, Wang Lin, is known as the iron man slash lady of badminton. Seriously, what a person they are. Colin, again, you've known these players for quite some time. I believe you used to train Yufei Chen here back in the day when she first started as she was a baby.
COLIN HILDING: Yeah, and funny story, she actually got into the sport by accident. She was looking into joining a bird watching club and accidentally joined a birdie mashing club, and that's how badminton started for her.
BEN WATERWORTH: Common mistake, I believe, in some countries out there. Jarrod, I mean, I think that's how you stumbled into the commentary box. You thought you were bird watching, but then you realised you were watching badminton.
JARROD LOOBEEK: It's true. There's a lot of similarities between the two.
BEN WATERWORTH: Well, I for one thought I was watching porn. I saw the word cock, but then, sadly, I got into a badminton commentary booth, but that's another story. But we're seeing here the players warming up. Colin, give us a bit of a mentality into the brains of a badminton player during the warm up here. I mean, we're seeing Neslihan doing a bit of a jiggly jiggly, as we see our umpire here, Jacob Sinberg, known as the Danish wanker. So we'll see to see if he lives up to their reputation. But the warm up there, how important is that as we're about to get underway here?
COLIN HILDING: Not terribly important, which is why they're about to get underway right now. The warm up is minimal. Then they're off. Look at that. Wow. It comes out of nowhere.
BEN WATERWORTH: Now, the first point here, Colin, is it important to win the first point, or does it really not matter?
COLIN HILDING: It doesn't matter. Let's be honest. I mean, even as a former badminton player myself, nobody understands this sport. So the judges themselves are probably going to get lost and just make up a score by the end.
BEN WATERWORTH: Chen off to a great start there by forcing the unforced error there by Yigit. And as you can see there, Yigit wearing the traditional Turkish ponytail, which is a common aspect of Turkish badminton.
COLIN HILDING: And also controversial, because it does give you an aerodynamic advantage at times when you try to get airborne.
BEN WATERWORTH: Chen leading this one as expected. And she gets a bit of a crap shot there into the net. And we're getting a lot of unforced errors in this game. Colin, how common are unforced errors in badminton?
COLIN HILDING: More common than you would think, but less common than you would hope for.
BEN WATERWORTH: Jarrod, would you compare an unforced error in tennis to badminton, or is it more of an actual unforced error in one sport to another?
JARROD LOOBEEK: Well, considering badminton itself is just an unforced error, I think the advantage has to go to this sport.
BEN WATERWORTH: Shade from Jarrod Lubick there, I love it. Ejit takes the lead here as Chen, the former number one player in the world, has gotten off to a bit of a shit start, let's be honest.
COLIN HILDING: And you can hear the cheering section above me, as several children are getting very worked up over this already.
BEN WATERWORTH: I'm glad you did point that out, because Badminton is all about the kids. The kids absolutely love Badminton. They just love grabbing their racquets and hitting cocks. Let's be honest, it's a huge thing for kids these days. As Ejit hits the cock, and oh, it's just gone out there, Chen. Another one there. Colin, bit of a surprise here, Chen, off to a bad start.
COLIN HILDING: Not a surprise for me, as Chen was once a protege of mine, remember?
BEN WATERWORTH: Well, let's be honest, you only did make it to number nine and in Eritrea, so not that good, but Ejit...
COLIN HILDING: Protegé surpasses the master. When I left you, I was but the learner, now I am the master, is what Chen said to me this morning.
BEN WATERWORTH: Now Chen hits that one over to Ejit. Back, fourth, back, fourth, back, fourth. Oh, that's a big fourth. All the back got there, and a smash down there from Chen. She's backing, she's forthing, and Chen's really pulling out the power there, known for her power moves, and oh, she goes for the high lob, she goes for the low lob, she hits it up, she hits it down. I don't know which one's which, but I'm losing concentration because that guy in the background... Sorry, that volunteer in the background moved slightly, so I wasn't sure what he was doing.
COLIN HILDING: There is an unusual glare on the court today that seems to be following the players around that I believe may have obstructed the view.
JARROD LOOBEEK: Laser pointer from somebody in the crowd there. Big Chinese fan, not a fan of Nestle.
BEN WATERWORTH: Just Colin, when it comes to choosing a cock, as we just saw Yijit do there, is there a routine around choosing a cock, or is it just about a matter of which cock looks best?
COLIN HILDING: Well, typically you want to grab one that is robust, stout, and tastes good on a sandwich.
BEN WATERWORTH: That's how they do like it in China, as Yijit all into the net once again. And Yijit, off to a great start here, but she's lost a point there, so it's 4-2, Yijit leading, of course, first to 21 in badminton, as it is commonly known, often taught in all the schools around the world. Yijit still serving here. Notice she's going for the watch, which I'm unsure of why. Actually, I'll correct myself. Chen serves. Of course, the person who wears the watch does receive. I should know that. Yijit, back to Chen. Yijit. Chen. Yijit. Chen, oh no, Chen decided to leave that because it went out. And Yijit, she's speaking there very firmly to herself, calling herself a massive idiot for missing that shot.
COLIN HILDING: Which is exactly what I was about to call her, but it is always more appropriate for Yakis to call themselves than commentators.
BEN WATERWORTH: Now, Chen going for the traditional Chinese badminton stance, commonly known. Oh, and a big high serve there. Back to Yijit. To Chen. Yijit. Oh, and again to that same era. She puts her hand up and says, hey, can I please have a glass of water? But the referee said, OK, yes, you can. But let's review your shot at the same time. Colin, how does this work?
COLIN HILDING: He had the laser pointer. Did you see that?
BEN WATERWORTH: I did.
COLIN HILDING: The fix is in.
BEN WATERWORTH: Controversial. But we'll see this. What's your call here, Jarrod? Was this in or out? Oh, I'm going to see it now anyway. Oh, it looks to be out. No, it's in. Oh, it's hit the line.
JARROD LOOBEEK: I'd say in, based on...
BEN WATERWORTH: The replay?
JARROD LOOBEEK: Hawkeye and tennis. Is there a name for the review system in Badminton?
BEN WATERWORTH: I believe it is called Eagle Eye. Possibly. I could be making that up. Colin, as the expert here, is it called something?
JARROD LOOBEEK: Golden Eye, question mark?
BEN WATERWORTH: Golden Eye. Actually, you might be correct with that one, Jarrod.
COLIN HILDING: Yeah, I was going to say, you'll never know when they watch you from the shadows as a child was the technical name for it, but it's lovingly known as Golden Eye, just because it's simpler to say.
BEN WATERWORTH: And as they often say in Badminton, of course, I am invincible. Now, 6-3 lead here to Yajit. She's getting a bit of a gap now as she grabs another cock, and she likes the look of this cock. She's holding it firmly, rubbing it slightly. That's always a good sign when you rub the cock in Badminton.
COLIN HILDING: You don't want to be too rough with it, because they do have feelings to the cocks.
BEN WATERWORTH: They do. Now Yajit gets ready. She's almost adopting the Chinese. Oh, a little flick there. Clever there from Yajit. She flicks it back to Chen. Chen back to Yajit.
COLIN HILDING: Mind games are very common in the sport.
BEN WATERWORTH: Oh, and once again, she goes for that lovely little corner, but this time she gets it in firmly. So firmly with the cock there, seven to three. Bit of a boil over here happening, perhaps, Colin.
COLIN HILDING: I wouldn't count Chen out at this point, because there are many tricks up Chen's sleeve that I have taught over the years, one of which may be pulling out a baseball bat and clubbing the opponent to the head.
BEN WATERWORTH: Which is a common thing in most of China.
COLIN HILDING: And again, the judges are all intoxicated at this point, so you run the risk of getting caught with a penalty, but most of the time they're too bombed to even notice.
BEN WATERWORTH: That one went out there from Yajit, so it's a point there to Chen. You're talking about the kids loving this sport. Don't the fans here at the Olympic Games listen to the crowd? Let's just take a moment to listen to the crowd here. Going off. Just going off.
COLIN HILDING: Still sounds like screaming children to me, but could just be my section of the court here. We are separated for social distancing purposes.
BEN WATERWORTH: Jarrod, from what you've experienced here at the Olympic Games in Tokyo, have you seen a more raucous crowd than you have right here at the Badminton?
JARROD LOOBEEK: It's got to be very distracting for the players out there.
BEN WATERWORTH: Another unforced error from Yajit, and well, you just said, Colin, that Chen's not out of this one. She's back to within a point. It's 7-6 right now with the serve. She just strokes the cock slightly and gets ready for it. Hits the cock up high. Yajit smacks the cock back. Chen with the cock. Yajit. Chen. Yajit. Chen. Yajit. She badminton's. She badminton's back. She cocks it back. She badminton's. She over badminton's. Under badminton's. Sideways badminton's. All high badminton up there. Chen for the overhead smash. Can't quite do it there with Yajit. Yajit back over and it's going to go out again. She just, she can't keep it in, Colin. She can't keep the cock in.
COLIN HILDING: Yeah, that cock is flying wild right now. And that does tend to happen every once in a while. Cocks get a little overly excited there on the court.
BEN WATERWORTH: Jarrod, as a tennis fan, I mean, this is almost Ash Barty-esque from Yajit.
JARROD LOOBEEK: It is, and it looks like they're just going for extra style points from the big air. Of course, the coaches can step in and replace their players anytime in badminton. Common occurrence.
BEN WATERWORTH: Well, Chen, meanwhile, has pulled a Yajit and hit it too far, and she acknowledges that she did suck at that shot. Looks into the camera, says hi to her mum. That's nice. Good to see there. Chen obviously doesn't call me to say hi to her family.
COLIN HILDING: I believe she actually said, I suck mum, is what she was saying, not hi, mum.
BEN WATERWORTH: Oh, right. See, I didn't understand the Mandarin there. I'm glad, because you obviously trained her. Just on the left there, you can see the line judge. He's loving life at the moment there. That's Greg, the famous badminton line judge. And Greg is just an excitable personality. Loves his sport as much as the crowd does. Should mention there, though, that Chen gets it all tied up here. Colin ate all. And listen to the crowd. Listen to the Chinese contingent go off with that one.
COLIN HILDING: They've calmed down very quickly. Oh, a child has wandered on the court and is looking for his father.
BEN WATERWORTH: Did you hear that? That is crazy that as soon as you say that, the Chinese contingent just need to find their dad. We thought she was saying hi to her mum, but I think it's the other way around. Somebody get some help for that child. Meanwhile, Chen is taking the lead for the first time in this match. She has a serve. She goes for the high lob as Jaromintum before. Yijit back. Back to Chen. Chen goes for the smash. Yijit back. Oh, and Yijit gets in the shit. And she puts it down. Another unforced error for her. And Chen now with a two point lead. Colin Hilding.
COLIN HILDING: Wow, the crowd is going nuts tonight. This is a real barn burner. Slobberknocker, you might even call it. And the crowd has worked up as the badminton's still going back and forth. They're just waiting for one of these birdies to fly and hit them in the face.
BEN WATERWORTH: Yijit back to Chen. Chen goes for the sideward sway. Oh, and again, she hits it out. Yijit and oh, she is not happy. Jarrod, Yijit is just not handling that cock well tonight.
JARROD LOOBEEK: She is, and I would have liked to see GoldenEye on that one. But I think the strategy of back and forth, back and forth, somebody may have to pull out a fifth if they want to end up winning this event.
BEN WATERWORTH: Now, there's a lot of drink breaks here, and Yijit's coach is really angry. He's saying, you've let me down, child. You have let me down. If you lose this match, you will be going to live back on the streets. You suck. You suck. Hit that cock well. Hit it well.
COLIN HILDING: Because she's nodding in agreement, so she knows she sucks.
BEN WATERWORTH: She really does. She really does suck at the cock. She really needs to prove her skills better with the cock. Really, really pressuring her into it.
COLIN HILDING: And now they've moved on past degrading her, and he's asking what she wants to have with lunch. Do you want fries? Do you want grape soda?
BEN WATERWORTH: Some baklava.
COLIN HILDING: Turkish delight. Chen's not even thinking food. That is how you get in the game. Don't worry about the lunch.
BEN WATERWORTH: Well, this is how good Chen is. She doesn't even have a coach. She coaches herself. You taught her so well, she doesn't need a coach.
COLIN HILDING: Well, actually, she fired me for showing up late, sleeping in frequently, and also not understanding the rules of badminton. She caught on to that, and I was gone very quickly.
BEN WATERWORTH: That small child in the stadium is angry. Sorry, Jarrod.
JARROD LOOBEEK: I was going to say, bringing your kids to the court may have had something to do with it.
COLIN HILDING: That's the big issue, yes. One of them is turning to the Incredible Hulk right now. That does disrupt the flow of the game.
BEN WATERWORTH: Chen goes to the smash. Yijit back. Chen. Chen. Yijit. Chen. Chen. Oh, that's going to go out. No, Yijit hits it. Chen. Hi. Chen. Chen. Yijit. Chen. Chen. This is the greatest rally I've ever seen. Chen. Oh, the coach is off. Look at him. This is sport of the finest.
COLIN HILDING: That's how to not suck there, Yijit. The dressing down has really helped her.
BEN WATERWORTH: I can't even say your name.
JARROD LOOBEEK: Who knew the pressure of going back to live on the streets would induce such a fantastic performance.
BEN WATERWORTH: Sorry, Jarrod Liebuk. Jarrod Liebuk. I don't know what I was saying there.
COLIN HILDING: You have earned that Turkish delight, Yijit. Just keep it up.
BEN WATERWORTH: There's a reason why this sport is so big and huge. Good also to see there the Japanese volunteers practicing for the Beijing Winter Olympics with their curling technique. Good to see the judges allowing them to just quickly come in between points to do some sweeping practice. Always good to see the kids getting involved here, no matter what sport it is. Let's try and calmly call this one now. Yijit. Flicks it. Just a little wrister. She goes back to Chen. Chen back to legit. I'm so into this game all of a sudden.
COLIN HILDING: Yijit is legit.
BEN WATERWORTH: She is. Even though she lost the point.
COLIN HILDING: Merchandise by the end of this match.
BEN WATERWORTH: I have to comment on their uniforms here just quickly. Now China, of course, adopted the traditional red from China with sort of a white, almost ink blot stain there. Not too sure, Jarrod, about the Turkish attire here, white, blue and green, not commonly known as Turkish national colours.
JARROD LOOBEEK: Yeah, by the looks that Yigit may have defected from Uzbekistan at the very last second.
BEN WATERWORTH: Well, that is a common rumour, which is often not confirmed nor denied with fear of death.
COLIN HILDING: But the players also were worried about the over sexualization of the badminton uniform. So there have been some modifications made last minute.
BEN WATERWORTH: Bit of a sass there from Yigit kind of fist pumps with the cock going into the net there from China. It's 12-11 here, tight first set. Of course, Yigit did lead this one by four points at one stage. Chen, sorry, has gone up there. I just, I have to say, I apologise to the viewers. I am so enthralled by this sport that I just cannot pronounce people's names. I'm going to call you Colin Holding in a minute. Probably there for a second when it comes to that. I mean, I-
COLIN HILDING: You go right ahead. You go right ahead. But I'm going to go escort this child out of the stadium. I will be back shortly.
BEN WATERWORTH: Wow, Jarrod, I mean, you stumbled into this commentary box by mistake as Yajit once again hits it out. But you're seeing all the action right now on the court in the commentary box. I mean, my goodness, me, you really seeing it all tonight.
JARROD LOOBEEK: It's true. And judging by the commitment of the other commentator, I may have a full time job after commentating this match.
BEN WATERWORTH: Well, if you've ever had a dream, I'm sure it was to be a full time commentator of Bad Mitten.
JARROD LOOBEEK: Colin Holding, potentially taking up a job in security.
BEN WATERWORTH: Yeah, possibly. Jarrod Lee Boock, who knows, you could have a different name there as Jit serves it. Chen smacks it back. Jit smacks it back. Oh, and just can't quite get that one over there. Just a little bit concerned about Jit's cock handling here. It started off very, very well. She wipes the sweat from her brow there. She gives a gentle nod across to the coach and says, yep, I realise streets. Yes, I know I will be living there. So we see Chen just fluffed the cock a little bit. She's ready to stroke it a little bit harder as she flicks it up high. She loves that high serve. Back to Jit, to Chen, to Jit, to Chen. She goes for the sidewinder. Oh, Jit counters with the sidewinder. Another sidewinder. Jit goes for the slow lob. Jit again with a smash into the net and she bardies it up. Oh, she's not happy with that one. Jarrod, I do believe that she does like to watch Ash bardy, and sadly she couldn't get the Wimbledon tape. She could only get around one tape from Tokyo. So, it's making a little bit of sense right now.
JARROD LOOBEEK: Yeah, it helps when you study a good performance. But yeah, just struggling to get it over the net there.
BEN WATERWORTH: Now, Chen's face, just that expression of just sheer determination. She was down by four, but now she's up by four. 15-11 is the score here in the first set. Jit just goes slightly over the net. She tries for the sidewinder, but Chen is open to that. She knows what's happening. She goes for the sidewinder and gets it straight at her feet. And oh, look at the emotion in Chen there. She is going off here in the arena. Jarrod, oh my goodness, I've not seen that much emotion from her ever.
JARROD LOOBEEK: No, she needs to be careful not to get carried away here. A five-point lead looks handy, but as we know in this sport, things can change in the flash of an eye. The umpire is free to swap the scores of the two athletes at any stage.
BEN WATERWORTH: Which I like. It's good to keep things up and running as Colin joins us back in the commentary box. Colin, as it is commonly known, when you get a five-point lead in badminton, you generally aren't losing, are you?
COLIN HILDING: Well, I mean, if they do start doing it backwards, they double their points. So you never know, to be honest.
BEN WATERWORTH: I also do believe there is the bonus round if it is decided to be played, and that can be played by the coach at any point. And at that point, of course, Ash Barty does actually come into the game as a third player. So, Jarrod, it's a new initiative to try and combine all these racket sports.
JARROD LOOBEEK: Yeah, the Barty initiative, it is just an exhibition event this year. But hopefully it does become permanent for Paris 2024.
BEN WATERWORTH: What a smash there from Chen. She loves to smash the heck out of that cock. And again, look at the emotion on her face there. She was emotionless before, but now she just can barely contain it. Look at that face. She just loves that cock so much, Colin.
COLIN HILDING: I don't even know how to respond to that. But I will agree with you, she definitely does. And that's why she is at however many points she's at right now.
BEN WATERWORTH: Well, 17 to 13, it was 17 to 12. She got the five point lead up again, and she puts her hand up and says, no, hang on a minute. Hang on a minute. I need to contain my emotions.
COLIN HILDING: Hold on, hold on. I'm getting a phone call here. She's calling me.
BEN WATERWORTH: Yes, Chen.
COLIN HILDING: Yes. Yes, you can have Turkish light too if you win this. Just win it. Just win it.
BEN WATERWORTH: Get back, get back, get back here in the game.
COLIN HILDING: Bye.
BEN WATERWORTH: Bye. The skill there of Chen to make a phone call in the middle of a point, that's crazy. As Yejit tries to take advantage of it, but Chen says, no, I'm with AT&T. My connection's really good. And oh, she's not. No. No, she's not with AT&T because she just shanked that one badly. And Yejit gives a Turkish fist bump. And Chen, all of a sudden, she's, for the first time, I've seen her sweat. Look at her. She's wiping the sweat. And now so is Yejit. But Turkish sweat, we know, is almost like a power source, Jarrod. If you're sweating in Turkey, it's almost like a power boost.
JARROD LOOBEEK: This is very true. And she's going to need that now. Down the three points here. Can she pull it back?
BEN WATERWORTH: She does a little flick wrister. Chen does a sweet flick thru as well. The sweet lister, of course, is a very Chinese move. Yejit goes for the high lob. And oh, it's out again. Now Yejit's challenging it. Oh, Colin, that looked well on to me.
COLIN HILDING: As she should, he is saying your left hand goes up like this. The other one holds the racket. That's the way the rules go, girls.
BEN WATERWORTH: Now, I'm not sure about this one, Jarrod. What did you think on this one?
JARROD LOOBEEK: It looked well on to me, but we do know that Goldeneye can malfunction from time to time. So she's in with a chance.
BEN WATERWORTH: Oh, there's a bit of a delay here. The technology is a bit slow here in Turkey. Goldeneye may be malfunctioning, which is a bit of a concern here for Yejit as she wipes off that Turkish sweat. Now let's take a look at this. It is well long. Yes, look, that almost ended up in Sapporo. I don't know what she was thinking there, Colin.
COLIN HILDING: It's amazing that the cameras were able to zoom in like that and cartoonify it just on the spot.
BEN WATERWORTH: Jarrod, as a tennis fan, it's interesting to think that this Goldeneye technology is about 10 minutes slower than general Hawkeye technology in tennis. It's very interesting.
JARROD LOOBEEK: Well, that's what we expect from Batman. Obviously doesn't have the same following, the same funding, the same interest.
COLIN HILDING: What they really needed was somebody good to work on the guidance system.
JARROD LOOBEEK: It's not actually cameras for Goldeneye here. It's actually just they've got a little cartoonist in there just drawing it as quickly as he can before they bring it up.
BEN WATERWORTH: I have to say that after this match, though, the sport will increase its following around the world. I mean, this this might be the greatest spectacle in sport I've ever seen. I'm just I'm you heard me before. I got way too excited. I think my balls finally dropped.
COLIN HILDING: If you can find any other sport that lists that type of reaction out of children, then I would love to be there to hear it.
BEN WATERWORTH: It's 1914. Jim with that five point buffer again. Oh, she does a little flick. Oh, back down there. Oh, you're really getting into it now. Power hungry. She wants that Turkish sweat working for her. She flicks it up high. Chen for the smash. Oh, she goes with the sneaky lob. Chen nearly left it, but going back for it there. Not scared of Chen's stoic performance here. I can't even contain myself. Oh, and she hits the net and gives the standard little racket sport. Hey, like, I'm really good. I did that deliberately. But fuck you, as it's 20 to 14, she now has six set points. Jarrod Lubig, six set points.
JARROD LOOBEEK: Yeah, it's hard to see Yijit coming back from this one.
BEN WATERWORTH: Now listen to the crowd just really get into this one now. Chen with the high serve. Yijit smacks it back, and it's out. And there it is. Chen has the set. Colin, wow.
COLIN HILDING: Moments away from glory for China. They haven't been this happy since Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon was nominated for Best Picture.
BEN WATERWORTH: Jarrod, any final thoughts on this set as we go to the the set break before we go into the next one, which we won't be calling, but I'll just need to get your final thoughts on this match before we do head back to the Off The Podium studio.
JARROD LOOBEEK: Well, I think Yijit's got to be very concerned about going back to live on the streets. Potentially the strategic uniform choice. She can defect back to Uzbekistan and compete again.
COLIN HILDING: Interesting, sweeper out there just mopping all the sweat off of the court that has been pooling.
BEN WATERWORTH: Just before we head back, I was going to say interesting choice here for Chen to adopt a coach all of a sudden. She just quickly, I think after she called you, called a coach quickly just from the table tennis. So an interesting strategy. Another racket sport, of course, but yeah, different strategy for the second set, it seems.
COLIN HILDING: Well, when I disappeared briefly, I put in a call to an old colleague of mine, and that is Ray there, who is stepping in to take up the reins. And let's give him partial credit if Chen ends up winning this thing. Of course, I will deserve the majority of the credit.
BEN WATERWORTH: Unfortunately, our time has run out today. We have only paid for enough to the IOC to commentate one set of badminton today. So we will be crossing back now to the Off The Podium studios, where Ben will no doubt give us an update on who actually wins this match. Let's be honest, still better coverage than Channel 7. Ben, it's back to you in the Off The Podium studios. Yes, thank you for that, Ben, for crossing back here. I'm glad that I can cross to myself. And I will tell you the score in that one for those on Tenter Hooks of who won between Yajit and Chen. We should have probably commentated the second set because it was a little bit quicker. Chen ended up winning the second. I keep calling it sets. They're called games in badminton, not sets. 21 to 9. So she won in straight sets there. The former world number one, Yufei Chen. So obviously, sadly, Nestle and Yajit will be going back to the streets of Turkey, which I mean, we all expected that, right? What did we watch today outside of what we've talked about? Let's start with you, Jarrod. I mean, right now, we're still watching the hockey for one up now. The Kookaburras are really putting the sword to those silver greedy Kiwis.
JARROD LOOBEEK: I didn't catch too much today outside of kind of the medal events. Obviously, the disappointing loss in the soccer, the Boomers win was great to watch. Special shout out to the Great Britain crew in the rowing, who went wildly off course.
BEN WATERWORTH: Yes.
JARROD LOOBEEK: Always great to see the Brits fail at sport.
BEN WATERWORTH: It was revenge for Euro. They were trying to take out the Italians. Did you see that column where the British rowing team were basically like, they went diagonal and they were literally about to crash into the Italian crew before they had to straighten themselves. And I'm like, well, it's revenge for the Euros and also just the Brits for some reason helping Australia win a goal because Italy were catching up to us. So it was funny. But the thing that kept confusing me about the rowing is they kept saying that they were hitting crabs. And obviously this is a rowing term, which is like a crabbing when you miss time at stroke. I legitimately thought there was a problem in the Tokyo Lake. Did you get that, too?
COLIN HILDING: Well, I started tuning in and out of that one. There was no stakes. Canada wasn't in it. And you had said, we are both watching it live, and you had said right before it started, it's like, oh, they're already saying Australia is not going to meddle in this. I'm like, all right, I'm watching whatever's going on on TV. And meanwhile, I have that going on my laptop. And when you said that afterwards, because all of a sudden, like, how did Australia win this? Like, they hit a crab. And I'm like, I got to watch the replay of this. I'm legitimately looking.
JARROD LOOBEEK: I was waiting because they even did show like a slow motion replay, and they certainly explained what the term meant. So I was waiting to see this little crab hanging on to the oar with its pincer as they went through the water.
BEN WATERWORTH: I'm thinking like Rio had green pools, like now all of a sudden Tokyo's got a crab infestation in this lake. I'm wanting to see just like thousands of crabs floating up, like extra gold medal if you survive the crab infestation of Tokyo 2020. The thing that I find funny though is because do you remember in Rio, when it was kind of like the lake was like next to houses, you just kind of had like Brazilians hanging out of their houses. What's wrong? This is like next to a highway in the middle of nowhere.
COLIN HILDING: You got everybody commuting to work.
BEN WATERWORTH: Imagine that, it's time to work for the day. What's that to the next to me? Oh, just the Olympics.
COLIN HILDING: Do you know what, though, it was it was before the Olympics, because this is one of those events that had preliminary rounds going on for a few days beforehand. On one of the first days, you actually saw one guy fishing the water. Well, that's the problem, crabs. He's looking, he's like, what's going on here?
BEN WATERWORTH: You know what it is? Which is the NHL team where they throw octopus on the rink when they get a...
COLIN HILDING: Oh, the sharks.
BEN WATERWORTH: The sharks, right?
COLIN HILDING: No, wait, no, it's not the sharks. It's the red wings, yeah.
BEN WATERWORTH: The red wings, OK. Like, this is a Japanese tradition, just like the octopus in the red wings, let's throw crabs at the rowers. Like, this is a traditional Japanese greeting, like, welcome to Tokyo, have some crabs. Actually, you should never say welcome to Tokyo, have some crabs. You probably need to go to a doctor after that. But after my badminton commentary, I shouldn't really make any more sex jokes today. Colin, did you watch more than the crabs in the rowing? What else did you watch today?
COLIN HILDING: Oh, see, this is an unfortunate day because, I mean, I was glued to multiple... At one point, I had three screens open. I was watching the swimming, which was on TV. I was watching the rugby on my laptop, and I was watching something else. I think it was tennis on my phone. I'm glad that I got all that in because the majority of the big events happen overnight here when I'm sleeping. And I woke up this morning to turn on my PVR and see an all black screen for seven and a half hours. So I missed a lot of what went on. Thankfully, not much of it was Canada. So that basically was it for me. It was just swimming. It was a little bit of tennis. It was the rowing. And now the 3X3 basketball, which at the moment, Rock is up 12 to 10 to Latvia. This is actually getting close. I was kind of disappointed that everything's been very close in these gold medals because the quarterfinals yesterday had some really tight ones, but it's getting closer. It's now 12 to 11, so yeah, that's what I mean.
BEN WATERWORTH: Well, I was about to spoil it. And so it's 13 to 11 now.
COLIN HILDING: Well, spoilers, Ben. You know about the Canadian delay.
BEN WATERWORTH: Rock are getting trying to get revenge here because the US beat them in the women's. So who knows? Jarrod, if Rock win here, you might hear some Tchaikovsky. So you might have to switch on the 3X3.
JARROD LOOBEEK: Yeah, definitely.
BEN WATERWORTH: Kukaburras won 4-2. I just kind of school Kukaburras won 4-2. Just before you say that, Colin, and I'm watching a beach volleyball right now, so I may be distracted.
COLIN HILDING: So the big thing that I actually watched last night, like right before bed, was not even from this current Olympics, but I didn't realise it was yesterday. I've signed up for a race, well, virtual race, whatever. For Donovan Bailey, he has a charity out of his hometown, and it's supposed to be for the 25th anniversary. The race, the charity race is on August the 3rd. So I thought that was the 25th anniversary, but it was yesterday. Yesterday was the 25th anniversary of Donovan Bailey winning the gold medal and setting the world record in the men's 100-metre, which I just have to say, I still don't think I've ever seen an Olympic event that was as exciting to watch as that one. And there's so much, neither of you have seen it, it's been a long time since even anybody out there has seen it. You don't even have to be a Canadian to love this event. It was the most dramatic buildup to an event ever because he had so many people who, this was like the backstroke from a couple of days ago where anybody could take this, anybody could set the world record. And Linford Christie, who I think was expected to win this thing, watch, you want to see a Terminator. I mean, you have the most crazed look in a man's eye going to this event as there's false start after false start after false start that he caused most of, as he just, every time they go, just has like psycho killer expression on his face where the commentators are even chuckling at him. And he isn't getting taken out. So you think, okay, well, there's no way a world record is going to be set. Now the front runner is gone. And then Donovan Bailey, who wasn't even expected, maybe he would have pulled off a silver, ends up setting the world record. They had like a nice video tribute to him on last night. They had an interview with him on TV. It's great that he's on TV. We're going to be seeing a lot of him on the Canadian TV. Man, what a man, Donovan Bailey. I mean, I would put him up for athlete of the day.
BEN WATERWORTH: Well, you probably would 25 years late. I saw some of that, the tweets out for that yesterday. And he has not aged much, has he? I like the name Donovan, more common name. I actually like, I would have been nine. And I mean, Atlanta, like I remember some of, I actually do weirdly remember some of Barcelona, even though I was like five. But yeah, I remember a lot of Atlanta, and I'm pretty sure I remember a fair bit around that. I mean, the one that they shared recently for Australia was 25 years since Kieran Perkins' famous Lane 8 Swim, which was in the last few days. And yeah, they were mentioning, of course, with the Awesome Foursome today, that it was like 25 years and one day since that Awesome Foursome in Atlanta. So it was kind of very prominent there. Yeah, they're showing this replay now of the Australian winning the beach volleyball today. So it's distracting, as the Italian is pulling her wedgie out of her butt. So, yep, sorry. I should also mention the other medal event, the 3x3 that is the one happening right now is the last one, because the men's all-around gymnastics has been decided. And Deki Hashimoto of Japan, another gold for Japan, wow, wins that one, Rui Tongzhao of China, the silver, and Nikita Nagorni of ROCK. So good to see ROCK doing so well. I'm finally getting on that medal tally once again. And I haven't given the medal tally. I'll refresh that. And I will say that Japan are still shitting it in at the top. Good for Japan. 13 gold, 4 silver, 5 bronze, 22 in total. China, 12 gold, 6 silver, 9 bronze, 27 in total. US third, 11 gold, 11 silver, 9 bronze, 31. ROK, 7 gold, 9 silver, 6 bronze, 22. And Australia, we're in the top five. Look at this. 6 gold, 1 silver. Pick up the silver, but not too many. 9 bronze, 16 in total. Canada have slipped out of the top 10 because Netherlands have finally picked their game up. Your 11th with 2 gold, 3 silver, and 4 bronze. And just to remind everyone where New Zealand is, Colin, take your headphones off quickly because this may spoil the rugby. Zero gold, 2 silver, and 1 bronze. All right, you're good now, Colin. Headphones on, headphones on. Put them on.
COLIN HILDING: Okay.
BEN WATERWORTH: Just, just, just.
COLIN HILDING: I'm distracted with rock and Latvia here. There's 3 minutes to go.
BEN WATERWORTH: I don't really have much to add what I watched outside of what we've already talked about.
COLIN HILDING: I have a quick question when you went over the medal standings though.
BEN WATERWORTH: Sure, Colin, I may answer it for you.
COLIN HILDING: Since Vancouver, have we seen any host nations number one?
BEN WATERWORTH: No, Russia, London, UK got third, second in Britain, no, Brazil, no, no.
COLIN HILDING: How crazy would it be if Japan could, I don't know if they're going to keep this streak up, but like track and fields to come, I don't know what we're going to be seeing of Japan out of that. But imagine if Japan of all countries, that would be their vindication. The Olympics have been postponed twice. We got no viewers, no spectators, but we end up number one in the medal standings.
BEN WATERWORTH: Yeah, I agree with you. It would be great to see, because I think not to take away from past host nations, but if you were to have a host nation win the medal tally, Japan is one of the ones that you would want to, because 70 years ago, nobody liked Japan, but nowadays, who doesn't like Japan? Like, I mean, it's kind of, you know, bygones be bygones, but now it's fine. The nuke changed things. God bless the nuke. God bless nuclear weapons. Made Japanese nice people that we can all agree are nice. Hang on, what's that? 48 countries have offended. Oh, my goodness. Um, so, uh, commentary, CBC and Channel 7.
COLIN HILDING: Is Jarrod going to talk about what he watched? He did.
JARROD LOOBEEK: Oh, did he?
COLIN HILDING: Oh, I'm really distracted by this. Look at this. Rock is now 17.
JARROD LOOBEEK: Wow, Colin, you want me to swallow the Rocky Sevens for you?
BEN WATERWORTH: I can't believe that they allowed Canada in as like a bonus round to win the gold medal. Like, whoever would have thought that? Um, I should also mention I saw a bit of the handball today, which is always fun. I like the handball. So and the rugby, um, CVC, Channel Seven, Colin, CVC.
COLIN HILDING: Uh, there wasn't that much for commentary fails here. Well, there's one big one. But I mean, I have to eventually get around to transcribing the whole thing. I'll get to that in a second. This would just be my commentary win of the night, which I think I mentioned to you after Titmuss's gold, where her wonderful coach was celebrating. They didn't comment on it the first time they cut to him because they immediately, everybody knows now, and I think he knows that he's playing to the cameras. Oh, they're going to cut to me. I better have a big freak out session here. But when they were showing all the replays, the commentators were going on about what was actually happening. And then they pulled ahead with 50 minutes to go, and then they cut to that. And our great swimming legend here, who's the colour commentator, he's like, yeah, calm down, Dean, calm down. It's another gold. And then just went right back to what he was saying.
BEN WATERWORTH: Wow, sass by the Canadians.
COLIN HILDING: This has just become a thing that they're already tired of. But all right, Dean, we loved you before, but now it's a little too much.
BEN WATERWORTH: Well, you know what? I'm just going to say this. Next time you win a gold, calm down, Canada, calm down. It's another gold.
COLIN HILDING: But I don't even know her name, but I'm sure Ben would like her Instagram. But the CBC expert, they have two experts. They'll have one expert on the actual Play by Blake commentary, and then they also do the in studio where the anchor will have the correspondent in there with them. Let's talk about what happened this event. The gymnast that they have in there, the expert gymnast.
BEN WATERWORTH: CBC expert gymnast. Keep talking.
COLIN HILDING: You're going to get Kyle Schufelt, who did the commentary, and be very disappointed. But she is, wow, she was hired all for her looks because she cannot speak. She cannot think. I'm actually debating whether or not she even knows where she is right now. Talk about the worst commentator ever, or worst analyst ever. At one point, and I'll give more props here to Andy Petrillo, who I mentioned one of our anchors, who also hosts the Leafs show, the Leafs radio slash TV daily update show. So that's why she's not much. She is amazing. That's a woman right there. Leafs fan, beautiful.
BEN WATERWORTH: Penny's a Leafs fan?
COLIN HILDING: Of course, everybody's a Leafs fan, right?
BEN WATERWORTH: Well, Jarrod's nodding his head very angrily there.
JARROD LOOBEEK: I got a Leafs t-shirt.
COLIN HILDING: But yeah, Andy Petrillo, the same thing I was mentioning with Maggie McNeil, she knows how to get something good out of even the worst people. This analyst they had, at one point she was asking about, oh, what can you tell us about Simone Biles' mindset where she would make this decision to pull out of the event? And their analyst here was like, yeah, it was like really surprising. But although it kind of proves Simone Biles is a human being before being a superstar, and then she just goes silent and Andy Petrillo immediately falls up. Yes, you know, sometimes we do forget that these athletes that we love and we admire are human beings. And it just kept going on and on. Like, I honestly want to transcribe this whole thing or just share the video with you to see the single worst analyst ever hired that Ben Still will want to marry by the time you're done watching it.
BEN WATERWORTH: Find a name? I can't. Like, I'm just finding some Kyle guy.
COLIN HILDING: You're getting Kyle Schufeld.
BEN WATERWORTH: That's the guy.
COLIN HILDING: That's the one right there. I'll set you up.
BEN WATERWORTH: I mean, is she like an Olympian? Like, I mean, you know, who is she?
COLIN HILDING: She was an Olympic gymnast at one point. No, you're really interested. I'll find it while you guys are going over your commentary panel.
BEN WATERWORTH: Please do. Please do. Jarrod, did you note anything down today?
JARROD LOOBEEK: I didn't really have anything to add, but just apart from what we already mentioned, just about the fondness for Kayleigh and the reminder in throughout the medley, like it was just so over the top and disrespectful to the eventual winner that I just felt like a little bit of poor form.
BEN WATERWORTH: I don't know what Colin's doing right now. Like, has he realised the leaf sucks?
COLIN HILDING: There's 42 seconds left, and my video's completely frozen.
BEN WATERWORTH: Do you want me to tell you what's happening? I'm seeing a Latvian raising his arm.
COLIN HILDING: Are you going to do the play-by-play, or you have 42 seconds left as well?
BEN WATERWORTH: There's 32.5 seconds to go, and Latviero up by a point, 19 to 18.
COLIN HILDING: It's starting to slip. We're at 42 seconds now. 41, there we go. It's slowly moving again.
BEN WATERWORTH: There's stuff happening there. There's angry Latvians on my screen. So it's first to 21, right? But if the clock runs out, is it just whoever's winning?
COLIN HILDING: Yeah. So if Latvia just holds 19 to 18, then they win this.
BEN WATERWORTH: Oh, Latvia just won it with a two-point shot! Oh, my goodness! And the stack's on the mill! The Latvians are loving it!
COLIN HILDING: Ho-ho!
BEN WATERWORTH: Sorry, did I spoil it for you, Colin?
COLIN HILDING: I don't know if you did. I'm not there yet.
BEN WATERWORTH: Wow! That was actually pretty epic! Uh, boom, baby! And both fans in the crowd are thrilled. Oh, I feel sorry for Rock. Double silver for Rock.
JARROD LOOBEEK: Aw. Ooh, no Tchaikovsky.
BEN WATERWORTH: Yeah. Actually, speaking of national anthems, I caught the end of the Romanian national anthem. I mean, God, if you ever wanted to hear cliché Soviet-Russia-style national anthem, listen to the Romanian. I'd say they're like the octopusy of the Olympics. That national anthem alone should make them a, I don't know, a spy who loved me. It's pretty good. Anyway, outside of what we talked about, I remember back in our Survivor Oz days over on the Oz network, download now, Lancy used to have the Jeff Probst sexual innuendo of the week, which was always kind of fun. I don't know if all of a sudden we should be paying this out a little bit more to our swimming commentators. Thorpeys are saying, I'll be watching what his stroke looks like, what position he is in. I thought that was pretty sexual. There's also a Never Forget That Thrust, that last thrust by the Dutch. Okay, maybe I'm just the sick one in this episode.
COLIN HILDING: I'm starting to see what's influenced Ben throughout his commentary today.
BEN WATERWORTH: I don't know what you're talking about. That was a different Ben. The rowing commentary is great. I did like me Nick Green and James Tompkins coming out there as the IOC guy putting the medals on and being interviewed. And the girl, I can't remember her name, her parents had won medals and she was bawling her eyes out. I loved all that. But if somebody commentating says the words rowing community one more time, I will find a crab and shove it down their throat. Seriously, I'm sick of the pods, but everything was like, oh, the rowing community will be so proud. Oh, this is so big for the rowing community. Oh, the rowing community are watching all across Australia. I just got to a point where I'm like, OK, like, is this like something that we need to get help for, the rowing community? Like, I don't know. I don't know, Jarrod, if you noticed that they kept saying rowing community a hundred times.
JARROD LOOBEEK: I did. And I just wonder what like, what's the rowing community's acronym? Are they poor parents of Olympic rowers?
BEN WATERWORTH: Jarrod wins the comment of the night. That's good. That's, I like that. Let's see what other ones here. Nick Green said, I don't think the rest of the world expects Australia to be a boat length in front. You know, I'm sure if you cross live to Burkina Faso, it's like, oh, fuck yeah, I didn't think that Australia would be a boat. Bloody hell, I was really shocked that Australia were a boat length in front. The game with Ariane, it was all about every one of her families. Her grandparents were there from Tasmania, they'd flown up to Noosa, and to each dick guy in the Pods thing, such a big move from Tasmania. You'd left it behind, didn't you? God damn it!
JARROD LOOBEEK: You must be glad to get away from there, even if it's just for a holiday.
BEN WATERWORTH: Oh my God, just get over it. There was a comment, she's got a great back end. I don't remember which swimmer that was on, to which I think Thorpey replied, she does have a great back end. I actually love the bit of sass between Thorpey and Leesl. In one of the breaststroke events, Leesl Jones has got, like, you know how when you hear somebody whistling off, and you hear that, shit, shit, shit? Leesl Jones comes in and goes, oh, that's called the breaststroke whistle. It's a good point, and it's good sparing on. Thorpey's like, that's not called a breaststroke whistle, that's just called a whistle. And Leesl Jones is like, well, I call it the breaststroke whistle. He's like, no, it's just a whistle.
COLIN HILDING: Well, that's what I call it.
BEN WATERWORTH: I just loved his sass back to Paul Leesl Jones. And one of our swimmers in one of the heats tonight, a family member of hers apparently played for Carlton. So Leesl Jones all of a sudden chimes in and goes, well, I'm a Carlton supporter, so I like her even more. Well, I like you even more, Leesl Jones. Actually, I'll say, when I was a kid, I couldn't stand Leesl Jones. I just thought she seemed rude and obnoxious, and I didn't like her. But now I absolutely love her, not only because she's a Carlton supporter, but one of the, I think it was the same breaststroke swimmer. Basil's like, oh, and she's a massive hero is yours, Leesl. She had you on the wall and all this kind of stuff. And Leesl Jones is like, oh, what an idiot she is, then. Oh, I love it. There was the father of one of the rowers when they interviewed him. He was almost as good as Dean Boxer. He was like, that's Thunder from Down Under. He was so excited for his daughter winning. Oh, this isn't a commentary thing, but the Swiss swimmers in the 4x2 relay, they came out with a dog. Did you see that? They had like a stuffed dog mascot. It was brilliant. I loved it. I want the Swiss swimming team as my new friends. And also, I do love the Rugby Sevens Australia team had a little wallaby stuffed toy that they put like under the post or something like that. And the Russian swimmers had face masks with cat faces on them. So why wouldn't you do that? Thomas Neil, the four by two hundred relay swimmer, when he was interviewed, said it was better than Lego winning a bronze medal.
COLIN HILDING: So let's add that to the list of what's the greatest feeling in the world. Jarrod said winning the Olympics. I said a jar of dill pickles. Ben says sex. He says better than Lego. Let's put up a poll. Let's see what our listeners choose.
JARROD LOOBEEK: That's painful if you step on a bronze medal as well.
BEN WATERWORTH: I do have a Korean commentary fail, as provided to me by our Korean correspondent, the dateless Noah Groves. He informed me there's a bit of controversy going on back in Korea right now, back on the opening ceremony. So we talked about how Channel 7 decided to make sure that every person watching knew that every country had problems, you know, wars in Iraq, COVID, all this sort of stuff. We talked about how NBC in Canada, at least, kind of, you know, nice. I'll show a graphic on screen of like the countries and where they are. Apparently, the Korean broadcasters decided to show an image related to each country. And it wasn't just like a, hey, here's a kangaroo and here's an American pie. Apparently, when Haiti came out, they showed like two hostages, like at gunpoint, basically. Like, this is, you know, what it is. And what was the one he said about Japan? Like, I'm getting this wrong, but I don't think they showed like a nuclear bomb going off. They were just showing very inappropriate images. And apparently, this Korean commentator is a well known to like right wing supporter. So for Britain, there's apparently a big controversy. Some British guy has gone viral on the Internet because he's like gotten surgery to like make his eyes similar to sort of Asian people. And then saying like, I identify as a Korean. And apparently, this has just been mocked. So for Britain, they show a picture of this guy. Like, this is who it is. So I would love to like, I should have like looked this up more. But yeah, no, I was telling me there's a bit of controversy in Korea right now. The inappropriate images they're showing for countries. So I said, like, I wouldn't want to see what they were showing for Germany.
COLIN HILDING: Japan is just a mushroom cloud. They're really nice since then.
BEN WATERWORTH: Yeah, anyway, well, tomorrow, we have another big day ahead of us. We've only got only got 17 medals being decided tomorrow. So it's a slower day. But Off The Podium, we have a couple of athletes, Carly Mass back in the pool. I believe she'll be part of the 4x100 mixed relay. And Charlotte Kaslik hits the turf in the women's rugby sevens. So Jarrod, if I looked at this list right now of who we've got left, if I think, and I'm jinxing it right now famously, and I know I was a solo interviewer on this one, so clearly they're going to be seventh again. But if we've got any chance of a gold medal, I'm thinking it's going to come from Charlotte as part of the women's rugby sevens, surely.
JARROD LOOBEEK: Yeah, you'd have to think so.
BEN WATERWORTH: I mean, Fiji went very differently how they went in the rugby today. I don't know how they went. Fiji competed in the rugby today, so Australia will too. So who knows how their result will go. Wow, I really saved myself there. Good job, Ben. But yeah, anything tomorrow that we're looking forward to. It's our first day for BMX. And our first day for golf. Golf is on tomorrow. Bring out golf.
JARROD LOOBEEK: How will I choose between the two?
BEN WATERWORTH: I'm going to watch golf tomorrow, and I'm going to tell you that I did.
COLIN HILDING: How many volunteers do we have for six hours of golf commentary?
BEN WATERWORTH: I'll tell you what. Sailing's our commentary tomorrow. On Friday, it's going to be golf.
COLIN HILDING: Oh, you know what?
BEN WATERWORTH: Colin, you're taking the lead on golf. You're the anchor.
COLIN HILDING: I will gladly do that. I have seen Goldfinger more times than I can count.
BEN WATERWORTH: Who do you think he is? Arnold Palmer? Jarrod, you said you sounded keen for the BMX. Are you keen for the BMX?
JARROD LOOBEEK: I think that's going to be so good. That's the BMX is like the adrenaline sport that deserves its spot in the Summer Olympics, as opposed to skateboarding. Although I would like to see a skateboarding cross with five athletes on the BMX track. Maybe that's how we improve it going to Paris 2024.
BEN WATERWORTH: What is this? There's still a skateboarding event to come, isn't there? The park.
JARROD LOOBEEK: Park instead of street.
BEN WATERWORTH: So what are they just...
JARROD LOOBEEK: Stick a tree in the middle of the arena and then get fixed.
BEN WATERWORTH: Isn't that right? Okay, here's a legitimate question. Where's the half pipe?
COLIN HILDING: That's what people want to see.
BEN WATERWORTH: I play Tony Hawk Pro Skater. That's what you'd always go to. You'd go to the half pipe. You'd go to the empty swimming pool. That's what I want. That's what I thought skateboarding would be. Like, we're skateboarding racing. Where's the one where they like... Like the BMX, when they race, like that should be skateboarding. Like falling off all the time.
COLIN HILDING: Skateboard cross.
BEN WATERWORTH: Thank you. Cross. I'm having a bad night today. Too many cocks in the badminton. Yeah, what I mean... Did I just ask both of you what you're looking forward to? Or did I interrupt? I think I interrupted. Colin, what are you looking forward to tomorrow?
COLIN HILDING: I don't even know what's on tomorrow. I'm gonna go with the BMX as well.
BEN WATERWORTH: The BMX as well. I will say the men's and women's trap shootings on tomorrow. That's actually one of the shooting events I really like watching. So we've got a bit of a history in that. And we are the defending champions in the women's trap. But of course, Katherine Skinner is not... She didn't qualify, so she is not defending a title. But Letitia Scanlon and Penny Smith are in that for the women's tomorrow. And for the men's, we have Thomas Grice and James Willett. Yeah, I mean, I think I just think back to the Michael Diamond days and the Russell Mark days, Jarrod, where we were almost guaranteed a gold medal in that event. So I used to always love watching the trap shooting.
JARROD LOOBEEK: Yeah, it's just one of those out there spots that we were good at. And that Katherine Skinner medal from Rio was just such a random thing to happen. So, yeah, fingers crossed we can pull something off, maybe even silver to just add to that lowly silver medal tally.
BEN WATERWORTH: Well, let's be honest. We know why Katherine Skinner didn't qualify for the Olympics because we interviewed her not long after she won that gold. So, I mean, Evan Dunphy, Katherine Skinner, clearly, shit, I shouldn't have brought that up, should I? But some other ones tomorrow, look forward to the archery, there's more of the men's individuals, so Taylor Wirth and Alice Ingle are out there in the men's and women's, and so is Ryan Tyak. And of course, Ryan and Taylor were part of that team bronze back in Rio. Also, David Barnes is hitting the field, I mean, what, the archery pitch?
JARROD LOOBEEK: Just an anger.
BEN WATERWORTH: Yeah, just shooting arrows left, right and centre. Jess Fox, of course, tomorrow will probably choke and finish, probably a silver, there's your silver tomorrow. Jarrod, Jess Fox.
JARROD LOOBEEK: He's done well, though, to qualify fifth, so there's less expectation. I think that's a good sign.
BEN WATERWORTH: We've got some team fencing tomorrow with Canada involved. The women's foil is happening, and you are taking on France, traditional rivals, your former overlords in the quarterfinals, so look forward to losing that one. I enjoyed the handball today, I was watching Norway versus Argentina, I'm going to be watching tomorrow, I feel, Gola versus the Netherlands. Strong history in Olympic handball, those two.
COLIN HILDING: I really want to watch handball, I mean, I've tried in the past, but I want to see what Ben's fascination is with it, but I swear, CBC, even their website, like the app, it's not even showing it. I tried to search and you got like a what is handball video and that's it.
BEN WATERWORTH: Sailing tomorrow, golf Friday, handball Saturday, there you go. It's a hard one for us to do, because when it comes to dubbing sounds, but I'll work it out. I don't know. You're playing Belgium tomorrow in hockey. Good luck with that one. The hockey roos are back out playing New Zealand, back to back New Zealand going on there in terms of some of the teen sports. You've got more Canadians in the rowing. The women's rugby, as I mentioned, obviously starts tomorrow, but Canada are pretty good in women's rugby. You're bronze medallist, of course, from Rio. So I don't think we're in the same pool as you this time. No, we're in pool C. You're in pool B. So we will not play each other until the medals. Gold medal match, I'm telling you right now, will be happening there. Obviously, some swimming happening tomorrow. We've got some table tennis semis tomorrow, so get excited for that. And the tennis, you already mentioned with Bardi and Piers, you're not hopeful for them in the quarters tomorrow, Jarrod?
JARROD LOOBEEK: Yeah, I'm just keeping expectations low. I think kind of the Greek pair go in as favourites at the moment. It's a chance.
BEN WATERWORTH: I should mention the water polo, the Sharks, that's the men's team, are back tomorrow against Serbia. Great win against Croatia. Very big powerhouse in water polo, so great result there for Australia. So a win against Serbia, obviously the Sharks have always been in the shadows of the Stingers, because the Stingers have won medals in the Olympics, whereas the Sharks haven't really done well. So be interesting to see how all that plays out tomorrow. What a day. We heard a lot of cocks in badminton and lots of medals for Australia. What was your highlight of the episode, Colin? Cocks or seven medals for Australia?
COLIN HILDING: Well, you know how invested I am in Australia winning seven medals, so it's got to be that, right?
BEN WATERWORTH: When you're watching these events and you see Australia winning medals, are you just rolling your eyes? Every time Canada wins a medal, I'm legitimately happy. I'm almost as happy when Canada wins a medal. In the Winter Olympics, I'll say I'm more happy when Canada wins medals than Australia, because I expect you guys to win shit tons of medals in the Winter Olympics. So you better not say that you roll your eyes at us.
COLIN HILDING: No, honestly, I probably pay more attention to Australia now since we do this, and I do get excited when they win. It's just not when they beat Canada. So, I mean, Kylie and Penny, they're the ones I'm rooting for still. If Titmuss just sort of, I don't know, starts treading water and bubbling and going under, I'm not going to be complaining as long as it means that Penny can win.
BEN WATERWORTH: Well, I'm going to remember that come the Winter Olympics, you know, when Brittany Cox finally gets a long overdue gold. We just won't get her back on the show between now and Beijing. We want her to do well. But I mean, Jarrod, do you pay attention to Canada now, now that you sort of got this loser on the show?
JARROD LOOBEEK: You should see me cheering them on, especially when I mean when they beat the US as well. It's just so good.
BEN WATERWORTH: The one thing I want to add just quickly before we leave on the teamoz.olympics.com. Just once again, disappointment for both Canadian Olympic Committee and Australian Olympic Committee. There's no like real thing. Like think about the podcast. What are we meant to do? You better bring it back for Beijing. But the newest competition right now on the website is you can win a $20 voucher for the Olympic team shop and a pair of Speedo's goggles. Wow, they're really giving out the big ones. All you have to do is vote for the hashtag Tokyo Together moment of the day to go in the draw. So this was for when they say for the day, all of these things happen on like four different. This is like colon. They don't know what day it happens on. The four that we've got to choose from, the record breaking relay team, so our four by one hundred women. We've got Dean Boxall, the most talked about coach on the planet. I don't know what this one is. Competitors on the pitch, support team, off the pitch. It looks like a photo of a Fijian and an Australian rugby play with their arms around each other, okay. And the Irikanji, when, what's his face, Owen, won the bronze when they sort of all did the Thor moment, so... I mean, I would vote for that one. You should go in. Yeah, I'm not entering my name. You already sent me enough spam as it is AOC. You know, I got my $10 voucher, I bought my T-shirt. It's on the way, I'll wear it soon on the podcast. I mentioned today I'm wearing my Australian shirt and my Tokyo gold. I was nearly going to wear all my gold because we won so many medals, but I didn't want all the clanging happening. So, there you go. We'll be back tomorrow. Remember to like us on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, all the usual channels. Subscribe on all those usual channels as well. We appreciate you tuning in, and hope you are enjoying our coverage as much as we are enjoying bringing it to you. Jarrod, always a pleasure. Thank you very much for joining us, and I really did appreciate your expertise on the badminton tonight. It was great to hear.
JARROD LOOBEEK: No problem, anytime.
BEN WATERWORTH: And Colin, a history-making day for Canadian Olympics. We're glad that we could have Canada's number one Penny Oleksiak expert on the show tonight to talk about it.
COLIN HILDING: Yes, and I will be back to talk about many more record-breaking days she'll have.
BEN WATERWORTH: Well, we'll see how they come. Thanks for tuning in, and we'll speak to you tomorrow. Good night.
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