Tokyo 2020 Day 9 Review
It's a groundbreaking & record breaking day for both Australia & Canada at the Olympics and we're back to go over everything that happened & more on day 9 of Tokyo 2020! Just how will this day be remembered when it comes to Australia's esteemed Olympic history? Can we officially crown Emma McKeon as the new queen of Australia? Can we officially crown Penny Oleksiak as the new queen of Canada? Is BMX freestyle the greatest sport at these Olympics? How does our call of the 100m compare to our other efforts during the week? What the hell did we even just see in the 100m? Why should you never diss the Bradbury? And why does our Athlete of the Day segment once again become heated? Click down, celebrate and get to listening as we wrap up a history making day!
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 Day 9 of the Tokyo 2020 Olympics and a day that will go down in Olympic history for both Australia and Canada. It has been an absolutely incredible day. I'm not even coming in with any quips or jokes or anything because this has been an absolutely massive day for the Olympic history of both countries. For Australia, a record day on so many levels, not only for the amount of gold that we won in one day, but for a certain athlete who has created absolute history and for Canada, another athlete who has created absolute history as well. Let's start with Canada right now and introduce the Canadian because he was missing from yesterday. He had to compose himself, he had to get himself ready for what was going to be a groundbreaking day, because she's done it. Penny is officially the Queen of Canada, Colin Hilding. How are you feeling today bowing to your new Lord and Saviour over there in the True North.
COLIN HILDING: I am so excited. We were out last night, so I didn't get a chance to watch anything. So the race had been over and I was avoiding my messages, but I had to check my phone really quickly. And all I saw was the word Penny. I'm like, that could mean good or bad. Let me delete this message, not look at anything. And I got home, I watched it, I was like jumping, I was spinning, no joke, spinning in circles, getting emotional watching it. It was such an incredible moment. And Jamie was like, well, good for her. Bigger deal than you realise.
BEN WATERWORTH: This is when you turn around to your wife and say, Jamie, she's like half my age and she has won the most medals in Canada's history. Put that into context right now. If I was Jamie, I'd be worried that you would actually know it's another woman and she's a lot younger. You wouldn't be into her. Me, on the other hand, I'm saying there's a chance. Also joining us, it is Captain Australia because Australia is captain today. What an absolute amazing day in Australian Olympic history. Jarrod, for gold in one day. This is unheard of. Emma McKeon is our new Lord and Saviour. What else can you say about today for Australia at the Olympics?
JARROD LOOBEEK: Four gold in one day and only two of them were in the pool. Like how good is that?
BEN WATERWORTH: Exactly. We've won more gold in one day at the Olympics and we have won at the last three Winter Olympics combined. So put that into context, Canada. If you ever won four in a day at the Winter, you probably have. But you probably won five. I don't know. You guys are usually a lot better at that than you are with everything else. But I mean, let's just quickly right now before we get the words from all the countries represented on this show about the records. Penny Oleksiak, she was a part of the 4x100 Medley Relay team today for Canada that did win a bronze medal. And of course, that officially means that Penny is the most decorated Canadian Olympian summer or winter, her seventh medal across only two Olympics. Did we even point this out that Cindy and Clara had three Olympics, I mean, Clara had six Olympics, Cindy only had the three, Penny's had two, and she's won seven. Absolutely incredible effort. And for Australia, as Jarrah just said, the first time in our Olympic history that we have ever won four gold medals in one day, absolutely stunning. They all came from- Stunning! Three different sports. As Jarrah said, only two in the pool, Emma McKeon in the 50-metre free, the 4x100 medley relay team of Kayleigh McEwen, Chelsea Hodges, Emma McKeon and Kate Campbell. We won the inaugural BMX freestyle, which could be our new favourite sport at the Olympics. Logan Martin took the gold in that. And the gold we knew we were getting today, we knew we were always going to win a gold today, but Matthew Wern did get the gold in the men's laser, making that three in a row that we have won up there, up along the lines of Kieran Perkins, Dawn Fraser, our venting team equestrian as our only of events that we have won three consecutive times in a row. And for Emma McKeon, she had to get one medal today to break the record for most medals ever by an Australian at the Olympics. She got two in the space of like two minutes, essentially. She won the 50th, said gold in the four by one. It was incredible to see that footage of her in the warm down pool before she could basically even go to be introduced for the four by one. And not only does she break the record and have a clear lead now by two at the top of Australia's all time medal. She equals Thorpey for most ever gold medals won by an Australian with five. And the absolutely incredible statistic as well, which was shoved down our throats, but I'm glad that it was shoved down our throats. Emma McKeon equals the record for most medals ever won at winter or summer Olympics by a female of seven, tying the great, and I'm going to try and get this name in one go, Maria Gorica Sakaya of the Soviet Union, good effort, 1952 Summer Olympics in gymnastics. So I mean, what a what an incredible day for records. I mean, I'll start with Colin. I really am intrigued to hear how Canada is reacting to this because I mean, it was kind of expected like she only needed the one more and she missed on a couple of those occasions. But for such a winter oriented country, to now have your most decorated Olympian as as a 21 year old swimmer who, you know, six years ago, no one had ever heard of. And now she will come home in a couple of days to Canada with a bunch more medals around her neck to have seven medals. I mean, that's absolutely insane. Canada must be going off.
COLIN HILDING: I actually feel like it hasn't sunk in yet because, you know, obviously when she tied the record, that became such a big deal and so many people misreported it that now she's sort of breaking, oh, the most ever. And I think there's probably a lot of people were like, wait, didn't that already happen? They don't realise. But the fact that it is a summer athlete is the big story here. When when Jamie and I were driving home to watch the literally this was all I talked about yesterday, she probably got so sick of hearing about Penny's going to break the record tonight, the record could be broken, that she probably never wants to hear the name Penny Oleksiak again. When we were driving home, we drove past there's a there's a mural that is is Clara Hughes and Cindy Clausen side by side because they're both from Winnipeg. And I got excited past that I'm like that mural is not going to mean as much tomorrow, Jamie. And that's coming from somebody who are hometown is the two record holders. And I don't even care that you know, Winnipeg now is tied for second. But we have the record and this is summer, that is the big story because, you know, when we talked about the Norwegian who won the was it the the triathlon on? Yep. Yeah. When the Norwegian won that like the big deal is that they won a triathlon. And this is a winter country. And I mean, if we if you go back to Rio, and you look at the results, you're like, well, Canada is making grounds in summer Olympics. But if you go back one Olympics from that, you go back to London. The idea that our greatest Olympian of all time would come from summer is crazy. And even if you say, well, it's two Olympics, I mean, that is impressive enough. It's two Olympics. Somebody who's 21 years old. And we put it in perspective, Kylie Mass is now at four medals. So by the next Olympics, she could even hit this record. But Penny's 21. Yeah, we're going to be seeing her and even her comments. Her comments have been great because she's so standoffish leading into these games, partly because of, you know, a lot of the pressure that she felt after Rio and her slump. But she's just exploded in all these interviews lately, where you realise she's the best sport you will have ever had, where they're asking her, you know, how does it feel to break this record right now? And she goes, I'm going to be completely honest, I was disappointed I didn't medal in individual events, but I'm so glad that this happened in a team event, because I want to share this with all of Canada. I want to share this with the entire swimming team. And that's what her excitement has been. She's more excited that she won this medal with three of her teammates, you know, more if you count in the semifinals and stuff like that, then she would have been if she won this individually.
BEN WATERWORTH: I just want to quickly, I want to comment on that, because I got a few things here to talk about that. We are recording this on a very busy night tonight. We are literally recording this in the midst of the men's high jump finals. And we're a bit distracted, Brandon Stark has just cleared 2.35 and is in the hump for a medal here.
COLIN HILDING: It's not Derek Druin?
BEN WATERWORTH: It's not Derek Druin. Django Lovett sadly has been eliminated. Spoiler alert there Colin, if you haven't caught up there. But we will also say that we will be doing the 100m tonight on this show, sort of live. So we've got plenty to cover there. So if you all of a sudden hear Jarrod and I go, yes, you're going to see why. And I'll say tonight, not that anyone can see, I'm officially wearing my Australia World Cup cricket jersey, because the smart Ben over here realised that he's Mitchell Stark's brother, who of course is a very prominent Australian cricketer. And I only realised, he looks like him. Wonder if they're related. Oh, wait. Again, the context here, as you said, summer medallists. Now, even when it comes to the sports that you're good at in summer, swimming is not generally one of the ones that I would go to as one of the ones that, you know, rowing is one of them. Even cycling, you've talked a lot about canoeing, I believe, in the past as well. Clara, of course, when it comes to the summer aspect, only two of her medals were won in cycling. So you've got to actually go down this list to Leslie Thompson as a rower who won five medals between 1984 and 2016. The one thing that I really appreciate though about Canada really talking up their record is the fact that Penny, and I want to say this weirdly, if you listen to our show last night, has only won one gold, but they don't kind of put that against her, where a lot of the times, you know, with some of our athletes, oh, well, they've only won like one gold, but six bronzes. I mean, you've got to go down to Jane O'Hefford and Hayley Wickenhiser, who have won the four gold, the most decorated. And then Caroline is at Oulette, part of that hockey streak. But yeah, I mean, it's just incredible to look at this now, the list. And in terms of summer, Leslie Thompson, as I said, five medals in rowing. You got Phil Edwards in athletics between 1928 and 1936, never won a gold, five bronze, but still prominent Canadian there. And then all the way down to again, rowing, Kathleen Headey, Armani McBean, rowing between 1992 and 1996, they won four medals between them. And everything else is just completely dominated by winter athletes. And to get your next swimmer on this list, Colin Hilding, Victor Davis, between 1984 and 1988 won four medals. So just astonishing. It really is. And as you said, 21 years of age. I mean, this is, what's Summer Macintosh going to do if all of a sudden she wins a couple? I mean, did she get a medal for the heats? Was she in the heats of this four by one?
COLIN HILDING: No, I don't think she did.
BEN WATERWORTH: But she got fourth at least in two events, didn't she? So pretty groundbreaking there for Penny Oleksiak and Canada. For Australia, though, I mean, Jarrod, just I don't even know where to start with this. I don't want to kind of just be the pro Australian podcast right now. But I mean, I hope we can have a day like this during Beijing, where we can talk about Canada doing this and winning. Because I mean, this is a massive day. We talked it up the other day when we got three golders about, hey, like we were so close to the record, but four in one day alone, you'd be talking about this till the cows come home. Emma McKeon getting two, to total them. Let's talk about Emma for a second, because as I think as we said, no one really predicted this. No one came into this talking about Emma McKeon. It was all Ariane, Ariane, Ariane, and I have complained about Channel 7 with this, even today, about Ariane, not to take away from her achievements. But again, in two Olympics, Thorpey did it in two Olympics, Liesl did it in three. But this is just so incredible. And again, she's got plenty in the tank too. Like she can go on to win more. I mean, seven in an Olympics as well. Like to equal that record for a female athlete, I just, I don't even know where to begin, because this is just absolutely crazy to think that, if you had said that there's going to be an Australian athlete at these Olympics who is going to break Anthorpe and Liesl Jones' medal record, I don't think, I probably would have said Kate Campbell maybe is going to do it. But yeah, Emma McKeon, now our greatest ever Olympian.
JARROD LOOBEEK: Yeah, it's insane. And I think to me, like the biggest thing is that she could go on to win more. Like if she does go on to Paris, then there's every chance that she wins more. She extends this record. The fact that she's up there with names like Thorpe and Liesl Jones. And it's just gonna be a huge legacy that whenever she finishes, she ends with, because it just seems like there's like no stopping her pretty much.
BEN WATERWORTH: It's actually crazy to think about the could she go on? Cause she's actually 27. She's a little bit older than I thought she was. So even that in alone is kind of interesting because she was obviously a bit of a late starter at 23 going to Rio, whereas what? Kate Campbell is about 17 in Beijing. So I mean, you kind of think about that, but you mentioned the names. I mean, look at our names here and our overall, this is ranked by medals won, not by gold. So Emma McKeon, equal first at least for gold, but in terms of total on top. Then you got Ian Thorpe, Liesl Jones, Dawn Fraser. Kate Campbell is sitting at fifth on this list. Patria Thomas, Susie O'Neill, Libby Trickett, Grant Hackett. They're all our swimmers dominating that. Then we've got Shirley Strickland from Athletics. Then you got Murray Rose, Survivor's Own, Shane Gould, Betty Cuthbert, Drew Gin for rowing. Andrew Hoy, we'll talk about him a little bit later on in the question. James Tompkins, we already talked about him in these. Kayleigh McKeown, believe it or not, is out there with former. So Arianne Titmuss should be on this list. I don't know why they haven't added her on this list already. Matthew Ryan, Rochelle Hawkes, Jodie Henry and Stephanie Rice. Like, I mean, that is esteemed company. I'm sure, Colin, not to take away from Canada's. I know if I had read the entire list, you would have been like, oh, these are esteemed Olympians. But I'd heard of a few of those. Whereas this one, I mean, God, like, I mean, Dawn Fraser, icon, Ian Thorpe. I mean, you've even heard of Ian Thorpe, Colin, so you know who that is. And when you eventually watch A Strange Survivor, you know who Shane Gould is. Don't fuck with Shane Gould, actual Shane Gould quote. But I mean, Jarrod, this is just, I just can't believe this. I seriously cannot believe that Emma McKeon has topped all these athletes.
JARROD LOOBEEK: Yeah, it's insane. It's, yeah, I just can't. It's like you said, the fact that nobody was talking about this as like a potential thing. Like it just, I'm sure she did great at like World Champs and was expected to medal, but just, it seems like a story that just kind of slipped through all like the media outlets fingers and they decided to go with lesser stories instead.
COLIN HILDING: And I was actually, I was just gonna ask about that because even here in Canada, the more medal she wins, her name still doesn't seem to be thrown around as much as Titmuss or Kayleigh or anything. So this is legitimately like a surprise where- Not just a surprise in terms of the amount of medal she's won, but like was she even considered to be in the picture to be one of your stars here?
BEN WATERWORTH: No, no, this is the thing. Like I think she's kind of been renowned more as sort of like a relay swimmer, you know, cause I mean, obviously you look at someone like Kate Campbell who gets all the attention around the 100. She was our flag bearer and they were still even, they were very quiet on Kate Campbell's chances for the 100, but when it got closer, they started going, oh, will she get revenge? Emma McKeon was like, oh, and Emma McKeon's swimming this too. She was always kind of considered like sort of an anchor for our four by one and everything, but her name was not mentioned. It was all Titmuss, Titmuss, Titmuss, a bit of McEwen after the qualifying, the trials. But no, it was not even, I would have even, I would even go out in a limo jar and say that Zach Stubbly-Cook was mentioned a little bit more in the conversation. So it is a massive surprise. It really is a massive surprise. And yeah, it's just, it's crazy. Cause if you had to say, oh, Ariane Titmuss walks away with seven medals, okay, like fair enough, all the hype's there. But I would even go out in a limo jar and say that they were talking about Caleb Dressel and Katie Ledecky more than they were talking about Emma McKeon.
JARROD LOOBEEK: Yeah, I think that's fair.
BEN WATERWORTH: It's crazy. And you look at the, not just, I mean, the fact that I said most decorated female Olympian in one Olympics, but some of the other names here, you gotta look, who's won seven medals in an Olympics. Mark Spitz, of course, famously won seven gold in Munich. But I mean, only ahead at one Olympic Games for eight medals. Michael Phelps, of course, did it twice. And Alexander Dyitian in gymnastics for the Soviet Union in 90. I mean, seven medals in one Olympics. I mean, that's generally more than New Zealand win in like five Olympics combined. I mean, it's just, it's ridiculous.
COLIN HILDING: This is what I feel like is groundbreaking, you know, for people who aren't from Canada or Australia are listening to this right now. You know, it's not just because these are our countries. This is why both of these records are groundbreaking, because we're at a point where you feel like, will this ever be beaten again? You know? Yeah. Like you, as you're saying with your record, she's still got probably at least one more games in her. And it's insane the amount of medals she's won with Penny, you know, seven in one or in two Olympics in the summer of all things, like nobody will ever top that, or you feel like nobody's gonna ever top it. It's going to be decades probably before either of these records actually get broken.
BEN WATERWORTH: Okay, just Brandon just missed his next jump there, if you saw any weird reactions there, Colin. Yeah, no, you're right. And it's like, I mean, obviously sometimes you think like more events get introduced, sometimes ages get a little bit younger, but yeah, it's crazy. I wanted to just quickly also talk, and again, Colin, I'm not trying to hold the line out here for Australia, but let's be honest, we did very well today, you need to suck it up. You could, you've done well and there's still an event to go, which is probably Eclipse's everything else if you win it tonight. So come on, in terms of now where we're sitting at on the medal tally, we're fourth, we're outright fourth, 14 gold. So we've by far eclipsed what we've won at Rio and London, and also now in total medals as well. We should also mention that we've now won 30. So we've eclipsed Rio in terms of that, and we're only on day nine.
COLIN HILDING: You passed my overall predictions.
BEN WATERWORTH: Well, 54 might be on the cards, don't think so. But I wanted to bring this up because I brought up the Gracenote Virtual Medal Tally as well as the prediction that I found by The Daily Telegraph, that esteemed publication that everybody in this country loves. Now, their gold medallists here, now they've I think predicted that we were going to win 12 by the looks of it here, six, seven, eight, nine, 10, 11, 12. Right, okay, so we've already eclipsed their predictions, but let's go through the predictions here and see of the ones that they predicted, which ones came true. Okay, Canoes Lylem, Jessica Fox, Women's C1, she didn't win that one. Canoes Lylem, Jessica K1, she won that one, so one out of two. Road cycling, Rowan Dennis, Men's Individual Time Trial, nope. Hockey, Men, well, nearly today didn't, but we're still there, so possibly. Rowing, Men's Four, yes. Rowing, Women's Four, yes. Sailing, Matt Belcher, Will Ryan in the Men's 470. They are leading right now with only two rounds to go with a very big lead, so still a potential there for that one to go through. Sailing, Men's Laser, Matt Wern, yes. Surfing, Sally Fitzgibbons, Women's Shortboard, no. Swimming, Women's 4x100 Freestyle Relay, yes. Swimming, Mixed 4x100 Medley Relay, no. Triathlon, Mixed Team Relay, no. Swimming, two gold medals, they predicted. We won nine. It is a new record for Australia, the most ever gold medals won by a swimming team at any Olympics. Jarrod, I have to say, it's talked up every Olympics. We're gonna win this many, we're gonna win, we never do. This is finally a swimming team living up to the hype. I believe we only finished behind the US, I think was a one or two gold medal. So very close to being in the US as well. But I mean, we've kind of talked a little bit about where are the medals gonna come from. I'm thinking that there's two, maybe three left. I'm thinking that it looks like we're gonna win the 470 in the sailing. I really hanging out the men do it in the hockey and maybe the women. But I'm thinking if we walked away, even with one more in the sailing, 15 gold, I mean, that's up there with Sydney. That's what we won in Melbourne. So I mean, you're gonna take that, aren't you?
JARROD LOOBEEK: Yeah, absolutely. I agree with you. I feel like there's like one or two more to squeeze out potentially.
BEN WATERWORTH: I will correct myself. Sorry, we won 13 in Melbourne. So if we walked away with 15, that would be our third highest behind Sydney and Athens. So sitting on 14 right now is already our equal third highest with Beijing. So we just need to win one more. But I mean, even if you won two and got to 16, I mean, Sydney was hailed. It's our most successful in terms of total, but just absolutely insane really to think that. But again, as we've got to calm Australia down, the swimming is over. There's not a lot of hopes. Like again, our track cycling team, I think is like our weakest track cycling team we've had in Olympics in a long time. So generally you could count on that. I mean, that's why Athens was so good because we had all our track cyclists live up to expectations as well. But sadly, I don't think they're aware of the medals meant to come for. I was asking you Colin, like are there any events that we still, obviously a certain one maybe to come very shortly tonight maybe. But is it any that Canada are really hanging on to hope that you've got a good shot at winning still in the remainder of the Olympics?
COLIN HILDING: The Decathlon would probably be the big one because I think we're the favourite going into that. Obviously, you know, the 100 metre tonight, good shot at a medal. The 200 I think is the one that is gonna be best for us because DeGrasse's best distance is the 200. And we also have Aaron Brown in the mix on that one too.
BEN WATERWORTH: And Brendan Rodney, come on, just because I interviewed him.
COLIN HILDING: Not knocking Brendan Rodney at all. It's not about Ben. Aaron Brown has just had an incredible year and so has Andre as well. And then of course, the men's relay as well, probably the big one. It's so tough to tell with the other events because again, we might pull off something in cycling. I think the women's soccer at this point, it'll be an extreme disappointment if we don't medal because we have a 75% chance now. But if we can get to the gold medal game, that will be a bigger story. That may be a bigger story than if Andre Degrasse wins 100 metres tonight.
BEN WATERWORTH: The other thing I'll say on the Gray-Snow prediction, they reckon Australia would get 16 gold, 12 silver, 12. I'm going to catch up on those silver. I mean, maybe, I said we could get two more. And they had Canada at four gold, eight silver, nine bronze. So you're kind of close there. So the one I wanted to quickly touch on before I go over some of the results today in terms of the other ones, we joke and we make fun of New Zealand. I mean, they kind of suck, but it's a pretty history making day for New Zealand as well. I talked to Valerie Adams on the show yesterday in the women's shot put. She got a bronze today. So she's medaled in four consecutive Olympics. That's her fourth medal. She's the most successful female athlete from New Zealand in the history of the country. And that is a big deal. As I said, she's a big name in New Zealand. She is a very famous athlete there. And to do that in four consecutive ones, I completely, I thought it was on at night. I didn't realise it was on in the morning. I wish I could watch it, but they're going off. I'm seeing the social media stuff of the people that I'm following in New Zealand. Our girl Eliza, who sadly isn't competing at the Olympics. She was posting photos and everything along those lines. I mean, Jarrod, I don't know if you know much about Valerie outside of what I've talked about on her last night, but I mean, this is a big deal for them.
JARROD LOOBEEK: Yeah, absolutely.
BEN WATERWORTH: Yeah. Colin, do you know much about Valerie Adams at all?
COLIN HILDING: No idea. I was going to ask you about something else, so let me know when you're ready to move on.
BEN WATERWORTH: Oh, I'm ready to move on. I just want to be nice to our cousins, but if we don't give a shit about them across the ditch, then fuck them. Sorry, New Zealand. Took two seconds out of my time to give you some credit, and both my hosts are just like, yeah, cool.
COLIN HILDING: If we were talking about New Zealand yesterday, if I was on the show yesterday, there may have been more things to say. But no, I mean, I listened to bits and pieces of yesterday's episode that I wasn't on. And I don't think that The Woman's 100 Metre had finished yesterday. But that's something that, yes, I understand. It was yesterday's event. It doesn't count. But the fact that the finals turned out so differently than everybody expected. I mean, Shelley Anne Fraser Price was the big talking point in this. Donovan Bailey has a new podcast, and he was even asked on his podcast. He was also asked on air about both the men's and the women's. And he's like, well, the men's is so up in the air, but the women's, it is Shelley Anne Fraser Price. And obviously that didn't happen. I was actually really excited watching it. I think we were messaging back and forth. I think you guys have finished at that point.
BEN WATERWORTH: So I think we were 10 minutes away from the race starting, and Jarrod and I had the little, should we keep going? And then we were like, no, let's watch. I think Jarrod wanted to go to bed. But yeah, it was a good race. And my particular favourite part of the whole race is that the Jamaicans obviously hate each other because like, Elaine Thompson or I won. But Shelly Anne and Sharika just came up and just gave her a little tap and walked off. Like, it's not like a sane Bolton Whatsy's face a few years ago, right? Like this is just like, yeah, cool. But I mean, her hair alone, Shelly Anne Fraser probably should win a gold medal.
COLIN HILDING: Let's not knock Alene Thompson. I mean, if Shelly Anne Fraser Price didn't exist, we'd all be talking about Alene Thompson's hair.
BEN WATERWORTH: That's very true. I mean, she's won what? Four medals now, hasn't she? Shelly Anne Fraser Price, which is still a big deal. And I mean, one, two, three for Jamaica is crazy. I think Bruce Jarrod made the stat that they've won 14 out of the last 16 medals in the women's 100, which is crazy.
JARROD LOOBEEK: It's just complete domination, isn't it?
BEN WATERWORTH: Yeah, it's insane.
COLIN HILDING: We're sick of it. Come on. Give somebody else a chance.
BEN WATERWORTH: Is there an article or a documentary about why Jamaicans run so fast? Like, I'd love to know. Like, this is, it's incredible. Like, Colin, it's push cart, right? Yeah, the egg, the lucky egg. Sanka, kiss it. But it was, it was a great race. And we should also mention, too, that the Ben Waterworth curse maybe sort of doesn't exist because in the tennis, Belinda won the gold in one of the events she was in. She got the silver today in the doubles, but I'm sort of counting it. Yeah, I don't know. Just we can talk more about other certain athletes that didn't do very well today.
COLIN HILDING: I have to get another reaction because, again, I don't know the timing. It happens again. It's weird here in Canada because I get to watch about, I don't know, an hour of the first events of the day and then everything else I catch up on the next day. But did you get to talk about Djokovic getting knocked out?
BEN WATERWORTH: Yeah, because of the smile on Jarrod's face.
COLIN HILDING: His tantrum as well. I was going to ask about his tantrum.
BEN WATERWORTH: Didn't see the tantrum. We were talking about the fact that in the doubles, he just gave us a medal. So I was like, thanks Novak. We will get a bronze. I didn't see the tantrum though. What happened with the tantrum?
COLIN HILDING: Jarrod, do you know what this is? He smashed his racket and threw it.
JARROD LOOBEEK: That didn't surprise me. Typical Djokovic action.
COLIN HILDING: Well, I guess the big deal that I'm reading is that he was the one who was quoted only a few days ago talking about athletes need to keep their composure. It is inappropriate. And if you keep your cool, you will never throw a tantrum. You will never lose your cool like that. If you have composure, if you have class and dignity, you will never lose your composure. And then it was like two or three days later, he has the tantrum of the games.
BEN WATERWORTH: I'm just if we ever did a tennis Oz, because why not get another hundred spinoffs? Like I like I want to come on here with the team Djokovic t-shirts. Like I don't like this Djokovic hate that you two.
COLIN HILDING: I don't I don't mind him. I find I find Jarrod's hatred from amusing. He's definitely not my favourite. Like I said, I mean, I'm Nadal and Nishikori.
BEN WATERWORTH: What's Jarrod got here? Jarrod's bring is this a team rapper or something? Is it Jarrod? Jarrod is red. I'm guessing it's something to do with rapper. He's got it. He's got it. What is it? Oh, that's him hitting the ball woman, right?
JARROD LOOBEEK: That's it.
BEN WATERWORTH: That's how much you dislike the guy. You have a t-shirt.
JARROD LOOBEEK: She's a living legend.
BEN WATERWORTH: It's funny. Since I come back to Australia, this Djokovic hate has just grown since I've been away. Like when I left, like everyone loved him because he's like he'd win the Australian Open. What a champion. Now it's just like fuck Djokovic. Like he's up there in the Sebastian Vettel annuals of athletes Australians hate for whatever reasons. And it's like, yeah, interesting. But I love you Novak. I know you're a listener to this show. Big, big listener. Again, we're going to break away at some point to go to the 100. Things are happening right now. This is a big day. In the high jump, Brandon missed his last jump. But I'm seeing here that he's passed at the 237 for his second attempt. So we will be going straight to 239. So he's never jumped. I think 236 is his best. So it could be a famous moment for Australian choking tonight. We'll never know. But outside, actually quickly, we'll talk about the swimming. We should actually just talk about the medal wins. I mean, the 50 was great. I was really rooting for Kate. I can't believe I'm rooting for Kate, but it was a great result. Emma McKeon won in the Olympic record. Sarah Sostrom, who, of course, is struggling, she got the silver, so it was great to see that. And the four by one actually turned out to be quite an entertaining race. I thought Kate was pulling a Campbell. She was getting overrun right at the end. But somehow, I don't know where she found that last spurt from, Jarrod. I thought she lost it.
JARROD LOOBEEK: I thought for sure. I like it. The American was reeling her in. I was like, oh, she's gone past. I was like, she's Campbelled it. She's lost it. Like, what's happening? She's gone out too fast again. Typical Kate. She does the first lap super fast and she comes home and gets overtaken. I just hate to, like, I know we're at the end, but next Olympics, please, when somebody sets an Olympic record, still stick the one next to their name. So I know that they won instead of me being like, oh, wow. Okay, that means that means Olympic record. We won, like one Olympic record next to it, not replacing the one. I need to just see that straight away. So I've got automatic confirmation.
BEN WATERWORTH: That's a good point. That's a good point. And I think that the analysis was just Thorpey. I mean, God, Thorpey just, if I want to talk about a star of these Olympics, Thorpey's analysis just grew every day. He was the one who pointed out that like the changeover was what Australia had a 0.38 and America had a 0.41 at that last turn that got us the gold. Thorpey, take a bow. I mean, Jarrod, that was that was incredible analysis by Thorpey. But I mean, that's that's those are stats that I love. That is where we won the gold based on a changeover. And then the explanation that Lisa and Thorpey gave about the where are you watching them to jump in? And it was like, oh, by like the fifth the fifth flag or like when they get like and Thorpey said something like, I've never seen someone before me touch the wall because I'm in the water before they touch the wall. Like, that's great analysis.
JARROD LOOBEEK: Yes. Yeah. And I love how early Thorpey calls it too. Yeah, we've got this. And I'm like, no, we don't like you're about to be wrong. But no, lo and behold, he just knows.
BEN WATERWORTH: I'm like Basil, who every single race, oh, we're in with the 1500 metres. In with the chance. He was like a lap and a half behind. Like, Basil, I get your positivity, but come on now. Colin, in the...
COLIN HILDING: Another thing. I was just going to say about the 4x100. We can't not mention the fact that the new Phelps versus Thorpe has got to be Kylie and Kayleigh. Because this was their third head to head these games. You know, Kayleigh won the first two, but because the first leg of a relay still technically counts, Kylie won. Kylie won. So now, Kayleigh is up 2 to 1. This is actually going... I really want to see Paris, this become a thing, Kylie versus Kayleigh. Their names are similar. They're both from our home countries. They're going head to head and coming one and two every single time they match up. Paris is going to be unbelievable if we get Kylie versus Kayleigh round four.
BEN WATERWORTH: And this is what's frustrating because still Channel 7, oh, it's Ariane versus Kayleigh. They don't give a shit about their rivalry. Whereas I did not see Kayleigh or Kylie once even acknowledge each other. I feel there's some frostiness going on between these two. So, you know, I'm with you. I'm absolutely with you. I think it's great. But was this an expected medal? I mean, obviously, you got in the 4x1, 4x2, and I mean, Maggie's got a third medal as well. Kylie's got her third medal. Sydney's got her first. She dropped the S-bomb live on TV, so she got a bit of fame there. I actually want to come back to Australia in a second, but I'll get Canada's thoughts right now, because there's one swimmer that I really want to mention who I think was our star in the 4x1. But I mean, again, so this was an expected medal for Canada?
COLIN HILDING: Like, when we were going into the individuals, it was Penny's freestyle, that one was sort of more up in the air. Like, because she was defending, you know, she'd obviously medaled on that before. I think she won gold in that. But it was still, because of the competition, it was like, oh, we may or may not get this. I honestly didn't have a doubt that we would meddle in this, unless something went terribly wrong. But I did get a little bit nervous, because you don't always know all the times, I know that Sydney Pickrum was a strong swimmer, but she is, of course, the one who didn't have a medal. They fully set the Canadians up for, don't worry about the second leg. Sydney Pickrum, not as strong as the other swimmer she's up against, but they basically said, Canada doesn't have a strong breast stroker. So when we come out so strong with Kylie, and then they transition to Sydney, and I'm seeing her fall behind, I just knew, I'm like, okay, we've got Maggie, and we've got Penny after this. We will make up any ground we have. But still, it got really nerve-racking there for a minute, because I'm glad that they gave us that expectation here of, don't worry, Sydney's not going to keep up this lead. If she had, it would have been all the more incredible for her, but still great that we can put together a team like that. And talk about all-stars. The fact is, when we were in Rio, all of our swimmers in the relay, nobody had heard of them, like you said. We saw Penny emerge, but this time coming in, by the time we got to this, Penny is already the greatest star in the history of Canadian Olympics. Kylie is arguably, as far as the placing she's had, the strongest Canadian swimmer of these games with two silver and this. And Maggie won a gold. It's unbelievable to look at a team like this and not say, how are we going to medal? And I don't think we've ever had that before. You and I have talked before about somebody else we've wanted to get in the show, Ryan Cochran, who, you know, you almost almost got his business card. I haven't stumbled across my house.
BEN WATERWORTH: He was a local real estate agent.
COLIN HILDING: But I remember talking about it in Rio about that was Ryan Cochran's last games and that it wasn't even necessarily that Ryan Cochran was like the greatest swimmer. He was the only guy keeping swimming alive in Canada. And now we can go into a final and a relay. And three out of our four are going to go down as legends and Hall of Famers. I never would have expected that.
BEN WATERWORTH: And Penny stormed home too. Like I was obviously I was keeping an eye on our girls, but I was watching Penny at the corner of my eye going like, wow, this is this is crazy. Before I mentioned the one I wanted to talk about quickly, just I should mention this high jump because it is very fascinating right now. There are six people left in it. Brandon's still in it, and we've got an American right now is Yvonne Harrison. I love his name, and he's also in the long jump final too, I believe. He's got a great hairstyle. I'm looking here.
COLIN HILDING: I'm looking at him right now.
BEN WATERWORTH: No, well, this is the we're on a different thing on Channel 7.
COLIN HILDING: We got to do Ben's Olympic hair as a podcast.
BEN WATERWORTH: I want that hair bloody montage back on Channel 7. We need it with some of the hair. We got this one, but yes, it's very tense. It's very tense. And I have to say, I don't think we quite got there. Matthew Denny got forced in the discus last night, but Matthew Denny is watching this in the stands, and he's obviously Brandon Stark's roommate at the Village. He got a sign on saying, Brandon Stark's roommate. They keep cutting to him. I just wanted to quickly mention Chelsea Hodges. Now, she was our breaststroker. And of course, you're talking up Kayleigh McHugh and Kate Campbell. Chelsea Hodges, this is her first event really that she had for the relay. And everyone was similar, what you were saying before with Sydney Pickrum, was kind of like, oh, you know, not the strongest. But Chelsea Hodges, I think, won us that race, Jarrod. Like she did such a great breaststroke leg. It was incredible. She kept up so well. I don't think without that swim, you know, because Emma swam the butterfly. I mean, that was kind of the surprise. I gave Kate the freestyle. But and of course, I mean, Emma did win a bronze in the 100 fly. But I mean, take a bow, Chelsea Hodges. Not a bad time to get your first ever Olympic medal.
JARROD LOOBEEK: Yeah, I agree, because it felt like going into it, it was like, we'll have to give Chelsea a bit of a lead because she's the one who we expect to kind of drop off. But she absolutely held her position in the pool throughout that race, if anything, kind of made up a little bit of ground. So yeah, such an impressive swim.
BEN WATERWORTH: The one that I was waiting for us if we had a loss that, just like they did the four by two when they complained that Ariane was our lead swimmer and our anchor, that they would have complained that they put Emma McKeon in the butterfly and didn't give her the four by one, but it worked out for the best. Just quickly, I mean, we sort of talked about Matt Wern a little bit, I believe, yesterday. All but assured he won the gold. They showed it on TV. It's not too bad, the sailing. We got to meet his mum and dad. I mean, I don't really know. It was a guaranteed gold. He had to finish. But I mean, keep up the tradition, the laser. As I said, the Off The Podium curse continues in a way that Tom Burton wasn't there to defend his gold. Blame me. But we'll take three gold in a row in the men's laser, right?
JARROD LOOBEEK: Sure. Yeah. So can we just mention this guy? Sorry, I'm getting distracted by this guy's glasses in the high jump. And they're making me like so angry. You're talking about Qatar? Yes.
COLIN HILDING: How can you not be rooting for Qatar at this point? Imagine two medals in a row, two days in a row.
JARROD LOOBEEK: The grass pulls off the glasses. This guy, no. And it's really bugging me.
BEN WATERWORTH: The grass pulls them off. They're some good, they're Bono Shifty Glasses for our 007 listeners. But yeah, I mean, I can tell you, spoiler alert, Brandon's going to miss this jump, folks. Because I've got the timing results in front of me. We're we're behind. Yeah, does Canada win? Oh, he fucked that up completely. He went under the bar. It's called high jumps, Brandon. It's high jump.
COLIN HILDING: You know what those glasses remind me of? They remind me of Doc Brown in Back to the Future. When he comes back from 2015 and he has those ridiculous glasses.
BEN WATERWORTH: That jump that Brandon just did is how I used to do the high jump, except my height was like half a metre. So does Canada care about sailing, Colin? Do you have any sailing history?
COLIN HILDING: No, but I'm seeing some, as we're seeing all over the place, best Canadian results ever. So maybe if we can pull off a medal, maybe Canadians will care. But I think I can think of one time watching sailing where it was actually aired on TV, where they said, we're going to show you the sailing right now. And it was probably Barcelona or Atlanta. So I only have the vaguest memory of it as one of my earliest Olympic memories. But as I guess to become a quote on the show, the sailing is happening.
JARROD LOOBEEK: That's it.
BEN WATERWORTH: Well, we commentated it. You enjoyed it. Pirates of the Caribbean.
JARROD LOOBEEK: It worked.
COLIN HILDING: Well, if we were part of it, it would be better. And you get some viewers. Come on.
BEN WATERWORTH: Well, let's be honest. In the next two Olympics, Brisbane will train enough and we'll all go on a boat. I mean, Colin, you'll be like 50 something. So I mean, go for it. The other gold, Logan Martin, the men's BMX freestyle. I fucking love this event. This is amazing. This is such a great event. It was the reigning world champion. I mean, if he's a reigning world champion, why was this somebody that Channel 7 didn't hide the shit out of? I feel like reigning world champion, chance of a gold. But Jarrod, I mean, he killed it on his first round and then straight away he's just all like, oh, I've got more in the tank. And he was pulling out on his run that he had already won the gold by that point and he nearly did better. But I mean, this event is just, this is incredible. This BMX freestyle, is it not?
JARROD LOOBEEK: It's so good. I was just annoyed that for his second run, it was like, oh, he's actually, he's just going to go do it and put down a really great score. And then he just had kind of the one like minor like mishap. We're like, he didn't fall off or anything, but lost some speed. And then just after that, just like phoned in the rest of the run because he'd already won. It was just disappointing because the best move from his second run, when he flips the whole bike around, and then lands back on it, like instead of him flipping, it's just the bike like does like a complete flip. So good. So just imagine like if he had actually been trying throughout like that whole run, what his score would have been. The fact that his first run score was just better than anything anybody else could put down was just so good. And I'm with you. Like why was this not in the Daily Telegraph's list of gold medallists if he was number one in the world?
BEN WATERWORTH: I mean, come on. Remember, news.com today, particularly Rowan Browning, was a chance at a medal in the 100 metres. So I mean, they nearly got it right. They were up there. Colin, did you catch any of the BMX freestyle?
COLIN HILDING: And I wish I had again. I had so little time yesterday to watch anything when I got home. I had this big plan. I'm like, you know, I can catch up on these events. But as soon as I turned on the TV, I mean, I immediately had to go to Penny. And then not long after that, they were just showing the highlights. So by the time you see the highlights, you know, do I need to go back and watch the event? But I mean, it is such a fascinating, especially that bike flip you mentioned, Jarrod. Like I looked at them like, wow, that's actually something else. So I really I'd really like to be able to watch this event in the future. This isn't the first time it's been contested, is it?
BEN WATERWORTH: No, it is. It is the very first time.
COLIN HILDING: OK, because I was going to say, I've never seen this before. But like this is what it do this in skateboarding. Like, well, I think they are some of the excitement of BMX to skateboarding.
BEN WATERWORTH: The other event is called Park. So I'm hoping this is the other skateboarding event.
JARROD LOOBEEK: It's just the same thing with them putting a little pop planted tree in the middle of the street.
COLIN HILDING: Probably.
BEN WATERWORTH: I like that overhead that they had, which because I guess kind of I don't know if they're really doing much about the venues because there's no crowds or everything. But the kind of the overhead they had, you had the BMX, sort of the racetrack next to this event. And then you saw the skate part. They were all right next to each other. I thought that was kind of remind me of the Winter Olympics when you see like the ski hills right next to the ski jumps. Like it was really, really cool how they did that.
COLIN HILDING: I don't think we talked about the other day, but like how bad does the racetrack look with like their fake green turf that's pulling up in sections? It's like not even, it's not even laid out properly.
BEN WATERWORTH: I did like the news.com.au article about the sad truth about the Olympics. And basically it was because some journalist tweeted an overhead shot of the BMX freestyle, which showed a bunch of Japanese people on the bridge trying to keep it, get a sneak peek at the Olympics because they weren't allowed in the venue. They thought that was sad. I think that's the opposite. I think it's great that the Japanese still care enough to try and see it. Like, how is that sad?
COLIN HILDING: They're not protesting. They're there to enjoy the sport.
BEN WATERWORTH: Typical news.com today. You couldn't even predict Rowan Browning. Now, we are going to cut to the stadium probably in about 10 or so minutes time, but I'm just going to quickly go over the other medals because there's lots going on right now. So there's still a bunch of medals yet to be decided. And we'll go over the Canadian and Australian results probably after the 100 metres event itself. But in the Athletics, I mentioned Valerie Adams got the bronze in the shot put. The gold went to Li Xiaogong of China, America's Raven Saunders got the silver. We still got obviously the 100 to go, the men's high jump to go, and the women's triple jump all still being decided tonight. Badminton singles, women's singles still being decided. As I mentioned in the cycling, the BMX went to Australia. Gold, silver went to Venezuela and bronze went to Britain. The Brits got the gold in the women's BMX freestyle with Charlotte Worthington taking that. Hannah Robertson the US silver and the great cycling nation of Switzerland. Again, Nikita Dakaros with the bronze there. The diving, sadly not to be for Australia and Canada. We'll talk about that after. But Ting Mao Shi took the gold. Han Wang the silver and Krista Palmer bronze for the US. The men's team foil. I can say that we'll talk about Max. Didn't get the rematch with Garrick, but Garrick got a bronze everyone because US got bronze. So, Max might owe him a beer. I told you, if Canada had a big Germany, they were in with a shot. I'm telling you, they were there. The golf, Zander Shaufelay took the gold for the US. Silver to Slovakia and bronze to Chinese Taipei. Gymnastics, Israel got its very first ever artistic gymnastics medal with Artem Dogipot, I think, men's floor. Spain the silver, China the bronze. The men's pommel horse went to Britain, Max Whitlock. Silver to Chinese Taipei, they've had a good day. And Japan, bronze. Uneven bars went to Belgium, Nina Darwell. Silver to rock, bronze to US. And the women's vault went to Brazil, Rebecca Andrea. Silver to the States and bronze to South Korea. Sailing, obviously Australia got the gold with Matthew Verne. Silver went to Croatia, bronze to Norway and Denmark. Anne-Marie Rindem, and we're going to watch this, Brandon Sarks, his last jump here. He knows he's going to go over the bar, Brandon.
COLIN HILDING: See, you know what, if Derek Druin was still in this, I wouldn't be watching a commercial for War of the World right now. I would be watching this event with you.
BEN WATERWORTH: I just want to say, if he fails here, I want them to show that replay of him going under the bar over and over again, because that's the funniest thing I've seen at these Olympics. All right, come on, Brandon, come on, Brandon, come on, Brandon. No, all right, he's out.
COLIN HILDING: No medal.
BEN WATERWORTH: All right, not a surprise.
COLIN HILDING: Serves you right for taking out Derek Druin.
BEN WATERWORTH: Anne-Marie Rindem, gold in the women's laser for Denmark. Silver to Sweden, bronze to the Dutch. In the other swimming events, Caleb Dressel was at his fifth medal of the Olympics, I think it was, in an Olympic record. It was a good race. I like Caleb Dressel. He's a unit, that guy. I keep saying that. Maybe I've got more of a thing for him than any of these other athletes. Silver to Sweden, bronze to the Dutch. Hey, I wouldn't say no. The 1500, again, I'm so sad. What a race. It ended up being a great little finish there. But Robert Fink won the gold for the States, bronze to Germany, silver to the Ukraine. The men's four by one went to the US. Britain got the silver. Italy got the bronze. Australia, I think, were fourth, no, fifth in that one, weren't they? Kyle couldn't do much in the end there. We didn't get away too well. And that was the swimming done. The tennis, Djokovic's conquerors, Varev took the gold ahead of Karenchev, the Russian guy, and Spain got bronze and the women's doubles. Sadly, Belinda couldn't get the double gold. She was runner up with Switzerland. The Czech Republic, Barbara Krechukikova and Katerina Sinnova got the gold. And Brazil got the bronze in that one. And rock are playing rock right now, I think. And the weightlifting, women's 76 kilos, is on as we speak. I think Italy, this Italian douchenals, I don't like this Italian guy, this high jumper guy. Like he was blocking Brandon before when he was trying to go for a jump. He was celebrating with his 100 metre sprinter.
COLIN HILDING: Does he have a man bun?
BEN WATERWORTH: He does. It's like that French guy that I was banging out before. The medal tally right now, obviously, with some changes probably still to come tonight. The top five, China on top, 23 gold, 14 silver, 13 bronze, 50 in total. USA have had a great day. 20 gold, 21 silver, 16 bronze. They lead on total. 57 in total. Japan still in third. They haven't won a gold in a couple of days, Japan. 17 gold, 5 silver, 9 bronze, 31. Australia are now comfortably in fourth. 3 ahead of ROK, 14 gold, 3 silver, 14 bronze, 31 in total. ROK in fifth, 11 gold, 17 silver, 13 bronze. Canada have slipped to 13th. You've been overtaken by the Czechs now, Colin. 3 gold, 4 silver, 6 bronze. If Andre comes through, you will be in 11th tonight. So no pressure there, Colin.
COLIN HILDING: I want to mention the American swimmer of the game, just because nobody's given him credit. You mentioned Bobby Fink in the 1500m. This is his second gold. He was the one that a couple days ago I said I would have at least offered for consideration for Athlete of the Day just because it was probably the greatest comeback I've ever seen. I don't even know if he was necessarily considered to be the favourite in the 1500m. But while everybody in America is talking about Caleb Dressel and Katie Ledecky, I mean Bobby Fink is probably going to be your star in another four years.
BEN WATERWORTH: I think you need to meet Roberta Funk so we can have Fink and Funk. That sounds like a cop show. Fink and Funk. There are two cops from the wrong side of the tracks coming together. One's a canoeist, the other's a cyclist, a swimmer. Probably a cyclist too.
COLIN HILDING: He cycles in the water.
BEN WATERWORTH: What will they do? Fink and Funk. This week on NBC. I mean, I'd watch it. Jarrod, Fink and Funk, can we make it a thing?
JARROD LOOBEEK: I think so. I think that sounds like a great show.
BEN WATERWORTH: Fink and Funk. He brings the funk. Also brings the Fink. And then bringing Dong Dong and Jonas Jonas.
COLIN HILDING: Fink and Funk and Dong Dong, Jonas Jonas.
BEN WATERWORTH: And what was the other? The swimmer with Jojo? Kiwa with Jojo?
JARROD LOOBEEK: Chromo with Jojo?
BEN WATERWORTH: Chromo with Jojo. Chromo with Jojo, Fink and Funk, Jonas Jonas and Dong Dong.
COLIN HILDING: And Kiwi versus Kylie.
BEN WATERWORTH: And Kiwi versus Kylie. And that's Kylie Moss. Can I just say, I noticed the the announcer in the stadium also called it Kylie Moss. They just give it up.
COLIN HILDING: There's like there's an in between pronunciation again, depending on it's either depending on where you which region you could be either mass or it should be mass, you know, but people go overboard with the mass and they're into Moss.
BEN WATERWORTH: That's so funny. One thing.
COLIN HILDING: And Donovan Bailey is on Canadian TV right now.
BEN WATERWORTH: Well, you've got Donovan Bailey, we've got Matt Shervington. It's almost the same. It's almost the same isn't it Jarrod with Matt Shervington like our last 100 metres semi-final. We'll talk about the 100 because we're about to throw there in a second. But one thing I wanted to mention, obviously a few medals got decided last night. We obviously talked about the women's 100, but you mentioned guitar before Colin. Fabris Ibrahim last night won the men's 96 kilos in weightlifting. Guitars first ever Olympic gold medal joins the Philippines and Bermuda as first time Olympic gold medallist this time around. So great there. And I just want to send a shout out to Athlete of the Day yesterday, Alessandra Pirelli, who liked our post on Instagram that she was given the athlete. You are welcome, Alessandra. We're going to get you on the show.
JARROD LOOBEEK: We've got somewhere to stay when San Marino wins Eurovision.
BEN WATERWORTH: Yes, yes, exactly. Let's quickly talk about the 100 because we're going to cross to the stadium in just a second. How are you feeling, Colin?
COLIN HILDING: Better that there's no Trayvon. It's funny because Donovan Bailey is on right now, and he's such a good analyst that he can really pick everything apart. He said something really interesting. Trayvon Bromel was considered the favourite because he's won everything this year, and Donovan said Trayvon has focused so heavily on winning every race that he hasn't necessarily prepared himself for the Olympics because when you're on the Diamond League circuit, too, you're facing different people. It's not the same people competing every single week. So he's focusing on winning races. A lot of these other guys are focusing on who am I going to be competing against and what do I need to do to beat them? I can't remember his name, but the Chinese guy coming into this, like, wow, what a time he put up. Oh, and again, somebody nobody expected to be in there. So he's probably going to be the Dark Horse. You know, Andre's got the glasses. This is another thing I just want to comment on. Don and Bailey's got a great podcast out there right now called Running Things with Donovan Bailey. Well, he's only two episodes in right now, but it's my new favourite podcast. And he said something on both that and on CBC, which he's probably saying right now, which is that in as a sprinter, male, female, no matter what country you're from, you need to have swagger. And I never heard that before because usually in swimming, you look at swagger and that's considered douchey. In running, that's kind of what makes you a star. I mean, that's what Usain Bolt had going from. That's kind of what Andre DeGrasse has going from. That's what I'm going to say. Rowan actually kind of has going from, you know, that swagger, that confidence where it's not cocky. It's just confidence. And this is the type of event where so much of it is psyching out your opponent, because you don't have a full minute like you do in swimming. You know, you have 10 seconds. So you have to be able to psych out your opponents enough where they're kind of afraid. If I don't get the split second jump, and then that's why I think one of the reasons we're seeing a lot of these false starts is because these guys are getting so amped up, they're looking at the competition they're against, that we're getting false starts all over the place.
BEN WATERWORTH: We need to, I mean, I'm looking forward to this and we're going to cross here in just a second. Rowan Browning sadly didn't make the final. I mean, that was expected, I think, Jarrod, but he got a bit of a bad start, but I mean, as again, it's a big deal for an Aussie to make the semis, first time since Shervo back in Sydney. So he's a bit of a new cult hero, I think, in this country.
JARROD LOOBEEK: Yeah, I think so. I was just happy because he ran slower than he did in The Heat, but I was happy that his time from The Heat, like that wouldn't have qualified him for the final. So basically, that was just like a relief. It wasn't a stoppy moment of, if he'd run the time he ran in The Heat, he would have made it through. So that was good. But yeah, I think definitely a cult following, and there's going to be so many kids who take up sprinting because of him.
BEN WATERWORTH: I actually, I'm glad you mentioned the Chinese runner, Bing Teng Tzu, because, I mean, maybe if he wins, I will make him my Athlete of the Day. I put him as like my third runner up for Athlete of the Day, just because his reaction alone, like he went off making the final. I don't know how this sounds, but I don't often see Chinese athletes get excited. They're very like professional, like they win a gold, thank you, yes, I've won a gold. It's almost like it's expected of them, right? I very rarely see a Chinese athlete get that excited. And I loved it. He was on the ground, he was banging the thing, he was getting pumped. I think, did Bruce say that he was only the second ever Asian athlete to make a Men's 100 final, I think? Possibly. Jarrod's really giving me the things.
JARROD LOOBEEK: To the high jump. The Italian's reaction, I'm assuming he's won a medal.
BEN WATERWORTH: Oh god, of all the people to win. I mean, Italians are good at diving, so it probably makes them good there. Alright, we've still got so much to come on this show. It's such a busy episode. I mean, we're nearly an hour in and we haven't even got to other results. But we're gonna cross live, literally live, too. I mean, not by the time people listen to this, but we're going to the Tokyo National Stadium, the Stadium-a-Sea-um, I don't know what it's called, to do this because this is gonna be extremely exciting, very pumped up. The men's one, the Blue Ribbon event. Is Colin gonna shit his pants? Who knows? Let's cross now to the esteemed Bruce McEvaney of podcasting, Ben Mortoworth. Welcome to the Not Bird's Nest. That's Beijing. Welcome to the Origami Nest here in Tokyo 2020 for the race that stops the world. It is the men's 100 metre final. And what a final we have tonight. No Jamaicans, no Australians, no Botswannans. This field is going to be wide open. And it is a pleasure to be joined in the commentary box by two of the fastest men ever to have played the PlayStation 2 version of Athens 2004, including the man that won that event multiple times for the esteemed nation of Burkina Faso, Jarrod Lubick. Jarrod, welcome back to the commentary box. It's a pleasure to sit next to you again.
JARROD LOOBEEK: Thank you. I'm glad all my efforts pressing X and circle as fast as possible. Breaking my thumbs was worth it.
BEN WATERWORTH: And the only man that was ever more capable of pressing X and circle together, an 87-time champion in Athens 2004 on PlayStation 2. From the great nation of Turkmenistan, it is Colin Hilding. Colin, welcome back to this commentary box.
COLIN HILDING: Thank you for having me. And if you happen to be listening to us live right now, Andre, Czarnell, Fred, you know it's nothing to do with conditioning, nothing to do with training, nothing to do with diet, button mashing. Start mashing your buttons and you will be the fastest man alive.
BEN WATERWORTH: That's all they're taught nowadays in the little athletics, to start mashing those buttons and you'll get there eventually. But what about this spectacle we're seeing right now in front of us? I mean, I tell you what, I got so little warning about this last night, but I thought they'd cut the power here in the origami nest. But right now, I mean, this is what we wanted to see at the opening ceremonies. And I mean, this is more entertaining than we got with the man on treadmill. I mean, Colin, I bet you wish you had this when you were playing Athens on PlayStation 2.
COLIN HILDING: Well, I mean, I did have this. I just flicked the lights on and off in my living room, turned on a set of Christmas lights, and it was like I was there.
BEN WATERWORTH: Let's take a look quickly. I'll get your thoughts, Jarrod, in just a moment. But an OK at a go-kick, Kokoko. The Nigerian runner is looking pretty special here. Zanel Hughes on screen now for Britain. Jarrod, what do you think of this presentation? I mean, this is epic.
JARROD LOOBEEK: It's so good. This is what's needed just in general, but I think especially not having the crowd there, this kind of makes up for it, like it builds up that hype.
COLIN HILDING: And Dressage is going to incorporate it in Paris.
BEN WATERWORTH: Oh, I hope so. Sailing, I hope so too. Here's the South African, the Commonwealth Games Champion, Akane Simbini. I don't think that's the correct pronunciation, but whenever I ever got it right, gives a bit of a flick to the camera. And here's your man, Colin. Come on, talk him up. How's Canada feeling right now?
COLIN HILDING: Canada is feeling great. The glasses, the crotch bulge, everything about this man is incredible. His cereal box, his children's book. I mean, he has done it all.
BEN WATERWORTH: The bronze medallist, of course, from that last Olympics in Rio. That's where they were. Lamont Marcel Jacobs. Of course, American-born, but Italian at heart. He had enough past to have got citizenship. Speaking of Americans, here's Fred Curly, one of two. Not the most American name I've ever heard of, but he's Curly's heir as he's pressing the finger up to the mouth. Of course, America has not won this event since 2004. Colin, what are the US's chances here tonight?
COLIN HILDING: Not as good without Trayvon, but Fred put up some good times coming into this, and he also is a great button masher. But here's the man right here, Sue Bington. Oh, what a time he put up in the semifinals.
BEN WATERWORTH: Tell you what, if I have to have someone outside of Andre, I want a medal, that's him. Ronnie Baker, right now from America, who's got that stoic look on his face, gives a bit of a smile, gives a bit of a nod, thumbs up, hi mum, how you doing?
COLIN HILDING: That's a nice Australian PM thumbs up there.
BEN WATERWORTH: Very much so. And there's his start list. This is nerve racking. Heart palpitations. Jarrod, last thoughts from you here. How are you feeling? I'm going to give this to Colin, but how are you feeling right now? Minutes away from the start of the tournament.
JARROD LOOBEEK: I'm ready for the history of this amazing event to just continue. Who's going to take over from Bolt here?
BEN WATERWORTH: No winner since Bolt, of course, since 2004 in Athens have we had. So this is going to be a big, big deal. And you've got to go back, as I said, to 2004 in Athens, when, of course, the winner was Justin Gatlin before that Norris Green. And before that, Donovan Bailey, one of Canada's two gold medallists in this event. You've got to go all the way back, of course, to Percy Williams in Amsterdam in 1928.
COLIN HILDING: Wait a second, wait a second. Ben Johnson doesn't count?
BEN WATERWORTH: I've never heard of him. This is how we forget the feeling right now, Colin.
COLIN HILDING: Canada's feeling fantastic, especially with the smile on that man's face, Andre de Grasse. Now, I will say this just going in, 200 metre is his specialty, but he's a chaser, so if we don't see him come right out, we may still see him at the finish line. Now, I really want to see him looking towards Usain Bolt, just in spirit, because that's the thing, that's the move. If you see him turn his head and give a smile, he knows that Bolt is there with him.
BEN WATERWORTH: Yes, yes, he is watching this race. We are now moments away. They're on the starting block. Colin Hilding, it's over to you, my friend.
COLIN HILDING: All right. And the feet are planted. And more feet are being planted. And I am very nervous that we're going to have 16 false starts here. I'm going to be talking for a long time. So let's just be quiet. Nice and quiet here. The high jumpers don't want to be disturbed either. They are on the blocks. They are getting ready. We're waiting for the butts to come up. Butts are in the air. And it's at a false start. Of course it's a false start. Of course it's a false start. Who false started? Zarnel, you're out of here. Now there is a zero tolerance for false starts. It's going to be questionable whether or not they actually disqualify him. Famously the 96 games that Donovan Bailey won had I think 16 false starts before Linford Christie went out. He may as well.
BEN WATERWORTH: He was getting ready for Paris with that start I think.
COLIN HILDING: Zarnel is playing the role of Linford Christie here because the Brits are screwing it up again.
BEN WATERWORTH: Classic Britain screwing the world up as we go. His teammate of course did that in the semis. And there's Jeff. He's not a happy man, Jeff. He just doesn't have zero tolerance for false starters. Discussing. Jarrod, what did you think of that false start? And here comes Jimmy with the red card. He's shocked. He doesn't like it, Zarnel, does he?
JARROD LOOBEEK: Yeah, you could just tell he just wanted to be the first person to cross that line. So really, he should have just kept running it. He knew he was going to get disqualified, cross the line, say, well, I was the first of the 100 metre men to cross the finish line.
BEN WATERWORTH: Let's be honest, he was thinking of his hero, Ben Johnson, doesn't that how he crossed the finish line as long as he finished first?
COLIN HILDING: You know, I like Jarrod's strategy because imagine, even if you get disqualified, you could say, I am the first disqualified runner to actually cross the finish line. It's a crew running's finish.
BEN WATERWORTH: Okay, here we go. Colin, Colin, over to you. Look at this. There's your Santa pink and grey man with the big penis.
COLIN HILDING: All right. The penis is going down. The butt is going up. The feet are planted. Will those glasses stay on? That's the real question. It's not who's the fastest man. It's will the glasses stay on the head? And there's some crotch bulges there. There's some nice hair from the Chinese. They're ready. They're still ready.
BEN WATERWORTH: They're ready.
COLIN HILDING: And it's a real start. And I don't know who's in the lead because Ben's speed is too small. Andre DeGrasse is coming from behind. I think it's American lead. I don't know. Andre, is he still in this? And he's coming. He's coming. Something happened there. Something happened.
BEN WATERWORTH: The Italian won. The Italian one. An Italian. What? What just happened? What?
JARROD LOOBEEK: Fastest man alive. And 9.79, not a bad time.
BEN WATERWORTH: Wow.
JARROD LOOBEEK: And you're in the lead.
COLIN HILDING: Wow, they are going to be celebrating in Italy tonight.
BEN WATERWORTH: I can't, I can't, like, I just, I just can't, I just can't, I just can't.
COLIN HILDING: Jarrod, did you call this one?
JARROD LOOBEEK: No, I did not. But you know.
BEN WATERWORTH: Has China got a medal? Has our man, Sue, got a medal? He's got the flag out.
COLIN HILDING: And America, so we have Italy, America and China, nobody would have expected these results.
BEN WATERWORTH: Oh, Degrass looks shitty.
JARROD LOOBEEK: It's the glasses, they held him back.
COLIN HILDING: It did, yeah, the wind resistance just was not cooperating with the glasses.
BEN WATERWORTH: No, Degrass has got the bronze, Degrass has got the bronze.
COLIN HILDING: Does he?
BEN WATERWORTH: I'm sorry, I'm just looking at my timing screen here right now, Degrass has got the bronze.
JARROD LOOBEEK: Degrass!
BEN WATERWORTH: He's gone back to back bronzes. He's done it.
COLIN HILDING: Treat yourself to a nice bowl of Honey Nut Andre Degrass is available at your local grocery store. Andre Degrass, you beautiful man with those beautiful glasses, that beautiful crotch.
BEN WATERWORTH: Now, I've got to say here, I can hear our esteemed colleagues over at NBC going crazy for Fred Curley winning the silver, but they are going crazy for Lamont Marcel Jacobs winning the gold because he is American born. So the pasta got him sitting. Look at the start here though, by our Italian, like this is what the Olympics are all about. An Italian just won the 100 metres. This is insane.
COLIN HILDING: I'm going to say this as well. Andre Degrass in third place, 9.89. That's his best time ever. So I mean-
BEN WATERWORTH: Look at him come back.
JARROD LOOBEEK: Yeah, could you imagine if he had got a decent start?
COLIN HILDING: Well, Andre never gets a decent start. Let's be honest.
BEN WATERWORTH: Look at the legs on this Italian guy. Run though, my goodness there. Tree trunks, Jacob-
COLIN HILDING: Let's just stop for a second. There are no jokes going on here. Italy just won the 100 metre dash.
BEN WATERWORTH: Italy won the 100 metre dash. This is just- Have we just met our Athlete of the Day? I want to say, not since Linford Christie has somebody from Europe won the 100 metres. That was in Barcelona. Before that, you got to go back to Alan Wells of Britain in Moscow, and then back to Munich for Valtteri Boros from the Soviet Union. I don't know what to say. I've witnessed an Italian win the 100 metres. I just- I can't. Jarrod, I can't.
JARROD LOOBEEK: I feel like he was in that heat that was extra fast. Sorry, the semifinal that was extra fast. I suppose it's not super unexpected from a time point of view, but just the fact that it's an Italian, so it's just insane.
COLIN HILDING: It's a 9.8, too.
BEN WATERWORTH: And what a night it may be for Italy, because just looking over at the mat here in the stadium, Gianmarco Tambere is sitting with a shot to gold in the high jump. So I am hearing right now that Rome has officially exploded. So it looks like Nelana Cortina in 2026 is lucky they've got the Winter Games and not Rome. Final thoughts before we cross back to the Off The Podium studio. Jarrod, we have witnessed the most unique 9 seconds of our lives.
JARROD LOOBEEK: We have spaghetti for everybody. I'll be making myself a bowl to celebrate that. What a strange victory, but what a victory. I feel like this is super fitting for Valt's legacy to be passed on to just an Italian.
BEN WATERWORTH: I think it also lives up to the esteemed name of Mario. Those Mario and Sonic at the Olympic Games finally paid off for Mario. The gold finally got there. Colin, I mean, again, just degrace with the bronze, back to back bronzes. That's a victory for Canada, isn't it? I mean, you did get beat by Italy in the 100 metres, but you still did well.
COLIN HILDING: Absolutely. I mean, who doesn't want to lose to Italy? I mean, those are some great people. Let's watch our Italian listenership spike after this. We are positive on Italy. This isn't Great Britain. This isn't France. We love Italy here.
BEN WATERWORTH: Just want to add on that quick note. Australians don't like losing to Italy in the World Cup. Let's not bring back fresh wounds from 2006. But on that note, let's remind our English listeners how Euro 2020 went. That's right. You lost to Italy and you also lost to Italy in the men's 100 metres. Let's cross now back to the Off The Podium studio. It's back to you, Ben. Thanks, Ben. Holy crap. Bolzamiya. I don't even know what to say. Jarrod, like, an Italian just won the 100 metres.
JARROD LOOBEEK: Yeah. Viva la Italy. All day, every day. I think he's going to three-feed it now.
COLIN HILDING: You know what I'm really excited about is the medal ceremony, because I'm going to say Italy has the best national anthem of any country that competes in the Olympics.
BEN WATERWORTH: I would not maybe... I've got my opinions on national anthem. There's a ranking episode ranking the national anthems, but Italy has one of the best national anthems in the world, hands down. I mean, as a Ferrari fan in Formula One growing up, heard a lot with my man Michael winning all the races. It is a great national anthem, but holy crap, Bolz. 9.80, he took that in. So to go over what we were just talking about in terms of his semitime, now we've got a 9.84. I mean, the Italians are in the right now. They're crying in the stands. They're an emotional bunch of the Italians. I mean, again, this is kind of, this is a very Dale Begg Smith moment. Let's be honest. It's an American who's won them a gold. We take the moguls gold by our esteemed Dale. We know he's a Canadian, but I mean, Colin, I can't imagine that NBC right now going, well, he is an American.
COLIN HILDING: Oh, I can't wait to hear the NBC cover. When we get to commentary fails, I got some great NBC stuff that we're going to groan at later.
BEN WATERWORTH: And Degrass, let's talk about Degrass so quickly, because I mean, like, it didn't look like he'd won a medal. I mean, the Chinese guy, Su, had the flag, but looking at that replay, I mean, the Chinese guy was nowhere near it. So I don't know what he was celebrating. But I mean, Degrass back to back bronze. This basically, I mean, I know Johnson technically got two medals. One of them sort of may have been legal or not. But I mean, this makes him the first Canadian to ever win two medals in this event. Am I not mistaken?
COLIN HILDING: Yeah, I think so. I mean, I mean, Donovan Bailey, he only had the one games. You know, interesting stories behind him. So why he didn't have others. But this is this is unprecedented. And also the first medal for a male in the Olympics for Canada. It's taken nine days, but we're on the board now as men.
BEN WATERWORTH: Yes, well, actually, I'm just looking here. So only in the history of the 100 metres have 10 men. Is that 10? If I can count correctly, gone multiple medals. Obviously, Assane Bolt got three. Justin Gatlin got three. And then you look at Carl Lewis, Linford Christie, Valerie Borez, Maurice Green, Ralph Metcalf, Frankie Fredericks, Lennox Miller and Atto Bolton are the only ones who got two. De Grasse has created history, Colin, because he is the only one of these athletes who has won two bronzes.
COLIN HILDING: And I think it's time to read a little statistics from Honey Nut Andre De Grasse is here.
BEN WATERWORTH: It's a personal best for him. I think you did mention that on the call. And the South African there too, Akane Simbini taking the fourth place there, got the gold on the Gold Coast. In all seriousness, Bingtang Su though, that's great for China. I mean, even if he got the flag out just to celebrate finishing sixth, good on him.
COLIN HILDING: I will also say with the sixth finish, this isn't to take anything away from it. I mean, we did have disqualification from eighth and the seventh place from Nigeria. He actually pulled out, obviously due to a hamstring injury or something like that. But still, you can say you're the top six in the world from China. Everything about this race is going to go down in history. I feel like the sad thing about it is because we don't have Bolt for the first time, because Trayvon's out of it, there's a lot of people who are just going to look at this like, oh, it's default. But nobody would have seen these results coming. The only one who was even considered in the mix in this finals was Degrass. When you look at the lineup of the guys who actually got to run here, most of them you wouldn't have expected to even be here. And we have an Italian who's the fastest man alive.
BEN WATERWORTH: I can't like you think about countries that produce the 100 metre champion. I mean, Italy had never even won a medal. Australia has won a medal in the 100 metres. Never. New Zealand has won a medal in the 100 metres. Never has an Italian ever won it. Also, just quickly, some more breaking news here. We mentioned before that Qatar won their first gold medal ever at the Olympic Games last night. Well, they've gone two from two because in the high jump, they are going off right now. And so is the Italian silver. I didn't like this guy before, but I love this guy now. Look at the emotion. I love this thing.
COLIN HILDING: This wouldn't even get a man bun by tomorrow.
BEN WATERWORTH: Oh, so Mutas Esa Barsim has taken the gold in the high jump. Gimarko Tambiri, who only an hour ago was my most hated man of these Olympics. He's on the ground, absolutely bawling his eyes out.
COLIN HILDING: I love it.
BEN WATERWORTH: And so is the Qatari here. Bronze has gone to Maxim Nedasekku of Belarus, while Brandon Stark's gotten fifth. Django Lovett, eighth. I mean...
JARROD LOOBEEK: Double gold, I think.
BEN WATERWORTH: Somebody's lost their leg on the... Is that a cast? Like somebody's got a cast on the track.
JARROD LOOBEEK: The Italian's won gold as well.
BEN WATERWORTH: Oh, is it an ankle gold? Holy crap! Holy fucking meatballs and spaghetti!
COLIN HILDING: How did Italy win two golds simultaneously?
BEN WATERWORTH: What is happening at these Olympic Games? There's a Portuguese lady giving the flag, they're having sex on the field. Like, I just don't even know what to say. Stop your camera!
COLIN HILDING: I'm again looking at another commercial for War of the Worlds. Stop trying to make War of the Worlds TV show a thing.
BEN WATERWORTH: This is amazing! I am so glad we are recording this right now. This is absolutely incredible. This is what the Olympics are about right now. You just get blown away by this absolute insanity. Jarrod, I'm glad you picked it. Even the Bella Russian loves it. He looks like he's about 12. How is he old enough to even be out at this time of night? This is just... I don't even know what to say right now. I mean, you think we're making this up. We are recording this live when this stuff is happening. We realise that people are going to listen to this hours after this has happened. Far out. I can't eat pasta, but I just want a bowl of spaghetti right now. I mean, I'm just... God, do either of you have any Italian family that we can go over for dinner tomorrow night? Like, is Lou Big Italian?
JARROD LOOBEEK: No, but I... I wish. Now I'm just going to be betting on the Italians and everything. They've got somebody through to the 400-metre hurdles final. He's going to win for sure.
BEN WATERWORTH: Esteemed Athletics Nation of Italy. Colin, talk. I need to find out some stats here. I mean, Italy had only won two gold. These Olympics... Italy is generally a pretty good nation at the Olympics. Okay, to put this into context, two gold, eight silver, fifteen bronze Italy had before this. Italy are probably going off. This Italian guy has gotten this cast on, whatever it is, and he's throwing it up. Colin, I mean, do you have any Italian heritage people?
COLIN HILDING: I don't, but a good friend of mine is Italian. I was in his wedding party and at his engagement party, his family wanted to adopt me just because I literally ate everything they gave me that I went home with all the leftovers. So I could say I'm almost partially adopted by an Italian family.
BEN WATERWORTH: Well, we're going around for dinner there. I'm seeing here that Italy has a bit of a history in athletics, going to his 19 gold, 15 silver, 26 bronze. But none of their multiple medallists are athletics competitors. All their multiple athletes are fencing. They've had a terrible game in fencing. All of their top 10 are basically the fencing or cross-country skiers or short track speed skaters. So outside of fencing in the summer games, you've got to go down to equestrian, gymnastics, diving and canoeing and modern pentathlon. And then gymnastics. So there's not even any history of athletics in this country, according to multiple medals. I'm seeing here, it looks as though it is a guy by the name of Maurizio D'Amilano, who competed in the 80s. And he won five medals, a race walker. So here's your race. There it is. Race walking is where the Italians do it. Now they've just won the freaking high jump. And Jesus, wow.
JARROD LOOBEEK: He walked so they could run.
BEN WATERWORTH: Yeah. Holy crap. You thought they were excited when they won Euro the other week. My God. I don't even know what to say. Colin, Canada results. I mean, add another bronze to the table. But how did Canada go today? Outside of now, you've got two bronzes today. So a very successful Canadian day.
COLIN HILDING: Yeah. Well, obviously, we talked about the four by 100 relay for the women. Just an update on their Taylor Ruck and Kayla Sanchez also take the bronze for swimming in the semis there. Obviously, Andre de Grasse just made history. We talked about him. We mentioned Django Lovett was out of the high jump. As well, Marco Arop, he was our 800-metre runner. He was out as well in the semis. I think he came in last in his. I was kind of glancing at him. He was winning for a lot of that. He was, yeah. Something went wrong there. Andre de Grasse's crotch distracted him or something. I don't know. But let's see. Aside from that, a lot of Canadian bests here. Canadian bests in the steeplechase. So we've advanced to the finals there. Genevieve Lalonde. That was her. Alicia Butterworth. And Reagan Yee are not advancing, sadly. We still got one in there. The hammer throw. We've got one advancing to the final, Cameron Rogers, but Gillian Weir and Christabel Nettie are out. Sarah Douglas finished sixth overall in the laser radial, which is also a Canadian best. Sailing history right there.
BEN WATERWORTH: Sixth at the Olympics.
COLIN HILDING: Sixth is our best. I said we need a medal. When we get a medal, that'll become a thing here. Diving Jennifer Abel. That's kind of a disappointment. She wanted individual medal. She's probably our most decorated, synchronised diver of all time. So for her to not get the medal, especially I think she came in qualified third out of the semifinals coming into the finals. But she ended up finishing. What was her placing? I saw it earlier. Was it seventh or eighth? Sure. Sure. It wasn't strong. She had one bad dive. I was able to catch it before we started recording. And it was another thing similar to the synchronised one that we missed out on the other day. It was just the one bad dive that kind of cost her. Other than that, she was, you know, at one point looking like she was even to silver or possibly a bronze position. Shallon Olsen. This was really exciting there for a minute in the vault for the gymnastics. Because Simone Biles is out, it was looking hopeful. I think she was going in third place, but she ended up coming in seventh overall. So that's it for us there. The golf, wow, what a day for golf. Corey Connors and Mackenzie Hughes. I think we finished in 13th and 50th place overall. Wrestling, this was another big disappointment. Erica Wiebe was one of the ones we talked about most. We actually were semi hopeful that she would have gone back to back gold as well. But she was knocked out in the first round here. What was most disappointing about that, I was able to catch that before I went to bed last night as well. And she was down 5-0 with like only a few minutes ago. She ended up 5-4 was the final score, and she had a takedown literally as the buzzer went. If that had gone five extra seconds, chances are she would have moved on, but unfortunately she gets knocked out very early, doesn't get to move on. Big upset here. I don't know if we call it a complete upset, but the undefeated Americans in beach volleyball, Clay's and Sponsal, they actually lost to our B team, Bansley and Wilkerson. So not even our top team. So Canada is moving on against the Americans, and I think our other duo will go up tomorrow. Basketball, what do we have here? We lost. So it's now going to come down to the esteemed basketball nation, the South Korea and Serbia, to determine if we're even going to get a chance to move on. Volleyball, this is the other thing I talked about a day or two ago. Our men's volleyball team, it would have been, I think, history-making for them as well if they'd been able to move on. But they were taking on the number one team, Poland. They ended up losing. They're not moving on. Or will they get a chance to move on? So it says here they might move on to the quarterfinals, depending on the rest of the results. So it's still a chance for us there. Waterpolo, I caught some of this before we started too. Again, a little bit closer than some of the other matches we had, but we lost to the Netherlands 16 to 12. Equestrian, I don't know what's happening, if Paul Verratti is still kicking people. But currently in 42nd place with our other combo, Colleen Loach and Corey Blue, Dargudjes.
JARROD LOOBEEK: I don't even know how that's pronounced properly.
BEN WATERWORTH: Dargudjes.
COLIN HILDING: Ben told us about the fencing, that's it. And another one of our... Go ahead.
BEN WATERWORTH: I just keep talking. I want to talk about that separately.
COLIN HILDING: I was just saying on weightlifting, Crystal, I don't know if her name is pronounced Narlum, but she I believe is competing, still competing, or is out. I don't know the exact results on that or what the updates are. But just a quick mention there. We actually came very close to doing an interview with Crystal a couple of years ago, long before Tokyo was a thing. The reason that I held off on it was because I think this was four years ago, and her management or whatever says, hey, we can give you an interview with Crystal. And I thought, well, let's wait a year or two. And I think we touched base and didn't get anything lined up with Crystal. Crystal, we're still here for you. Especially if you meddle, we're still here for you.
BEN WATERWORTH: I just wanted to quickly add on the fencing. I set my alarm to get up and watch it, and then I obviously hit snooze too many times and I missed it. So I was like, fuck, all right. So I go like, surely they've won. And I look at my phone and straight away they've lost. Of course, it was in the round of 16. I'm so sorry, Max. They went 45-31 down. Germany then went on to play the US, who then the US beat them in the quarterfinal. So I mean, basically all it would take is one win to get into a quarterfinal against the arch nemesis of the US, to which I would have wanted this Gerrick Meinhardt replay. The US go on to win a bronze frickin medal. France have won that one ahead of Rock, and again, Italy. Well, they don't really care anymore about fencing. They've got a new favourite sport. I actually just want to quickly go on this. Italy won a bronze medal in the women's 100 metres, way back in Rome at their home Olympics. Giuseppina Leone took the bronze, so she's no longer their national sprinting hero. Now, Marcel Jacobs, Lamont Marcel Jacobs, born in El Paso, lived there for less than a month before his father was transferred to South Korea, and then they went to the town of De Sanzo di Gada, where he apparently was more of a long jump specialist until only recently. He's apparently being constantly questioned about his Italian roots, but he says he feels 100% Italian because he doesn't speak English very well. And again, he's mainly been a long jumper until only recently. And he's also a bit of a ladies man by the seams of things because he's got two kids with his current partner, and he's got a kid with another relationship when he was 19. So he might be my new favourite person on this planet. And just looking here too at Italy's history at the Olympics in terms of athletics, so I think 19 of their medals have come from race walking. That's generally where it comes from. But you've got to go back to London when they last won a medal in athletics. Triple jump, Fabrizio Donato took a bronze. Then they got a gold and a bronze in Beijing in race walking. Athens, they got a marathon gold, a walk gold and a pole vault bronze. Sydney, a hammer throw and a long jump silver. 10k walk and a long jump silver in Atlanta. 5,000 metres bronze. No history of any form of the short distances. 1,500 metres is their shortest distance. They got a 4x400 bronze in Moscow. But let's be honest, we could have all won medals in Moscow and Los Angeles because half the countries weren't in either of those ones. High jump, they got a silver back in Montreal in the women's with Sarah Simeone. So this is also their very first high jump gold medal as well. So, I mean, I feel like I'm Bruce right now because Bruce, I'm sure, is pulling these statistics without having to look it up. But I mean, Jarrod, I mean, can we just move to Italy right now and join Athletics? It's in the water.
JARROD LOOBEEK: Yeah, right. Well, that's the plan, isn't it? It's all people defecting there who are winning gold. So, yeah, why not?
BEN WATERWORTH: Insane. Just absolutely insane. It really is. I know Ferrari is struggling in Formula One right now. So at least they've got something to celebrate. Them and their soccer team, who would have ever thunk it? Australia. Can we just take a bit of a big day, obviously? But I want to talk about the hockey. I mean, god damn it, talk about fricking having heart palpitations today, Jarrod Lubik. I mean, Jesus Christ, the Kukaburras went one up, then they got a pretty dodgy equalised goal, which they should have referred and it would have been a goal, go two one up, and they get a pretty dodgy penalty stroke against us, and the Dutch go two all up. And it goes to show how long it's been since I've been involved in hockey, because I thought they still did extra time. I didn't realise they go straight to strokes. And at the end of the day, we won the penalty shootout three nothing. So we're through to the semifinals, where, as I mentioned in our group today, we will seek to get hockey revenge on Germany in an Olympic semifinal for Canada. We'll do it for you, Colin, after Pyeongchang, different type of hockey. But holy crap, Jack, I'm watching this, and I'm like, this is where we choke. This is the men's hockey team. This is what the Cookebarras do at the Olympics. It's happening again.
JARROD LOOBEEK: Yeah, I was just having flashbacks to yesterday when we were talking about their hopes. And I said how, like, they'll get into a lead, but they're, like, terrible at maintaining it. And then it was just, like, it's flashing before my eyes, that happening. And then they kept bringing up the stat of, like, I think it was in Sydney that we played against the Dutch, and then they beat us in penalties after, like, a little draw or something. So I would just go into the penalty. I was like, we're going to lose this for sure. But the fact that our goalkeeper stopped all of them, they didn't even get one penalty on the board was just super impressive. And, like, I feel like performance like that has to be a confidence booster moving forward.
BEN WATERWORTH: Andrew Charter is his name. Fantastic veteran. And that was my position. I was a goalie in hockey. So it was great to see that. But yeah, the Dutcher, they're a tricky side. They're one of the best when it comes to hockey by far. In Germany, you know, Slauchers too. So that's going to be a very difficult match up coming up there in the semis. And the other ones, Belgium beat Spain three-one. So they'll play the winner between India and Britain. But yeah, big confidence booster for the Kookaburras, because that is one of these ones that, as the Daily Telegraph predicted us winning, but clearly, again, we're the number one country in the world, but the Olympics are just not friendly to us when it comes to this. So there you go. In the athletics, as we obviously mentioned before, Brandon Stark finished fifth, which is pretty good. I think he'd be pretty happy with that one there. He jumped a 2.35, which is only two centimetres off. I mean, had he ended up jumping a 2.37, he would have been in a very short middle. The one they're showing a replay on our screen right now, let's talk about Peter Boll. He qualified through to the 800 metres, if you don't mind. I'm going to be flat out honest with you. I have no idea who this guy is, but I mean, bloody oath. Fantastic. He actually set an Australian record in both the heats and now the semis, and he's through to the finals. Bruce was going off. Bruce loved it. Stand up and take a bow. Peter Boll.
JARROD LOOBEEK: Yeah, just like he's one of these athletes who's able to like pace themselves based on the race, because he never really looked out of it. He's good at getting to the front and kind of sticking there in a good spot, not getting himself pinched in on the inside lane. And I'm just, I'm excited to see what he can pull off in the final.
BEN WATERWORTH: Yeah, absolutely. So I'm going to be very intrigued to see how he goes in that one. In the hurdles, our athlete in that one, I think, was cruelly eliminated. I think she was just on the cusp of going through as a faster. Liz Clay, she was about a tenth away from making the final. But the one I'm interested in is that Jasmine Chacha Quinn, who I remember that from Rio breaking down in the semis. And just, I think, did she get a silver or a bronze behind Sally, I think, from memory? And I'd like to see her win a medal. I remember that from Rio, but she's through. We're not talking about the Cubans over here, talking about the Australians, Ben. Cuban Olympics, Oz, coming soon to a stereo near you. Golf, our mulleted man, Cam Smith, he had a great day today. He was storming up the field, but he couldn't quite get there. I'll tell you what, if he had shot well on the first day, he probably would have won a medal, because he went 66, 66, 67 on his final three, but he went 71 on his first day there, so bad luck to him. Mark Leisham did very badly. We don't need to talk about him. In the diving, Esa Quinn, I flicked over just as she belly flopped in the water, so it was a good time there. She was twelfth and last, but I'm sure she's happy that she at least made the final there. So good to see that one. We obviously already mentioned Rowan Browning in the Athletics, and there was a few other ones that I'm not going to go through. All those sort of other athletes in that one. Shall we mention the equestrian, Jarrod Lubik, shades of the 90s and Sydney? Australia are currently sitting in second place in the three-day eventing. That's like my childhood right now! Having said that, we are about 18 points behind Britain, I think we're going to shit at him when it comes to the show jumping. But I actually like the cross. This is why I remember I actually enjoy equestrian, because there are two other disciplines outside of dressage, and they're actually quite entertaining. And Andrew Hoy, if you don't mind, in his eighth Olympics, got seventh alone in that one today, but they were showing a bit of it today. I like the cross-country in the, what's it called? Equestrian, the horse one, yes.
JARROD LOOBEEK: No, it's good, it's just another one of these sports are just weird scoring, the fact that we were sitting so low yesterday and could like charge up the ranks so quickly just in the one event. So a weird one, but yeah, fingers crossed going into the show jumping that we can pull off something special there.
BEN WATERWORTH: And yeah, this would be what, Andrew Hoy is about sixth medal, fifth medal, something ridiculous along those lines there for him, should he, they pull one off when it comes to that. Elsewhere throughout the day, we shall say that in the beach volleyball, Dasola, Ticho and Clancy are through to the quarterfinals. We beat Wang and Zhu. So we are through to that one. So exciting. I don't know. Are we playing the Canadians? I haven't actually seen the bracket there, Colin. Maybe we need to quickly check this out.
COLIN HILDING: I think it would be a semi-final match if we end up playing each other.
BEN WATERWORTH: Right, so who are you playing in the quarters? Do you know?
COLIN HILDING: Good question.
BEN WATERWORTH: Actually, well, hang on. No, no, no, hang on. I'll tell you right now. Should your girls, Pavan and Humana Paredes, win, they will play our girls in the quarter.
COLIN HILDING: Ooh, drama. Would it be Canada versus Canada in the semis then?
BEN WATERWORTH: It could very much be. So you are playing the Latvian pairing of Kravchenokha and Grodlina, so should Bansley and Wilkinson go through, and then no doubt Australia probably lose in our quarterfinal, then it will be an all Canadian. You will guarantee yourself a medal in beach volleyball. So yes, get to yourself.
COLIN HILDING: And we'll also guarantee yourself a fourth place.
BEN WATERWORTH: Yeah, exactly. So, but that's good for Australia there, Jarrod. It's been a while since we've won a beach volleyball medal, so that's exciting.
JARROD LOOBEEK: Has been. That'll be a good one to watch.
BEN WATERWORTH: Yeah, exactly. As we mentioned, the cycling, we got a gold in that. That's fantastic. Obviously, no fencing for us. No handball for us. Hockey, the kookaburras through to the semis, as we mentioned. Gold in the sailing. That's fantastic. People shot guns today. I'm sure that was exciting. In the table tennis. Oh, the women's team went out in the round of 16 to Germany, 3-0. That's destroyed my day, Jarrod.
JARROD LOOBEEK: Yeah, very upsetting there. Unexpected, too.
BEN WATERWORTH: Yeah, the Stingers got a bit of a win in the women's water polo, just a lazy 14-1 win over South Africa. I think that was one goal less than the Canadians got against them. So we need to pick our game up there. What's going on? And the wrestling started today. Eric Wiebe, did you mention? I was listening to you. Yeah, I was listening. Word. Yeah. I think I was listening. Maybe. Sally's on TV. Sally, Sally, Sally McLennan's on TV right now. Sally Pearson. What's her name? Is it Pearson or McLennan this week, Jarrod? I see a caller by one and not the other. It's weird when women get married and change their names and compete in Olympics, different names. I just, you confuse Ben Waterworth. I don't like it. But yes, that is what happened. What did we watch today, gentlemen? I watched the athletics. Did you guys watch the athletics? I don't know if you watched the athletics. Colin, what did you watch today?
COLIN HILDING: Well, really it was just the little bit of the swimming last night, the beach volleyball, a couple of beach volleyball matches last night as well. Athletics today and then the diving overnight. So all the big ones. I do have a nice fun store where when we get to the commentary fails on one of the beach volleyball ones I watched, which might be the most douchey thing I've ever heard an American Combinator say. So I'm looking forward to that.
BEN WATERWORTH: That's a big call. Just quickly in the water polo, I will say that the quarterfinal brackets in the women's, so Australia will play rock in the quarterfinal and Canada will play the US in the quarter. Should Canada and Australia win, we will meet in the semifinals. And of course, Australian water polo fans will remember our rivalry with the US back in Sydney, of course, where we beat them famously at the death for the gold medal. In the men's tournament, the Sharks play tomorrow, and we basically have to have a very, very, very big win against Kazakhstan, who are last. They're the only side that hasn't won a match, but it looks like we need to win by about 20 odd goals to make up, no, it's even more than that, 30 odd goals to make up the goal difference for Serbia there. So probably not going to happen for the Sharks, unfortunately. Jarrod, what did you watch today?
JARROD LOOBEEK: A little bit of everything, obviously the swimming, the track, the BMX, the hockey, which as you mentioned, it was just a thrilling end to that match. Some of the tennis, which was good to see those middle playoffs there. And a little bit of the beach volleyball as well.
BEN WATERWORTH: Just a quick thing before I say what I watched, just a few updates on medals, so in the mixed doubles, Anastasia Pavlochukova and Andrei Rublev won. So they were the ones that beat Barty in that, weren't they, Jarrod?
JARROD LOOBEEK: Yeah, so I think Barty, both of the teams that beat Barty in the mixed and in the women's ended up winning the gold.
BEN WATERWORTH: There you go, look at that. And obviously we've gone over the high jump, the 100. Did we mention the triple jump that Yulima Rojas of Venezuela took the gold in a world record, if you do not mind. And the reason why that Portuguese lady was so excited, hugging the Italian, because she got the silver, Patricia Momona, Jason's brother, isn't it? Got the silver there. And Spain's Ana Pelletiro took the bronze. The only medal event we are waiting for, it seems, is the typical women's badminton singles. Come on, girls. We've got places to be, things to do. Maybe that has been just the one I'm not looking up hasn't updated. Yeah, swimming, I watch swimming. Cycling, watch cycling. Hockey, I watch hockey, I watch some equestrian. Bit of the water polo. The athletics was going on tonight as well. Yeah, busy, busy day there. Let's get to the commentary. Actually, just an update on the badminton. India has won a bronze in the singles match. Great to see there. Beats China. And the gold medal right now is between China and Chinese Taipei. Ooh, they don't like each other. So we'll maybe get into resolve that very soon. All right, Colin, hit me with your commentary fail stick.
COLIN HILDING: Well, since I didn't get a chance to watch much, there's only one thing from CBC, which was more an awkward thing than anything else. Awkward for the viewer. When they were interviewing the women's 4x100 team, when the interviewer got to Penny, she says, and you, Spicy P. Which you could see the other swimmers kind of acknowledge, which you kind of get the impression that this is some insider nickname they have for us. Like, hey, Spicy P. Because the other one was like, oh, she called you Spicy P. But as a viewer, I heard her say Spicy P. And I'm like, what? What is that? Like, I'd had a lot of spicy food last night, and I'm telling you, it burns a little bit when it comes out. So that's what I was thinking about, like, a Spicy P. Give us some context. Don't just say Spicy P, because it's what they call her on the insides. Like, tell the audience first. And I hear that the girls call you Spicy P. It's just Spicy P sound weird. But here it is. So our new favourite country, Qatar, was against the US in the men's beach volleyball last night. And Qatar was winning. They pretty much had it locked. And one of the American commentators seemed OK. The other one, there was a point where they cut to the American team and they're sitting there and they have their heads down. You know, someone needs to tell these guys, they have no need to hang their heads right now. They played their best match. They played their hearts out. They played cohesively together. Guitar, just played silly volleyball. And they just sort of left it that.
BEN WATERWORTH: And guitar won.
COLIN HILDING: And it wasn't like they cheated or anything. They just have the worst sport I have ever heard. And of course it's an American comedy. They just played silly volleyball.
BEN WATERWORTH: What is silly volleyball? Is it like playing it with a bit of a silly dance?
COLIN HILDING: Exactly. I mean, you know, looking up this American team, they got knocked out pretty much in the quarterfinals last year. It wasn't like it was a front running team or anything. These guys are both in their 40s and they got beat by some silly Qatar volleyball players apparently.
BEN WATERWORTH: I just I think the world hates Qatar because like people still can't believe they're hosting the World Cup next year. So but I mean, let's just to bookend that though, Qatar won the frickin Asian Cup two years ago, which was a big frickin deal. They did decently in the gold cup. They got invited to play in the North American tournament, which Canada sadly went out in the semis, and they've won now two Olympic gold medals, if you don't mind. I think in a year and a half time after the World Cup, when we realise it's a massive success and we now know who Qatar, because no one knew who Qatar was until they got the World Cup, let's be honest. I think we'll be questioning our thoughts of this esteemed nation of Qatar. Boys, trip to Qatar.
JARROD LOOBEEK: Just silly.
BEN WATERWORTH: 2023. Let's go with that. Jarrod, I do love that Xinyala is on right now and they've given a robot update, which is quite interesting. Any for you, commentary fails?
JARROD LOOBEEK: No, I didn't pick up any today.
BEN WATERWORTH: I've got a few, like it's actually interesting. This is, I'm pulling a colony or I'm pulling something from yesterday because I watched a bit of Xinyala. I'm going to say, I'm sorry for bagging out Xinyala. This is a funny show. I like it. This is up there with maybe the funniest thing they've had since throwing HG. Better than that Rio from Ramble from Rio, that was ridiculous, whatever that was. But last night, Andrew Gaze, the Michael Jordan of Australian basketball, and Andy Marr, the bald headed, intelligent Colton supporter, had Basil Zemplas as their guest sitting in between both of them. It was great. It was quite funny for the most part. Basil pulled out his City of Perth pins and gave him a thing, and Basil was on top form. They were showing all the highlights from the swimming and talking to him about it, and Basil was like, I'm a bit offended. Every time you show one of those clips, you've muted my commentary. So then they show like Basil's commentary. It was great. But I got to say, you think the Americans are a bit arrogant. I just want to say this comment that Basil liked to point out here and defending Channel 7 was maybe the most laughable thing I ever saw. So they showed the 100 metres final, which Kyle Chalmers sadly just missed out on. And then they get there and they're like, oh, and let's just show how much Americans have blinkers on when it comes to their commentary. This is the NBC call of the 100 metres. Now, admittedly, it was a bit silly because, you know, when Dressel wins the goal, like Dressel, Dressel. And at no point was Kyle Chalmers name mentioned and you could clearly see him storming home to nearly beat him. And so they cut back and they get there and they're like, oh, typical Americans can't. Even notice the Australians, to which Dressel says, and Dressel, I love you, seriously, but Dressel literally says, well, here in Australia on Channel 7, we have a broad Olympic focus focusing on the entire Olympics, whereas they just only focus on the Americans. I'm sorry, have I not just witnessed nine days of us winning gold medals and you replaying them a hundred times, showing a two minute clip of live events every now and then before coming back to Australian gold, Australian gold, Australian gold?
COLIN HILDING: That's not important. I'm just going to say, I'm here on a podcast with two guys who actually criticise your Australian coverage and even they fall for it, it's like, Australia again.
JARROD LOOBEEK: I just forgot where he was and he went into his Mare of Perth mode, like politician answer.
BEN WATERWORTH: True. The one thing I wanted to mention is the poolside commentator, they got him on for a bit of an interview, like, what was your highlights of the games, who was your star? He literally goes, well, I just need to give a special mention, of course, to Kayleigh McEwen, fantastic meet from her, two gold, four medals in total. And you can't go past Emma McKeon as an honourable mention, but it has to be Ariane Tidmas. I mean, it lived up to the hype, didn't it? I'm like, no, she's like, I'm proud as punch that she's a Tasmanian and she's won medals. But like, you had a woman who won the equal most amount of medals in the history of the Olympics, and you give her an honourable mention? Jesus Christ, stop with the Ariane Tidmas love. Anyway, the other one.
COLIN HILDING: Your anger towards this is almost the way I feel doing Athlete of the Day. I just want to put that out there.
BEN WATERWORTH: Looking forward to getting that in a minute. I love Basil's little line of 10 for M kind of rhymed. But anyway, they actually go back to Thorpey's great analysis. During the 1500 metres, Basil was like, oh, you know, Thorpey, this is the hardest event in swimming, isn't it? And Thorpey kind of like was like, hmm, well, I've only ever really swum a couple of these 1500 metres, but no, the hardest one would be the individual medleys. And Basil was like, oh, but this is a, this is a long, yes, but you kind of train for this and you do this. You've got to do four different strokes in the medley. And Thorpey was just so good in his answer. We got the Kylie Moss all over again. I did love Basil's mention here of Emma, basically. She's now going to be a school assignment. All the school kids around the country will be doing school assignments on Emma McKeon. To which Liesl Jones goes, oh, I want to do a project on her. And I do love the fact that Emma McKeon is from the esteemed city of Wollongong, to which Basil said the town of Wollongong will be celebrated. Now, I have been to very few places on this planet, which made me Miss Hobart. Wollongong is one of those places that made me Miss Hobart. I am sorry to anybody listening to us from Wollongong tonight, but your city is a shithole. So if you are celebrating, I would probably lock the doors. I would probably keep the valuables hidden, because that would be a pretty dangerous place to be. So have you been to Wollongong? I mean, it's a bit down the road, can you, Jarrod, technically?
JARROD LOOBEEK: Oh, Dixing-le-Gong, they've got such a good town nickname. Yeah, it's not my favourite place.
BEN WATERWORTH: I do love the fact that you're like, oh, no, it's a pretty shit place, actually. Like, I mean, I've not mentioned once that Arian Tipers is from Launceston, that's not Tasmania, that's just that shit place up north. I did love in the BMX, I actually liked those commentators because they were kind of they reminded me of the skateboarder guys, but these guys actually knew what they were talking about. They weren't just talking about their mates down at the local mall. But I love the names of the tricks, like the Superman Seagrab. And then he clicked his heels for added flair. I did love there was a guy from Russia called Iraq, and they were like, Iraq from Russia? And then I loved the name there where they go, what a true Aussie. He is not holding back. He is showing off. And then Logan is apparently from Logan. Which is a place that I lived in when I lived in Brisbane. Again, another shithole, let's be honest. I've lived in all the shitholes in Australia. But they did call Logan from the Gold Coast. It's technically part of Brisbane, just to clarify that. And then I also loved it when he went for his second run to talk him up, well, he's built a house. Now we can build a second story on his second run. Okay, good for them. Special shout out to, we've already mentioned Bill Woods, who's switched between different sports. It's seamlessly done very well. Special shout out to Tasmanian Alistair Nicholson. Now I grew up watching Steve Titmuss on one channel. Alistair Nicholson was like a local reporter on channel nine here in Hobart. Then he switched over to the ABC. Now he's doing gangbusters, commentating the hockey all week with Georgie Parker. And Georgie Parker is another great analyst. Can we mention Georgie Parker? Seemlessly switches over to the diving. Like, I'm watching the diving. Alistair Nicholson's commentating the diving. Like, I mean, holy crap, this guy's good. So yeah, anyway, rant's over. Colin, all right.
COLIN HILDING: I want to give a shout out. This happened yesterday as well, but more exciting than seeing an athlete who we've interviewed on here actually win now three medals in one games, Kylie Masks. It's great to see Brittany McLean, who was sort of a last minute, oh yeah, we can get her on the show, become one of the stars of CBC during this Olympics. There was the previous day, there was one point where the commentary must have failed, there must have been a problem with the actual commentators who were poolside, because all of a sudden it's the studio anchor, Scott Russell and Brittany McLean who are calling it. And literally stepped up seamlessly as if no prep, just all of a sudden, I guess you got to call this. And it looks like our commentators are back and they just hand it off again. Brittany McLean, one of the stars of these games, she's going to be huge in television. And when we interviewed her, which was not even that long ago, she was talking about, oh, you can actually catch me for the next three weeks on CBC. It was sort of like her pilot, her trial. And of all the analysts they've had on here, and I'll include Donovan Bailey, I think she's probably the one who's actually been most successful on air.
BEN WATERWORTH: Well, look, there's a curse in the purse, right? Like I was on that interview.
COLIN HILDING: We make great broadcasting careers. They're just not tense.
BEN WATERWORTH: I'm just, Touche, wow, Burn. Again, like I've got success in interviewing athletes that have sort of not been on this show with Belinda winning a gold, but I mean, no Off The Podium guest by Ben. Come on, Brendan, come on, Brendan. Just a quick update on the badminton. I know you're all on tender hooks right now. Yufei Chen is leading. Zhu Ying Tai, so China's beating Chinese Taipei. So the classic traditional rivalry there is going off there. That's our last medal for the day. All right, Colin, Athlete of the Day, come on, give us your failures. We're ready to shut you down.
COLIN HILDING: Oh, I'm telling you right now, nobody has shut me down this. I have not been this adamant about anything since we started.
BEN WATERWORTH: It's a no from me.
COLIN HILDING: This has to be, it has to be Penny Oleksiak. I don't care what anybody says about Australia, tying records, breaking records or anything. Italian runner, that's a great moment, but we're talking about somebody who set, not only tied, broke the all time record for most medals won by a Canadian Olympian, and this is in a summer sport. We go back to Athens. Canada won 12 medals in all of Athens. Penny Oleksiak has won seven medals in two games. Still more to come from here. This would be the equivalent if Stephen Bradbury were still racing and he all of a sudden won more medals than any summer athlete ever. There is no question that would be the Athlete of the Games. I don't care what country you're from. If this were America, Great Britain, France, whatever, somebody breaking the all time record in the opposite Olympics from what that country should be good in, that's Athlete of the Day.
BEN WATERWORTH: Colin, you had me until you mentioned Bradbury because how dare you? He is equal first in our winter athletes for most medals once. So you do not diss the Bradbury.
COLIN HILDING: No, I'm not dissing. I'm saying my point is imagine- No, you diss the Bradbury. You diss the Bradbury. Then you're clearly not listening to me because I said imagine-
BEN WATERWORTH: No, you diss the Bradbury.
COLIN HILDING: Imagine if he broke Emma's record.
BEN WATERWORTH: Well, then I want to imagine it because you don't diss the Bradbury.
COLIN HILDING: If a winter athlete were to win more than summer athletes for Australia, that's unprecedented.
BEN WATERWORTH: Okay, well, I see your little point, and I raise you the fact, has Penny Oleksiak ever played Survivor? No, Stephen Bradbury did and got voted out early. So don't diss the Bradbury.
COLIN HILDING: Wait, the 2002 Athlete of the Day, Ben, we're doing 2021.
BEN WATERWORTH: Shut up and don't diss the Bradbury. That was their diss.
COLIN HILDING: I was saying, imagine if.
BEN WATERWORTH: He's so salty. He's like Ben Waterworth over on the Oz Network.
COLIN HILDING: I'm the salty one, you're the one. You do not bring up the name of Stephen Bradbury.
BEN WATERWORTH: Because you got two Australians to one here right now, my friend, so you be careful with your next word.
COLIN HILDING: Oh, I know, I could tell by the amount of Australians who get put up for Athlete of the Day.
JARROD LOOBEEK: Well, Jarrod. Well, I see that you're putting up athletes who win medals and I raise you an athlete who didn't win a medal. Frenchman, what's his name?
COLIN HILDING: What's his name? This is a great argument to start.
JARROD LOOBEEK: Murad Aliyev. Men's super heavyweight boxing, disqualified for headbutting his opponent, then proceeded to sit ringside for half an hour in protest, spoke to some officials, came back, sat ringside for another 15 minutes in protest. This is a man protesting this loss for 45 minutes by sitting ringside. If that is not Athlete of the Day, I don't know who is.
BEN WATERWORTH: And I'm not, Joe, I'm not, word of a lie. I was meant to sit here and give two nominees, and I thought I was going to be the one to pull this out. I was going to go special note to Andrew Charter for our hockey goalie, and then I was going to go Bingham Su, and then I was literally going to throw up Mr. Italy right now, Michael Jagger, but I've got him as my nominee too, Jarrod. I have him, that's a great story.
COLIN HILDING: Oh, I'm telling you, I'm not putting up Athlete of the Day as somebody who protested. That's a great story, I would love to see it, but that is not Athlete of the Day over the greatest Olympian of all time in the summer when we're at Winter Nation.
BEN WATERWORTH: I want to be honest with you. I legitimately was thinking Penny until I saw this story.
COLIN HILDING: Oh, you're going to keep thinking Penny.
BEN WATERWORTH: Your argument is solid, I get it, but then we should be putting up Emma McKeon because she's broken our record.
COLIN HILDING: Oh, because we've got to have an Australian every single day. You know, it's your fault you didn't reserve one of your 16 Australian Athlete of the Days. You burned your chances already. We're not going to finish these Olympics putting up no American athletes of the day, no Russians, no Chinese, no Japanese, but about 16 Australians.
BEN WATERWORTH: You know, I just love this because it's like, it's so angry. I've never seen Colin this angry before. And I just also love the fact that come like six months time in Beijing, like, I mean, we're screwed when it comes to that, but he's not even thinking about that. Oh, no Australians.
COLIN HILDING: I also want to mention these entire games, this is only the second Canadian I've actually put up. Ben has put up in Australia in every single day.
BEN WATERWORTH: Yes, I'm proud of my country because we do well at the Summer Olympics. Look, I'm sorry, I have to give it to the French boxer. This is hilarious.
COLIN HILDING: You are not doing this. You give it to the French boxer. I am out of here. I'm telling you. You're finishing the show on your own. I will not be here tomorrow. I am not giving up Penny. Penny is taking this. This is the greatest accomplishment in the history of Canadian Olympics.
BEN WATERWORTH: It will never be topped.
JARROD LOOBEEK: This is a super heavyweight boxer during the children's tantrum. See the jersey and ring size.
BEN WATERWORTH: He sat in this ring. And like, I don't think anything was happening. Like everyone left.
COLIN HILDING: I dare you to right now. I dare you to. And then watch me come back on for even one more day of these Olympics.
JARROD LOOBEEK: They could have just left him overnight and it wouldn't have changed anything.
COLIN HILDING: I'm telling you right now. I want to know where that is because I want to record it and see it myself, but that's not Athlete of the Day.
BEN WATERWORTH: Yeah, he is, because I'm giving it to him.
COLIN HILDING: Forget this. Not happening. This is not happening. I want you to see what I'm about to do, Ben Waterworth. I am pulling it.
JARROD LOOBEEK: No, that.
COLIN HILDING: This is not happening.
JARROD LOOBEEK: No way.
COLIN HILDING: Is Penny not taking Athlete of the Day to a guy who said, watch me protest. This is a protest right here. I'm gonna sit here. I'm gonna sit here, just saying the name Penny Oleksiak until we're done.
BEN WATERWORTH: How many more minutes do I have?
COLIN HILDING: That's 144 more to go.
BEN WATERWORTH: Penny Oleksiak is Athlete of the Day.
COLIN HILDING: Have I won you over yet, Ben?
BEN WATERWORTH: You know what's beautiful? Is there's a little button on this thing called mute that I can press if it keeps doing that and just kick you from the room? Oh, I love Penny.
COLIN HILDING: I love, love Penny. Yes, this is not, no, we're not doing this. I will call all of our listeners to call out Ben and Jarrod, who have put up an Australian athlete every single day, have successfully won twice and wasted their opportunities and now want to take away the greatest accomplishment in the history of Canadian Olympics. No winter athlete has ever done this and you're going to take that away for a guy who protested ringside. Great story. I'm glad we have an honourable mention. Canada beat our curse, not Athlete of the Day. Canada breaks the all time record, not Athlete of the Day. This is Athlete of the Day.
BEN WATERWORTH: Jarrod, are you budging?
JARROD LOOBEEK: Yeah, I can budge.
COLIN HILDING: And because of that, Jarrod, I will send you a free box of multi-grain Penny Oleksiaks.
BEN WATERWORTH: Jarrod, I'm never playing some bottle with you.
COLIN HILDING: You better send me. Ben, you don't get anything, okay? I only need one vote.
BEN WATERWORTH: Well, can I, you know what? Guess who's in control of the social media? Guess who's in control of putting the graphics up?
COLIN HILDING: I can tell you who's in control of the social media because San Marino was snub because an Australian athlete had to win an Athlete of the Day again. And when the San Marino athlete eventually got it, our social media said, after narrowly missing out, narrowly missing out when Ben said, well, maybe we could put up the San Marino one, but nah, let's give it to JustFox.
BEN WATERWORTH: You know what?
JARROD LOOBEEK: Can you please put Murad sitting in the corner of the social media tile?
BEN WATERWORTH: He's protesting. He's got to find out that he didn't get Athlete of the Day. He's got to sit on Zoom with us for the next hour tomorrow. I just want to point out that we obviously are doing this on Zoom and we record this as a backup for only those reasons, but I'm totally keeping this video and I'm sending this out of Colin, throwing a chair.
COLIN HILDING: I want you to keep this video.
BEN WATERWORTH: Holy crap. Thought Off The Podium was one of our calmest podcasts we did. I mean, Jesus. I mean, in all fairness, when I wasn't happy with one of Colin's choices over on DoubleLoss7, I did show him porn. So.
COLIN HILDING: Well, I was going to say, I've sat through many Ben Waterworth protests for the dumbest reasons that no, I have learnt from the master.
BEN WATERWORTH: I mean, I'm sticking to my, my nominee, that Jarrod's the one who's at fault here. So Jarrod, you've let me down.
COLIN HILDING: And Jarrod, send me your address. No joke. And I will send you a box of multi-grain Penny Oleksiaks. Well. That's your goal panel.
BEN WATERWORTH: We'll now say that if we get Penny Oleksiak on the show, you're not invited.
COLIN HILDING: I'm sure she's going to want to talk to the guy who wants to put up a protester over her.
BEN WATERWORTH: I mean, if I had to choose between a French boxer and Penny Oleksiak, I'm going to choose Penny Oleksiak for those reasons.
COLIN HILDING: Ben saying, hey, there's a chance for me and Penny, to now him saying, no, I'm not putting up Penny. You really think there's a chance now? You blew it.
BEN WATERWORTH: In all seriousness, people Google Murad Aliyev. This is fucking hilarious. It's so good.
COLIN HILDING: Spell it for me, because I actually do want to Google this.
BEN WATERWORTH: No, I'm spelling anything for you. You can get stuffed, but I will say Fraser Clarke, who the heavyweight at Gold Coast is one of the greatest sporting things I've ever seen live. Those guys are tanks. And he won the bronze, I think, from memory in the Gold Coast. So he's guaranteed a medal for him in the super heavyweight. But the thing is, of all things, when this happened in the super heavyweight, as I said, these guys are tanks. These guys that if you even look at them slightly badly would kill you by just flicking you. Like this is a thing, Colin. All right, let's point this out right now. Not only do you have Morad Aliyev protesting, I'm going to give him your address. He's going to come after you. Penny Oleksiak would just be like, oh well, and get on with the life. This guy's coming after you. I know he's French and he'll probably run away pretty quickly, but still.
COLIN HILDING: I welcome it. I will also offer him a box of multigrain Penny Oleksiak. Something he's never going to be on. When's he going to be on a Cheerios box?
BEN WATERWORTH: I actually honestly want to say that we are the podcast covering the Olympics. That has just been baffled by the fact that an Italian just won the 100 metres and we did not put him up for Athlete of the Day. Like, you know. Colin's so salty. Like, I just, I like this side of Colin.
COLIN HILDING: It's taking nine days. I am getting a Canadian in there.
BEN WATERWORTH: I'm bookmarking this for Beijing. When fucking like Maddie Graham comes out. I welcome you two. Tora Bright comes out of retirement to win her third medal. Oh, the greatest of all time. Dale Begg Smith comes out to win his third medal, second gold. Bradbury's out as like 50 years old skating to it. Like, I'm going to talk, if an Australian finishes like 15th in Nordic combined. Oh, the greatest thing ever in Olympic history. If frickin Brianna Walker even qualifies for the Olympics. Oh, the greatest thing ever, because as a Ben Waterworth athlete, she's made it through.
COLIN HILDING: He thinks this is a threat, but he doesn't realise that I'm not the hypocrite. Ben is.
BEN WATERWORTH: I'm saying this now. If Australia ever qualifies for the Winter Olympics in ice hockey again, that is the single greatest thing ever in winter sports.
COLIN HILDING: I completely agree. Unless Tonga beats you.
BEN WATERWORTH: Well, probably will. I actually noticed the other day, I ran a thing about our one time at the Olympics in ice hockey. Our flag bearer at those Winter Olympics was one of our ice hockey players. So, you talk about school projects, Basil, I want you to say what is one sport that you think we would never have had a f\*\*\*ing We've had a flag bearer from fricking ice hockey. Has Canada ever had a flag bearer from the sport of ice hockey, Colin?
COLIN HILDING: I don't know.
BEN WATERWORTH: There you go. Bruce would have known.
COLIN HILDING: Then you win. Congratulations.
BEN WATERWORTH: Thank you. It happens when you dish the Bradbury. Clearly our longest episode, and we knew this was going to happen because today was a very busy day. One man chucked a tantrum and got his way. Another man caved and another man still hasn't got a medal from any of his guests. So thanks, Max. Thanks a lot. Don't blame me. Perform your- keep your chin up and do better. Max, let me down. God damn it. Tomorrow, we've got no guests competing, so good luck for that. But we're only like two days away from sport climbing, everybody. Get excited. I'm so pumped for that. But tomorrow, we do have another pretty busy day when it comes to medals. 22 medals. And we get our first look at track cycling. Get excited. Sprint canoe. Get excited. And artistic swimming hits the pools tomorrow. We're not allowed to call it synchronised swimming anymore. It's politically incorrect. Colin, like, no, seriously, Canada are generally pretty good at at synchro, artistic swimming, aren't they?
COLIN HILDING: I would be able to answer that question if I ever bothered to watch it.
BEN WATERWORTH: Well, I mean, I thought you would when it comes to, like, being a good sport for Canada. We will definitely be commentating this at some point. I just want to point that out there. And Australia has qualified. So we've got some swimmers in this. So I'm excited. Jarrod, I mean, this is up there with the rhythmic gymnastics. It's one of your favourites, isn't it?
JARROD LOOBEEK: Oh, it is. I mean, they're basically like the pinnacle of the Olympics. When you talk about sports being removed and added these two, there's no way you could ever get rid of them.
BEN WATERWORTH: Let's point this out, Colin, in the history of synchronised slash artistic swimming, Canada is ranked third overall for most medals won, three gold, four silver, and a bronze, only behind the US and Russia. And I'm just going to say this right now, I'm going to stand up for men right now on this. We talk about equality at the Olympics. It's great. We've got these great new women's events. We've gotten, you know, mixed gender events. Fantastic. I'm all for equality. I called out the sexism of softball, not having a men's competition. Well, I'm calling out the sexism of artistic swimming. Where is the men's artistic swimming?
COLIN HILDING: We are the team. We're putting together a team right now.
BEN WATERWORTH: 100%. I'm on board.
COLIN HILDING: The great nation of OTP.
BEN WATERWORTH: Well, we're going for the duet. And Colin, you're outvoted. It's Jarrod and I. I think we're about five short for the team, so we're one too many for the duet. So go away, Colin Hilding, with your honey nut bowl of penny oats. I'd eat a bowl of penny oats. Penny. Well, that sounds wrong, but right at the same time. I'd also eat a bowl of Andre de Grasse's. I would be an equal opportunity.
COLIN HILDING: I've already polished off the box. It's empty.
BEN WATERWORTH: I'm really actually sad that I didn't buy some of them last year.
COLIN HILDING: I keep forgetting to do this. It's the second day I've had them down there, but I want to read really quickly. They give them like a couple of questions on the back of these. And this is new. This isn't like the ones last year. These are all based on the last year. And I really like Andre de Grasse. There's a thing in here called the cheer card, which I don't think they offer anymore because the Olympics have started. But based on last year, there's a little card you could write a message and mail it to the athletes. And I guess they actually did read these or some of them did. But the question was, how did it feel to get a cheer card? And Andre's answer was, it's an amazing feeling to get something in the mail and it's not a bill. I get messages on social media, but now I'm actually getting someone to write to me and put it in their own words. It feels amazing to take five, 10 minutes out of my day to read about how I inspire them. I can't wait to actually get them going into the Olympics. That's definitely going to fuel me up. We need to write a cheer card to them now.
BEN WATERWORTH: Well, I also love that your internet's finally starting to die. We haven't done our Sobe's write a message.
COLIN HILDING: Actually, your internet's decided to die.
BEN WATERWORTH: Well, it's all yours, Colin. You're outvoted. Jarrod's fine. We didn't do a cheer thing, but I actually, one thing I'm glad you mentioned about reading around a thing. I should have been really digging more into our Aussie Heroes Woolworths book here, because it's actually quite fascinating when you read it. I mean, I never would have known before these Olympics that Andrew Hoy's favourite vegetable was a tomato, which is not, of course, a vegetable. It's a fricking fruit. Good on you, Woolworths. So, I mean, the things you learn. And Georgia Godwin, our gymnast, her favourite vegetable is a carrot. So, I mean, did you know that, Jarrod? Channel 7 doesn't tell you that.
JARROD LOOBEEK: I did not know how the mind boggles.
BEN WATERWORTH: I mean, look at the skills that Woolworths have gone in here. The only time we've ever competed in handball was in Sydney when we automatically qualified with the home team. Our two esteemed handball players, Raylene Bolton and Lee Schofield. I mean, I never knew that Lee Schofield's favourite vegetable was lettuce. And Raylene, I don't even know what that is a picture of. What is that a picture of? There's a key in the back here. So I can tell you that Raylene's favourite, oh, it's fruit and vegetable, sorry. Her favourite fruit is a mango. I mean, look, there's McChloe. McChloe's empty. I don't have a head on Chloe. So I can't tell you what Chloe's favourite fruit and vegetable is. Bugger you, Woolworths. Have you got the album yet, Jarrod?
JARROD LOOBEEK: I haven't, and I haven't picked up a Chloe either. So I'm disappointed.
BEN WATERWORTH: Oh, here you go. Okay, Steve Hooker, our legendary 2008 pole vault Olympic champion, the Ranger himself, his favourite vegetable, cauliflower. So just like his hair, it's close.
JARROD LOOBEEK: In the wind.
BEN WATERWORTH: It can't smell like that. What a day. What a day. It started off with records. We had Natalia winning the 100 metres and they're showing the French protest on TV. I gotta see this. Watch this guy go off literally on TV right now. He grabs the camera. Look at this guy. He's just coming after you. This is what's happening. He's sitting on the mat. He's having a sulk.
COLIN HILDING: But let me ask you this question, Ben. If you had any doubts, has he ever liked one of our posts? And what are the odds Penny's gonna like another post of ours? Very good now.
BEN WATERWORTH: See, had you used that argument 20 minutes ago, I probably would have been on board.
JARROD LOOBEEK: Oh, look at him.
BEN WATERWORTH: I wanted the worst thing I saw when I was- What's the matchup?
COLIN HILDING: Who's he against? Cause I gotta find this later.
BEN WATERWORTH: The Brit, Fraser Clarke.
JARROD LOOBEEK: Who doesn't wanna head but a Brit every now and then?
BEN WATERWORTH: Every now and then, I could tell you every single day after this year. But I, the worst I saw at the Commonwealth Games was, I can't remember what country he was from, but like he literally came into the media pit and somebody asked him a question, because you could tell he was angry. And at the top of his lungs, he starts shouting, it's bullshit, it's fucking bullshit. I was fucking robbed. It was fucking bullshit. And he storms off. And then I had a, I think he was a Fijian boxer basically, grab a bottle of water and throw it at the wall. And I didn't even realise that it like missed my head by like a millimeter and he stormed off. And I was just like, I couldn't even react. I was like, what? And then like everyone came over, you okay? I'm like, yeah, what just happened? And they're like, he was angry that he lost. So we like, maybe, lucky at Waterball, I didn't get punched in the face. But like, I mean, that was the worst I saw at boxing. So I wanted the protest. Anyway, like us on Facebook, like us if you're Penny Oleksiak, or a Samaritan Shooter, or Kyle Chalmers, the esteemed likes of Olympians that have liked us so far. Max was messaging us during the, no wonder you didn't do well, Max. Get off Instagram. All right? He was watching our commentary saying it was great. I appreciate it, Max. But you're at the Olympics. Like, stop messaging random Australian podcasts that you didn't even probably remember you were on. Um, we'll be back tomorrow. Uh, do all the social media stuff. Subscribe. Send Colin a box of tissues. I think he needs it. Someone call the Whambulance. Someone's crying on the course. Colin, thank you for joining us.
COLIN HILDING: And thank you Penny Oleksiak, Athlete of the Day.
BEN WATERWORTH: And Jarrod, uh, I'm disappointed in you, but thank you for joining us.
JARROD LOOBEEK: No problem. I'm kind of tempted to, uh, to switch back, uh, just to end the episode, but I won't.
BEN WATERWORTH: Come on, Jarrod, come to the dark side. We've got candy.
JARROD LOOBEEK: The allure of the cereal is just, it's too much.
COLIN HILDING: You think I'm joking. I will send it.
BEN WATERWORTH: He will, uh, he will. Uh, thanks everyone for joining us. We'll speak to you tomorrow. Good night.
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