Tokyo 2020 Preview Episode
THE GAMES ARE FINALLY HERE! Yes that's right, after an extra year of waiting we are finally about to celebrate the Tokyo 2020 Olympics and make ourselves very busy and excited for the next two weeks! And with that in mind, it's time to bring you a full preview episode of everything you need to know ahead of the Olympics and just what to expect when you're glued to your screens over the next 16 days. We go over the big medal hopes for both Australia and Canada and talk up some of the events we are most excited for, as well as the ones we're maybe not that excited for as well. We also go over which athletes we have probably jinxed a lot by them appearing on our show, as well as trying to talk up the mascot (and pronounce it correctly), trying to talk up Channel 7 and CBC and trying to talk up anything to do with dressage and rhythmic gymnastics. It's all together in one massive preview episode for the Tokyo 2020 Olympics that any Olympic fan simply can't miss!
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 an episode that we have been waiting for for five glorious years. We are finally here. The Tokyo 2020 asterisk 2021 Olympics are finally here. Oh, are we excited? Yes, we are. We've had to wait and wait. And finally, hopefully, fingers crossed, they actually happened in only a few days time. We are here for our Off The Podium Tokyo 2020 preview episode. The first time we have technically done one of these for a summer Olympics, so it's very, very exciting. So much to talk about, so much to get through. And I'm so excited to be staring at two gentleman's faces who are filled to the brim of excitement as another Olympics approach. First of all, let's introduce the man from the plains of the EMUs, a man who's been counting down the days more and more than usually for Eurovision. I don't actually know if that's true, but Jarrod Loobeek, Jarrod, welcome back. It's a pleasure to see you once again.
JARROD LOOBEEK: Thank you. It's great to be back, looking forward to discussing Australia's medal hopes, not to add any pressure to the athletes. We've been warned, but yeah, it should be good.
BEN WATERWORTH: Yes, we have been officially warned by the AOC to not put any undue pressure on our athletes. Just want to put that out there. Thanks, John Coates, for the quick text message beforehand. Also joining us is a man who is so excited. He gets so pumped up and ready to go to see a bronze rush for Canada. It is Colin Hilding. Colin, the bronze games are about to happen. How excited are you?
COLIN HILDING: I know, we were just talking off air that, you know, you could get the gold medals and something. I'm like, if Canada offers the bronze medals, that's what I'm getting, because that's what we're familiar with. That's the Canadian gold.
BEN WATERWORTH: We are an audio podcast, but I visually am holding up the fact that I do have my Tokyo gold medal around my neck. I've said I will wear this every day. A gold medal is won on this show by an Australian or Canadian.
COLIN HILDING: Wow.
BEN WATERWORTH: Well, I mean, look, I am that good. So, you know, I have one, an individual one of these more than the Campbell sisters. So there you go. Kate and Bron, if you want one, you can buy them off Wish, I think it is. So there you go. But I'm so excited. This is exciting times as Olympic fans. And yeah, a bit of an extra weight. Something happened in the world, I think, in the last 12 or so. Maybe something. I've never heard of it. But I mean, how are we feeling right now? Jarrod, I mean, you get so pumped and excited every year for Eurovision. This is every four years, every five years now. I mean, my goodness, we've had to wait longer. How are you feeling ahead of these Olympics?
JARROD LOOBEEK: Super excited. I feel like with Eurovision, it gets to like a year and it doesn't feel like it's been a year. This feels like it's been the full five years between Summer Olympics. But yeah, very excited. I feel like the TV coverage hasn't really started to ramp up yet. But I mean, they're right around the corner, the Olympics, and it's going to be great, provided Channel 7 can do a decent job, but we'll see.
BEN WATERWORTH: I'm getting that crowdfunding ready to go to win the rights way. Because I don't know if... Is this Channel 7 last one? Beijing, I think, is their last in the current deal. I think they only go to 2022, so who knows? We could be getting Stan covering the Olympics in 2024 at this rate. Who knows? Colin, how are you feeling? Pumped, excited, ready to go? How is Canada sleeping right now, a few days away from the opening ceremony?
COLIN HILDING: I mean, maybe partly due to the fact that my vacation begins the day of the opening ceremonies. I'm literally counting down the hours right now. But it's so exciting to have the Olympics back a year later, but also know that I'm going to be able to go in and watch probably more of it than I've ever been able to watch, well, at least within the last decade, decade and a half.
BEN WATERWORTH: Which is very exciting for you, that you get some time off. I'm very glad. That does remind me, Jarrod, you would remember this. I mean, you live in the place where the Olympics were, but I remember basically back in 2000, I think all schools in September made their school break happen during the Sydney Olympics. I remember our two-week vacation period deliberately was forced to happen during the Sydney Olympics back in 2000. I'm guessing they did that for you as a kid as well, living in the city where it happened.
JARROD LOOBEEK: Yes, yeah, definitely. And I suppose the great thing about COVID and working from home is the Olympics will be a little bit easier to watch while, I'll say whilst working, not instead of working.
BEN WATERWORTH: Yeah, no, exactly. Yeah, me too. My job's very busy for me, and I can't, you know, have to make sure I'm working.
COLIN HILDING: Gold medals don't win themselves, people.
BEN WATERWORTH: I know, I know, right? Gold medals in unemployment are very hard to come by. But yeah, I mean, that's a great point, obviously, for Australians listening, it's a great time zone. We talked about this back in Pyeongchang, and we're going to have it also in a few months' time for Beijing. So it's a good time to be an Australian Olympic fan. Sorry, Colin, that you have to get up so early. I mean, what are we, are you basically going to have a weird sleep pattern for the next couple of weeks? Or, I mean, how are you working out you're going to do this to kind of balance this with, you know, that family thing you've got going on in the background?
COLIN HILDING: Yeah, I don't think it will be too hard just because, I mean, I've got children. So, I don't sleep in anyways. I mean, we recorded a different podcast yesterday, and I apologise because I slept in, and it was 7.40 in the morning. So, I don't think getting up to record is going to be as hard as it is that when a lot of the events are going on, it's going to be overnight. So, it may be something where I have to wake up an hour ahead of time to catch up on some events so that I don't sound like an idiot, only talking about the things that happen in the morning in Tokyo.
BEN WATERWORTH: The morning, yes, the morning. We will work out our scheduling and how that's going to go, and we'll talk about that at the end of the episode. But basically, what we're here to do today is to kind of go over just the basics, what to expect during the Olympics, Canada and Australia's hopes. We'll look at some other interesting stories and everything along the lines, too. Some Off The Podium stats from guests that we've had on between Rio and here, and just kind of go through the motions really with this. Because as I said, yeah, we didn't really do one of these for Rio because our first episode ever was sort of a, hey, we're Off The Podium. And then our next episode was, hey, the opening ceremony just happened. So, you know, that's kind of where we were. Whereas Pyeongchang, we had a bit of a more of a preview. I just listened briefly going through that. I just want to formally apologise to Brittany Cox because I did say on that episode that if we were shooing for a medal, it would come from her. So yeah, that probably speaks volumes for our track record on this show. So I don't know how I want to say things today. The Campbells are in with a shot, which I have to say, if you didn't have not listened to our last episode, my interview with Tristan Thomas, great interview. Tristan owned me actually in a little bit about my Campbell Sisters jokes. He pointed out a very good little fact about my bagging amount. So I don't want to spoil it. You have to go listen to it. So well done, Tristan. Having said that, I've gotten over it. I'm still going to bag out the Campbell Sisters. So welcome back to Off The Podium. It's exciting. Any Olympics are exciting. An extra 12 months are exciting. But an Olympics is also exciting when you've got five sports, four brand new sports, a return of sort of two that are kind of combined into one. We've got, I think, an extra 33 medals that are going to be won in this. There's an extra 33 events if my calculations are correct. So lots to get excited about. We're going to go over kind of some of the new sports and the other sports that, but before we sort of go over some specific ones, Jarrod, I'll start with you. Of the five new sports, we've got karate, sport climbing, surfing, skateboarding, and baseball slash softball. What are you excited for with these? I just want to get this off the bandwagon. I know we talked a little bit about this recently on another episode, but have you had time to kind of get a little bit more excited for any of these coming up the few days away from the Olympics?
JARROD LOOBEEK: Yeah, I think sport climbing is the one that I'm really looking forward to, but then also skateboarding, because I think that will be one of the more interesting ones to watch. Definitely a bit more of a winter Olympics feel in terms of the adrenaline sports and the tricks and whatnot. The other new sports, potentially not great TV to watch, but if we win a medal, I'll gladly jump on the bandwagon.
BEN WATERWORTH: Colin, what about you? And actually give us a Canadian perspective. Is there much talk about these new sports in Canada? I mean, I don't know of any great Canadian surfers, but I mean, I don't know if anything is really kind of getting on the bubble there in Canada with these new sports.
COLIN HILDING: Really, the only mention has been that we have a sport climber that's going to be competing. All the talk is about the things we actually have a shot at right now. So until Canada, Canada is very conservative. Until we know we have a shot at winning something, we don't want to acknowledge it exists. So I'm breaking the curse here. I am a Canadian pioneer who will discuss these things before we have a shot at it. I think for baseball, it's not something that I like to watch as a sport, professionally, but it is because the Pan Am Games has carried this forever. It's something that I always like to watch, at least at the Pan Am Games. So it is going to be fun to see what it's like on the Olympic stage. Surfing, I got a preview of that during the Pan Am Games a few years ago. It's definitely not something that's going to be exciting to watch live, but I'm excited to see the highlights of it. Avoid the live coverage at all costs. It is going to be very dull. Skateboarding, kind of like Jarrod said, I don't know whether I'm excited for it yet or not, because I do sort of just look at this is going to be a lot like the winter sports, you know, half pipe slope style. So it's just going to be that sort of without the snow, but sport climbing is the one that I think all of us are really excited about. Some of the sport climbers you've talked to have me really interested in it. I haven't been able to actually see it as a sport competitively yet. I've sort of waited, but even the Olympic website or the Olympic app had a great documentary series, just sort of previewing sport climbing that has me really excited about that.
BEN WATERWORTH: Which again, I think I'd like to also make a formal apology to the sport of sport climbing, because I think when it was announced during Rio, we all sort of laughed and went, what the fuck is this? And then all of a sudden this could be one of our favourite sports to watch. Obviously, we had Tom and Ella on sort of between Rio and now, and Tom's of course competing for Australia. So yeah, it's an intriguing sport. It really does. What you're mentioning, baseball and softball, I'm actually very excited for the return of these two sports, because I used to always love watching them sort of growing up. I remember sort of Sydney, kind of the excitement around that. Australia in softball, at least, I think we're what? About three bronze medals, I think we're one in it. And I remember Athens, of course famously, our baseball team went on to win a silver medal out of nowhere. Basically, a sport which we had not even, I think, made it past the preliminaries. We went on to the gold medal game in Athens. So that was very exciting. But the thing that I find really intriguing about both baseball and softball is they've been fighting long and hard to get back in the Olympics. They have. And then essentially, they've almost given them a big fuck you and gone, oh, only six countries can compete in each of them. So Australia and Canada are only in the softball. So we have a 50% chance of winning a medal in a sport already. And we also play each other in the round robin, Australia and Canada on the 24th of July. So mark it in your calendars. Unfortunately, neither of us are in the baseball. And the big thing for me about baseball, no Cuba in baseball. The dominant force, no Cuba. Instead, we've got the great baseball nation of Israel is competing, which look out for them. Japan, obviously the host nation, very prominent in baseball. The US, of course. South Korea as well, very big baseball nation. Dominican Republic and Mexico. But you know Cuba, so very interesting there. But yeah, I mean, Jarrod, are we penciling in bronze for Australia in softball? I'm saying it now.
JARROD LOOBEEK: I think I've written them down as a silver.
BEN WATERWORTH: Colin, you're feeling now a vibe, this 50% chance of a bronze. Like maybe we'll get the silver and you can get the bronze.
COLIN HILDING: I'm gonna reserve, I'm gonna be a typical Canadian. I'm gonna reserve my prediction until after one of the preview events, because I think it's Wednesday night here is when TV coverage begins and it is softball. So that's my plans for Wednesday. I'll see how the first game goes. If we just end up like idiots all over the field, bumping into each other, like the Simpsons episode before they got Daryl Strawberry and everybody else. And I don't wanna look like an idiot if I make a prediction too early.
BEN WATERWORTH: Placing the song, they call it base. It's a valid point you make actually, we should mention, on the topic of softball. Softball and soccer, football, both obviously technically start on Wednesday with some preliminary rounds. And archery and rowing, I also believe, have some preliminary going on on the opening ceremony day. But obviously we've got 33 sports this time around. I'm not gonna go through all of them. This isn't Winter Olympics, we can kind of get away with it. But obviously your standard 28 with the addition of five that you've got going in there as well. Some of the more interesting ones and new competitions in terms of some of the traditional sports. So basketball, for example, we now have three by three basketball, which is very, very exciting, three on three. Freestyle BMX, which is getting a lot of talking as well. Madison Cycling is coming into the fray. We have a bunch of mixed events this time around. Obviously the push for gender equality going on in the Olympics. So we look here, swimming have a mixed relay, track and field have a mixed relay, archery, a mixed team event, judo, a mixed team event, shooting, three mixed team events happening, table tennis, a mixed doubles event, and triathlon, a mixed team relay. I do also believe there's a few extra disciplines in canoe, kayak, and a few other sports as well. So it's always exciting. I mean, three on three basketball, Jarrod, one of these ones that I believe Australia is not in either of them. Not too sure about Canada. We'll get to that in a second. But I mean, I've seen some of this happen, and this is obviously getting quite popular, three on three basketball. So I'm excited to see this.
JARROD LOOBEEK: Yeah, I watched a bit of it at uni. And yeah, it's decent. It's a lot, I suppose, faster pace, less people in the field. So I'm all for them, like just adding as many disciplines and extra sports as they want to really.
BEN WATERWORTH: I'm seeing here, Colin, that the Canadian women's are only, no, that's not three on three. So no, Australia and Canada are not represented in three on three at all. But I'm looking at the wrong page. But anyway, three on three basketball, Colin, what do you know about it?
COLIN HILDING: I've been able to watch, they've had a little bit of TV coverage in the last couple of weeks. Again, I'm trying to reserve some of these new sports to really get the full impact once it debuts. But I did flip through it a little bit. It has been intriguing. It's the same as hockey. The three on three for overtime has become a big thing here. And I think it actually, you would think having less players makes it less exciting. I think it makes it more exciting. So I'm probably gonna be more likely to watch the three on three basketball than the regular basketball.
BEN WATERWORTH: 339 events, 33 different sports, 50 disciplines, basically gonna be doing. So, I mean, we talk up during the Winter Olympics, kind of it's a little bit more, you know, compact in terms of what you got and everything. But I mean, with the summer games, like, I mean, God, I mean, everything here is covered. I mean, again, don't wanna go through everything. I'm just gonna mention right now, obviously modern pentathlon. We made Chloe Esposito, a gold medallist for you five years ago. She's sadly not back to defend the gold, but still probably out there as my favourite sport. You know, who's our next champion? We're gonna find out there as well. Jarrod, I'm gonna assume you're gonna be frothing at the mouth still for the dressage and the rhythmic gymnastics. I'll get you to talk about that as well. Let's not forget golf. Is it the Olympics? That's always a positive. Sure, that got us all excited in Rio. The rugby sevens is still there. Beach volleyball, gymnastics. And then archery is a random one that I always seem to like as well. But I'm gonna go for you, Colin. I mean, again, we've gone over this before in terms of favourite sports. But is there anything since the last Olympics that maybe you caught a little bit more of during Rio that you want to watch again, or during a Commonwealth Games, a Pan Am Games, that all of a sudden on an Olympic level, you're gonna pay a little bit more attention to this time around?
COLIN HILDING: Yeah, it's something I'll usually check out here and there, but the last Olympics, water polo really caught my eye. So I'm excited to actually really follow water polo from the beginning this time, and not just sort of tune in during the medal games for five minutes here or there. Because that's a crazy sport. I mean, it's fast-paced. It's something that you feel like you could do yourself if you had the stamina. I'm treading water, I'm throwing a ball. That's one of the ones that I don't think I was excited for in Rio that having seen it. And also rugby sevens, I had no exposure to rugby period before the last Olympics. And rugby sevens was probably some of the most fun that I had watching anything in Rio.
BEN WATERWORTH: Which I would just add to Jarrod before I go to you with that. I obviously live in the wrong part of Australia to really be a rugby mad fan. I still enjoy the sport, but not as much as I would say where Jarrod lives or when I was living in Queensland. But yeah, I was completely blown away by rugby sevens, and particularly the women's. Not just because we won the gold, but I found the women's a lot more entertaining. I thought it was, it's interesting. I don't often say that between women's and men's sports, but yeah, the women's definitely was very entertaining. Jarrod, I mean, God, five years later, I mean, bat horse, is this what you're looking out for? I mean, the rhythmic gymnastics. I mean, God, you've been missing this.
JARROD LOOBEEK: Yeah, it's all the sports with just that level of poshness, I suppose, to the commentary is what I'm looking forward to. So yeah, the equestrian, the gymnastics, particularly the rhythmic gymnastics, but then also, you know, the synchronised drowning. All those positive things out there that I'm looking forward to.
BEN WATERWORTH: Jarrod, I need to pull you up there. It's no longer called synchronised drowning. It's called artistic drowning. They've renamed the sport to artistic swimming. So it's a little bit more posh in that line of things there, just to clarify. Yeah, I think the one that I was going to mention too, outside of the ones that we were already talking about, their fencing, after having spoken to Max, you know, sort of getting a bit more of an understanding of it, actually. I've always enjoyed fencing, but it's kind of one of these ones that, you know, you feel like, oh, yeah, I know what I'm, and you're watching, you know, what the fuck is going on? But now having learnt a little bit more from Max, and even wrestling, speaking to the guys a week or so ago with wrestling, because I mean, obviously, Colin, wrestling is a little bit bigger in your part of the world. You've had some success in it. And I actually want to correct myself, too. I believe in that interview, I said, for the guys to push for Paris to go and win Australia's first ever medals in wrestling. I actually did some fact checking there. We have won medals in the sport of wrestling before. A long time ago, but we've apparently won silver and bronze medals in wrestling. I'm thinking this is like Antwerp or something. I don't know. But Jarrod, we often talk about this in Australia, don't we? Our esteemed history of wrestling in this country.
JARROD LOOBEEK: Yes, it's always about reliving the glory days.
BEN WATERWORTH: Yeah, I didn't know that. Anyway, I mean, actually just on that note, I mean, Colin, I realise you probably listen to our show a little bit more than Jarrod. But I mean, have there been any of our athletes that we've had on what you're talking about the sports, like some of our recent ones where we're trying to be diverse on the sports, even some of the ones that you've done that maybe add a different element to you watching these sports this time around?
COLIN HILDING: None of the ones that actually get to compete. I mean, the majority of the ones that we've interviewed, obviously, runners and swimmers, you know what you're getting. When we had our high jump gold medallist on Derrick Druin, which we'll get to a little bit later in the show, he really got me interested in the whole idea about that. And I think it made our best hub clip, whether or not you take the extra jumps, even if you've guaranteed the gold medal and all that. And some of the kind of behind the scenes decision making that goes into high jumping. Sadly, we won't get to see him compete again, but I am more curious and I guess going in a little bit more knowledgeable about high jumping this time.
BEN WATERWORTH: Jarrod, I mean, again, I know you don't listen to our show. You're a busy man. But I mean, of the two episodes I think you've listened to, did you get any appreciation for any of these sports?
JARROD LOOBEEK: I'm with you on the fencing, because it's something that I'm always interested in, but there'll be a different sport on at the same time. And I think it's the interviews, but then also just the fact that it's in one pentathlon, but now I'm just interested in all those events within one pentathlon, but then also outside of it. And yeah, just watching random YouTube clips of fencing, that seems a lot more interesting, and there's a lot more that goes into it than what you initially think.
BEN WATERWORTH: I believe there's a James Bond movie you might be able to watch. Jarrod might help you out with that.
COLIN HILDING: Don't do it, Jarrod. Don't do it.
BEN WATERWORTH: I might be able to hook you up. Before we sort of look at Australia and Canada's prospects, in terms of the countries themselves, there were 207 countries competing in Rio. There will be 206 countries this time around. Outside of the obvious one, can either of you tell me which country have decided to withdraw from the Olympics this year? You'll get a free gold medal from Tokyo 2020, if you get it correct. Yep, the looks on their faces says it all.
COLIN HILDING: Kazakhstan.
BEN WATERWORTH: Kazakhstan, greatest country in the world, will be there. Jarrod, want to hedge a bet here? How do you guess?
JARROD LOOBEEK: Surely it's like, I don't know, Lichtenstein or something like that?
BEN WATERWORTH: Sadly, Lichtenstein will be there. No, North Korea are not going to the Olympics. So there you go. I think it's because I think they all died during COVID, even though they've had zero cases. So apparently it's the first time they have not been in the Summer Olympics since 1988. And also for the first time, the Republic of Macedonia will compete as North Macedonia. So sort of a new nation, but not really. But there is a brand new nation, ROC, the Russian Olympic Committee competing as ROC, Rock, Rock and Roll, the Russians. So we don't have the Olympic athletes from Russia. We've got Rock, ROC.
COLIN HILDING: I like Rock a lot better.
BEN WATERWORTH: I know, what's the national anthem for Rock? Is it Twisted Sister? A lot of Rock, Rock! Do do do, that's gotta be the theme.
COLIN HILDING: Every time they win a medal, I just wonder, can you smell what the Rock is cooking?
BEN WATERWORTH: Yeah, people's eyebrow going up there. Oh, fantastic, I love it. And actually, I'm looking here too, just as a precursor, because I know the last few Olympics, obviously they generally do the Parade of Nations in the local language. So we had that one in Portuguese, in Rio, and in Korea, and in Pyeongchang. A bit confusing. But it will be the case this time around. It will be in Japanese. So I'm looking here right now at the official order of where the nations will come out this week. Australia will be out 38th in the Parade of Nations. So mark that down. And Canada, you will be coming out in the Grand Old Spot of 47th. So Canada is between Qatar and Gabon. Very strong traditional rivals of Team Canada. And Australia will all be up against El Salvador and Austria. So very big there. Now, we'll talk about our flag bearers in a second here. But any whispers, Colin, because I'm seeing here, at least in my official list here, no official announcement. But are there whispers around who the flag bearers could be? Because of course, this time around, countries are allowed to have both a male and a female flag bearer come out together.
COLIN HILDING: There's just your typical posts, okay, who do you think it should be? And then fans are sort of, one of the main ones is Christine Sinclair, who's a soccer star. She always gets thrown around because she's sort of one of our longest running Olympians. Having said that, she's been flag bearer before. I think Andre Degrasse is going to be the male side. Because Penny Alexiak has already been a flag bearer, I'm going to say it's not going to be her for the female. I think that Kylie Masse is actually a very strong possibility because of all the Olympians we're sending, she's probably our closest thing to a lock for a gold medal. So if I had to go for it, I would say Andre Degrasse and Kylie Masse are going to be the flag bearers for them.
BEN WATERWORTH: You know, she's clearly not going to win one. She's been on this show so hard.
COLIN HILDING: We're sorry, Kylie.
BEN WATERWORTH: You're not going to win one. I mean, you know, Jarrod, that in our case, that our flag will probably get dropped halfway around the track, at least by half of them. Kate Campbell has been the female flag bearer and Paddy Mills, basketball legend, has it on the male side of things. I mean, they announced this very early. They generally don't do this until like the eve of the Olympics. This was about two, three weeks out. This is weird that they did this. What's yours, Colin? What's happening?
COLIN HILDING: Ours is like 24 hours away right now. I mean, had we recorded this tomorrow, we would have been breaking the news as it happened. But right now it's just predictions. But yeah, even ours is like a couple of days ahead of time.
BEN WATERWORTH: Yeah, Jarrod, this is weird. And this is like a live event. It was like TuneIn Live. Like it was a big deal. So yeah, what are your thoughts on Patty and that girl who can't win gold?
JARROD LOOBEEK: Yeah, it was very early. And for a team that's not wanting to build pressure around athletes to announce the flag bearers that far out just seems like a recipe for disaster. I'm like I'm happy for Patty Mills. Kate Campbell, I suppose she's good at swimming outside the Olympics, so fair enough.
BEN WATERWORTH: Can I just point out, I swear I did not edit this. I was looking at Kate Campbell's Wikipedia page the other day. I want to read what this says. This is in the post under 2016 Olympics. For the final 100m freestyle, Campbell was a favourite. However, after leading at the first turn, she choked and finished 6th in 53.24. And then 2017, after the Rio Olympics, Campbell took 2017 Off Swimming competitively in order to recover from disappointment. That great condition of disappointment. I'm so glad whoever registered this, so they'll probably listen to the show. Yeah, look, I mean, in all seriousness, she's got an esteemed record. I mean, she's a great swimmer, and unfortunately, it's never been able to transition into the Olympics. She's an Olympic gold medallist. She's won it in the relay. She just hasn't quite lived up to the individual side of things. But, you know, she's a deserving person, I think, kind of, you know, I mean, maybe Jessica Fox, potentially. I mean, she's basically like the most successful canoeist in the world, except for the Olympics. So maybe there. But, yeah, I don't know. Paddy Mills, though, what is this? He's fourth Olympics, fifth Olympics. So, yeah, I mean, deserved there. I'm just looking at some of the other... Oh, yes, go, Colin.
COLIN HILDING: I was going to say, I was really shocked that the name Mack Horton wasn't thrown out there. So I googled, and apparently he failed to qualify?
BEN WATERWORTH: No, he's in the Olympics. He failed to qualify for the 400. I think he's... I don't know if he's just in the relays or if he's maybe in the 200, but yeah, no, there's a few that ultimately haven't qualified, like a couple of guests on this show. Mr. Burton in sailing did not qualify.
COLIN HILDING: We're sorry, we're sorry.
BEN WATERWORTH: Catherine Skinner didn't qualify.
COLIN HILDING: With Pyeongchang, it was just an issue of, you know what, they failed to medal. We're going backwards here now. Pretty soon, they're going to have to be retiring due to injury before even getting the qualification just from being on the show.
BEN WATERWORTH: Ella got second, I think, to Oceania. Of the other flag bearers here that have been announced, special shout out to our Tongan friend in his third Olympics. He's back, Mr. Shirtless. Let's try and get his name right this time around. Is that Peter Taffatelfua, who apparently tried to qualify in canoeing, failed. So we went back to the old faithful of Taekwondo, but he's officially been announced as Tongan's flag bearer again.
COLIN HILDING: Shocker, wow.
BEN WATERWORTH: Three time flag bearer. And in terms of it's a bit of a random one, this is a bit of selfish reasons for me, but I, of course, worked boxing in the Commonwealth Games and got to experience a lot of the boxes up close and personal. Mary Combe for India, who is a fascinating athlete in herself. She won a gold in the Gold Coast, and she's a bronze medallist from the London Olympics. This woman is, she has a seat in Indian Parliament. She's an Indian Parliamentarian. She's a big deal in India. And whenever she would have a fight, the Indian journalists would just swarm the press area. She's such a nice lady. And she's the female flag bearer for India. So look out for Mary Combe during these Olympics. She's such a great athlete.
COLIN HILDING: I heard that a famous member of the Canadian Parliament, our Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, was also trying to qualify in one of the drowning events. But didn't happen.
BEN WATERWORTH: Yeah, Scott Morrison tried to qualify in, I don't know, Jarrod, what event?
JARROD LOOBEEK: Taking a holiday.
BEN WATERWORTH: Yeah, taking a holiday, exactly. Good one there. But in terms of Australia and Canada, let's start with Canada, because I feel like this conversation won't take as long. I'm seeing here you've got 371 athletes, Colin Hilding, in 30 different sports. I'm reading here about a few of your medal prospects here that is potential there. I do have an official prediction website from Gracenote here, which I want to talk about at some point when it comes to our medal predictions. But give us your take. Where are the key medals coming from for Canada? Because from what I'm reading here, it's gonna be girl power for Canada. I'm reading here that basically one guy could win a medal, the rest are all gonna be female.
COLIN HILDING: Yeah, I don't know if it's a different article that I'm reading. Mine's on CBC. But I remember seeing this a couple months ago where they had the medal predictions and they're saying 95% will be female. Having said that, they have not included Andre Degrasse or Aaron Brown, who we had Aaron Brown on the show last summer. I think he was the first interview we had after the postponement of the games, which was interesting. Aaron Brown's really stepped up in the last couple months. So I think since predictions really started getting made, I think he's got a shot for the 200-metre and then the relay as well. And Andre Degrasse, I think because he came out so strong in Rio and the World Championships after that, there was all these expectations, but he's had a lot of injuries and hasn't been able to compete multiple times in several seasons, but again has been really strong this past year. I'm gonna say that Andre Degrasse and Aaron Brown will probably meddle in something. I don't know if either of them are gonna win gold. I think Relay's a shot for them. Kylie Masse, oh, I don't wanna say it now. I'm not gonna say what I said before. Kylie Masse is a very good shot at a gold medal. Very, very, very good shot at a good gold medal. Not a lock though. I'm not gonna say a lock because I'll jinx it. Penny Alexiak also is probably gonna come with a couple of medals. She sort of hit, this seems to be common for swimmers. This sophomore year, let's call it, after their breakout performance, they really kind of tanked and that happened to Penny. But she also has sort of really gotten back into shape and been performing much better lately. I'm gonna say a lot of our medals are gonna come in swimming again, which when we went into Rio, I don't think we had any shot at a swim medal. I think Ryan Cochran, who we've talked about quite a bit on here, he was our hopes in Rio and everybody blew him away. Rosie McLennan is, I'm not gonna say she's gonna win three back-to-back gold, it will be nice if she does, because I don't think that's ever happened before, but I think she's still in there for the trampoline. And Erica Wiebe, who won the gold in wrestling last time, I mean, she's a huge star here now. Probably one of the few Olympians that's really taken the ball and ran with it and developed a persona for herself and become a bit of a quasi-celebrity. Off of the Summer Olympics, which is unusual in Canada. We will say nothing for Derek Druin, but I'm actually gonna change your prediction. This isn't a medal hope here, but there's an athlete, I don't know if this made news over there. It's made news tons of countries around the world. One of our boxers, Mandy Bujold, who had failed to qualify for some political reasons, and this became probably the biggest story Canada has had over the last couple months. What basically happened is she was pregnant, and this was going back in like 2018. So, or sorry, in 2019, she was pregnant. And last year, when the qualifying was supposed to take place, qualifying had been postponed because of COVID. Coming into this year, she still thought she had a shot because they're going to, but then they decided to postpone the qualifying this year and say, we're going to base it all off of 2019. Like this wasn't a Canadian decision. This was an IOC decision. She basically petitioned over and over again saying, listen, I was pregnant. I didn't get pregnant during a qualifying year. I specifically planned my pregnancy a year before this so that I could qualify. There should be exemptions made, and there should be, I guess, an exception made where a person, a woman can qualify after she's pregnant. If the qualification has moved around. She's saying flat out, I did not plan, I didn't plan to get pregnant, but I planned my pregnancy around qualification. It's not my fault the qualification got moved because of COVID. You shouldn't go back to the year where there was not supposed to be qualification based on. This came down to the wire. It was only about a week and a half ago. She went as far as taking the IOC to court. Like lawyers and everything. We're talking like tens of thousands of dollars and ended up winning her final appeal. It was probably the biggest story we've had. I'm not even just talking like this was bumping Stanley Cup news in Canada. It was such a big deal that she had won this and is now officially qualified for Tokyo. So even though I don't think she's necessarily gonna win a medal, I'm gonna revise my opening ceremony flag bearer and say it's gonna be her, partly because there's not gonna be a shot. And we know this is the last Olympics. And she's now sort of just through this battle she's had in court to just say some things need to be changed. She's probably become our most famous Olympian going into the games.
BEN WATERWORTH: Fascinating. I like these little stories, actually. The other one, actually, I wanna ask you quickly to about is Summer Macintosh, 14 years old. And the story I love seeing on Twitter during the week was that they posted a picture of nine-year-old Summer Macintosh at the Rio Trials with Penny Oleksiak getting a photo taken with her going, oh my God, Penny's going to Rio Olympics. Obviously, went on to win gold. And now she beat Penny Oleksiak, basically, in the event that she won gold in Rio. So she's obviously getting a bit of that because she's qualified for a couple of events, hasn't she?
COLIN HILDING: Yeah, and she came out of nowhere. Like six months ago, her name wasn't even on anybody's radar. And all of a sudden, nowhere, they're saying, yeah, she's one of our, you know, not going to say locks. She's one of our very strong hopefuls going into Tokyo. There's another one, as far as male swimmers go, there's one named Cole Pratt, who I think we might see him finish maybe close to a medal position. The thing that's exciting about that is that the Canada Games, which is sort of the junior Olympics here in Canada, it's what Canada does to ready athletes that are under the age of 21 to potentially do Commonwealth Games, Pan Am Games, or Olympics in the future, just to get them used to that stage. That was here in Winnipeg a couple of years ago. And he was like the big star that we had during the Canada Games here. And I think he was maybe 14 or 15 at the time. And now his name is being thrown around as a, hey, if there's any male, because we don't really have any strong male contenders in swimming, if there's any men who actually could, it could be him. But it's just crazy to see how quickly swimmers can come up in Canada, because Cole Pratt, who was just sort of common, or not common with Games. Canada Games star a couple of years ago, and the Summer Macintosh, who nobody knew her name, I would say even two or three months ago, are now big names and being thrown all over the media as potential medal contenders.
BEN WATERWORTH: The team that you are sending is the largest team you have had at a Summer Olympics since 1984 in Los Angeles. 60% female, 225 women, 146 men, 131 coaches go along. There you go. Summer Macintosh is your youngest, and your oldest is an equestrian competitor by the name of Mario Deslauriers from Quebec.
COLIN HILDING: Is every country's oldest athlete an equestrian? I don't feel that's a young man's sport.
BEN WATERWORTH: Well, the oldest athlete in the games is an equestrian. We'll talk about a very famous Australian equestrian athlete who's coming back for his eighth Olympics. But your most capped Olympics is Nicole, Olympian, I should say, Nicole Gerc. She's a 43-year-old sailor from West Vancouver in her fifth Olympic Games. On the tennis side of things, this is one for Jarrod to get excited about. Your two biggest stars, Bianca Andrescu and Mr. Shapalapalapalov, are both not going. So, you know, sad, sad for that. COVID. Yeah, COVID. I want to talk about tennis in a moment because I know Jarrod's on that. I'm just, we'll go to our predictions shortly in terms of medals and everything. But like, I mean, what is the vibe like in Canada? I mean, I've just come back from living there. You know, you're a very polite sort of very, you know, people, and you're not talking yourself up in anything really. Like, it's an interesting dynamic that Canadians have in themselves. But is there a confidence? I mean, is the Summer Olympics generally just, we win a couple of bronze, we'll be happy. Like, this obviously isn't the winter games for you, but like, what is the vibe in Canada ahead of these Olympics for? How are you guys gonna do?
COLIN HILDING: After Rio, there's a lot more excitement over the Summer Olympics, not just in swimming, swimming track and field, beach volleyball, a lot of these sports where we didn't expect to do as well in Rio, and now all of a sudden we're like major contenders. It's weird that we're as good as we are in the Winter Olympics, and so much less impressive in the Summer Olympics to say that going into Tokyo, there's probably just as much excitement as there was for Pyeongchang. And obviously, as far as metal totals go, we're not going to be nearly as high, but I think that Canadians are just sort of so caught off guard with our performance in Rio that it's gotten a lot of people pumped up. And just the TV coverage alone for a lot of these summer sports is just ridiculous. Like you can't avoid seeing these on CBC every single weekend. I would say going into Rio, you might see about two hours a week dedicated to the summer sports. Now it's probably like six or seven hours just on the network television. That doesn't even include the cable sports networks.
BEN WATERWORTH: I enjoyed that on a Saturday, seeing those kind of things when you pointed that out to me. I don't want to take your thunder when we get to the medal predictions here, but I'm looking at the CBC article and they've got the four gold medallists that they are predicting. So I won't steal your thunder with that one. But just looking at Canada's last few Olympics, you finished 20th, 27th, 19th, 21st and 24th in terms of the medal tally since 2000. Worked out the averages here, Colin. Again, I'm precursing your predictions here, but Canada averages since the beginning of the millennium, three gold, 5.2 silver and nine bronze. So you got your bronze medal. So about 17.2 average since 2000 over the last five Olympics. So again, I don't know if that's gonna affect your medal rating or not, but we'll maybe get to that soon. Jarrod, all right, here we go. Australia, 487 athletes we have this time around across 33 sports, which I don't, I mean, there's 33 sports at the Olympics. We do not have athletes in wrestling. So I don't know where these stats are coming from. So unless they're kind of, you know, separating some of these ones and making it a little bit different there. But the Australian Olympic Committee have come out and officially said they will not do a projected medal tally because they feel it will place undue pressure on the athletes. I, for one, completely agree with the AOC because yes, it does. And we have a habit in this country of talking the world, delivering an atlas, and then bagging out our athletes for it. I've been very outspoken, I think, how it's cruel to say that we have underachieved in the last few Olympics, because I personally don't think we have. We've gone back to where we've always been, just off the dregs of Sydney. We were always going to succeed for a few. Look at the UK, like they're going to have dregs off that, you know, London's now nearly 10 years removed. It always happens after, you know, a couple of Olympics after you've hosted it. So I like this, that the AOC aren't going to project it, but a few different articles here, a few different projections. I mean, give us your take. How are you feeling in terms of how we're going to go into these Olympics?
JARROD LOOBEEK: You know, it's odd because when I think about it, not looking at individual sports, I don't think we're going to do amazing. And I think medals will be coming from kind of unexpected places. But this afternoon, when I went through and looked at all the sports and who was competing, I think I overestimated our chances. Maybe some positive endorphins after just playing some tennis, but I think grossly overestimated our chances. But looking over it as a whole, yeah, I feel like for us, there's not many locks.
BEN WATERWORTH: Yeah, that's the thing. I agree because it's always hard. Like, I mean, this is the winter Olympics problem with Australia. Like we go into this with such a biased opinion of, oh, look at all these world, like all this doesn't make jack shit come in Olympic games. You know, if you look at some of our results in swimming recently, you know, I think we've got seven gold at the last world championships. We're not going to win seven gold during these Olympics. It never happens generally. It's a different thing. And yeah, we can have some of the best, but Olympics bring out the best in some people. Like you're going to have these people. Colin was just talking about like Penny Alexiak, you know, these people that you're not even predicting all of a sudden. Boom, they're winning medals. So all jokes aside about the Campbell sisters, you know, they can win everything. But an Olympics is a different thing. So, ah, to play the laugh track. But it's fascinating because we've got some great athletes out there that on any given day should we be winning medals and gold and that sort of stuff. But it just generally doesn't happen. So, yeah, I mean, it's interesting. I think for the most part, the regular sports are going to be there for us. Swimming obviously is going to be, you know, Channel 7 already is basically close off scheduling for the next week because it's just all going to be replays and family members go into the bathroom, tell the story for that 18 hours and all that kind of stuff, you know, else Channel 7 does. And obviously we've got a few big names that really haven't been around. I mean, outside the Campbell sisters, got to mention a certain Ariana Titmuss who we claim as a Tasmanian. I think she's technically a Queenslander, but I think she was born in Tasmania, and her dad used to be the head newsreader for our version of Channel 7. I remember growing up watching her dad as our main newsreader. And I'm friends with him on Facebook, and he's always posting. I think they, everyone in Tasmania, he's like, oh, she's Tasmanian. Ariana Titmuss is Tasmanian. But she obviously has done quite well over the last few years. The big one that's coming out, and you mentioned Kylie Mast, Colin, this is one of the biggest events actually at the Olympics that people are talking about is the 100-metre backstroke, because obviously with Kylie Mast in there, but our own Kylie McCowen, she has McEwen, I should say. That's how you pronounce her name.
COLIN HILDING: I was going to correct you, but I felt it wasn't right for the Canadians.
BEN WATERWORTH: Well, I think her Instagram has corrected me. So thank you, Kylie. She's just broken the world record in the swimming trials here in Australia. So they're talking this up. This is going to be one of the main races of the swimming. So she's getting a lot of whisper there. I think our big hopes, the ones that basically they're saying we will not be beaten in, which by saying this, I've just jinxed it, are our relays. The 100-metre, 4x100-metre relays for females, which basically I think we've won everything in the last however many years. The mixed relay, they're saying, is basically a lock. So that's kind of where they guarantee it. And outside of that, outside of swimming, obviously I mentioned Jess Fox before, has basically won everything when it comes to canoe. And she's got a new event this year. She's got the C1 and the K1. She's obviously won a silver and a bronze previously, never a gold. So they're calling that. I'm just reading a list here of the, we're predicted by this gold note to win 12 gold. I don't know if I agree with that. But of our 12, Jessica Fox should win two of them, apparently. Road cycling. It's not where's Richie. Proud Tasmanian, Richie Podium Tour de France finisher. Rowan Dennis, apparently in the men's individual time trial is a predicted gold. Our men's hockey team. Oof, Jesus, these predictors really don't know how our hockey team works. Two in the rowing in both the men's fours and the women's fours, so the awesome foursums look set to return. We've got two gold in the sailing predicted, men's laser, Matt Wern and Matt Belcher-Will Ryan in the men's 470. Surfing, our great Sally Fitz Gibbons, who is basically the best surfer in the world, isn't she? In the women's shortboard. As I mentioned, the two in the swimming, in the relays, and then apparently our triathlon in the mixed team relay is a bit of a shoe-in. I'm not seeing Ash Barty there, Jarrod, off Wimbledon. I mean, what are your takes on our Wimbledon champion, Ash Barty's chance of a gold medal?
JARROD LOOBEEK: Yeah, I think she'd be a more fitting flag bearer, but I mean, I put her down as a silver. I think she's capable of winning gold.
BEN WATERWORTH: Who's beating her?
JARROD LOOBEEK: But I don't wanna jinx it. This is gonna be bad if it's wrong. Asaka's playing, right?
BEN WATERWORTH: Yes, yeah. Asaka's from the last time she's playing.
JARROD LOOBEEK: Home Olympics hasn't played in forever. I'm just, yeah, that's where I think the gold's gonna go.
BEN WATERWORTH: Interesting, interesting. It's funny, our beloved friend's over at news.com.au. Hello, news.com.au. I'm reading here, the athletes to watch that they're saying, and apparently we have a bit of a shot as a medallist in the 100 metre sprint. Yeah, of course we do. Have we ever run under 10 seconds? I thought the one time that was it Patrick Johnson did it, it was wind assisted, so it didn't count. But we've got a guy called Rowan Browning, who Tristan did talk a little bit about the other day. He said, there's a chance as a finalist, but yeah, I don't think we're ever gonna win a medal in the 100 metres. Yeah, Jess Fox, obviously, is being mentioned here. Rowan Dennis apparently is getting some whispers. Ash Barty, another big one, and actually a really good chance actually, we can win our very first soccer medal, obviously, the Matildas are quite good. Sam Kerr, best soccer player in the world, apparently, so she could be doing well. Sally Fitzgibbons here, the cook of Paris. I mean, come on, guys, like this is the Olympics. It's just like saying the Boomers are gonna win a medal. We'll get to the bronze medal match and we'll lose in overtime again. That's what's gonna happen. And the other one here, guest of the show, Charlotte Kaslik, gold medallist in Rugby Sevens. She's an athlete to watch, but they're not really talking up our girls in the rugby. I think our men apparently are a bit more of a medal prospect than the women this time around. But I want to say this, Jarrod, I'm focusing on the team sports. They choked big time in Rio. I don't like talking this choking term unless it's the Campbell sisters. I don't want to be the AOC and put pressure on it, but let's be honest, our team sports underachieved in Rio. We were quarter finals, I think, in everything. So we've got to be looking at the team sports this time around, right? Jarrod, like you penciled a silver for our softball girls, the Opals, they're generally up there, the Boomers. I mean, we are pretty good. We just beat the US like a week ago in Las Vegas. So I mean, how are you feeling about our team sports this time around?
JARROD LOOBEEK: I'm feeling positive. I think that's where most of my predicted medals on my tally have come from. And I think what the key difference is gonna be is that in Rio, we had the Swiss Jinx on a lot of our team sports.
BEN WATERWORTH: Good point.
JARROD LOOBEEK: Port Apollo, they were advertising multivitamins, basketball was advertising the multivitamins. Both the men's and women's hockey teams were advertising the multivitamins. So provided that the new Swiss, which is Yo Pro, so this is the Yo Pro Mojo instead of the Swiss Jinx. Yo Pro is only promoting Ash Barty, so that's kind of why I'm putting her in the silver spot. Okay. Brandon Stark in the high jump. And Kyle Chalmers in the swimming. So that's the three who are just gonna be a little bit cursed there. But outside of that, they've left kind of our teams free of that curse, the Yo Pro Mojo, the Swiss Jinx. So I think this is the year where, yeah, we'll do quite well in the team events.
BEN WATERWORTH: The Yo Pro Mojo. What do you have there, Colin? I mean, we talked, I think, recently about, you know, a couple of your athletes on the old Wheaties boxes. Like, do you have some sort of, you know, big company there behind a few of your Olympians ahead of the games?
COLIN HILDING: Well, I'm actually really excited because as we mentioned last time, the cereal boxes that they had already made for 2020 Tokyo were all over last summer. We were just out shopping on Friday, and I was commenting to Jamie, I'm like, oh, I'm so disappointed they didn't bring these back. And Saturday morning, I start seeing all over Instagram, Rosie McLennan, Andre Degrasse, Penny Alexiak, all posting, hey, my cereal box is back. So it's basically the same thing that we had in Tokyo. It's going to be Cheerios for Andre Degrasse and Shreddies for Kylie Massee or Penny Alexiak or whatever. But it's all cereal here, that's what it is. And they brought it back because typically, oh, we made all this in 2020, we're not going to waste our time again. But they waited till last minute, I guess, to make sure that nothing was cancelled this time.
BEN WATERWORTH: Jarrod, you talk about the Yo Pro Mojo, all right? I'm going to talk about the Woolies Bullies. Have you seen the Aussie Heroes? Look, nobody can see it. I've even got the album. I've got the Aussie Heroes sticker album. Get excited. Everyone get to Woolies and $20, you get a packet of stickers. And again, no one can see this at home, but you've got stickers, you can put it on their face, you can learn about... Take a picture of an animated kangaroo playing table tennis.
COLIN HILDING: What do you want? I want one of those.
BEN WATERWORTH: Do you want us to get you an Aussie Heroes book and send it over to you, Colin? Like, this is great. Have you been collecting them, Jarrod?
JARROD LOOBEEK: I have. I haven't opened them yet. I'm kind of saving the thrill.
BEN WATERWORTH: Oh.
JARROD LOOBEEK: But I wonder who I'll have 20 duplicates of.
BEN WATERWORTH: Well, I've got this. This is the thing that annoys me because you get the numbers, but then you get these bonus, like gold foil ones. So I've got like Sam Kerr and Tim Cahill in golf for football, and then I've got a kangaroo playing soccer. So like, I mean, you know, like, get out there. I'm a Coles man. I'm not usually a Woolies man. I don't like going to Woolies, but the Woolies bullies. I don't know if that's going to work. It doesn't really sound that good. Australia in the last few Olympics, so from Sydney onwards, we've gone fourth, fourth, sixth, eighth, and tenth. And in terms of our averages of the medals, we're averaging 12.6 gold, 16.4 silver, and 14.6 bronze for a total of 43.6. We haven't gotten over 40 medals since Beijing. So that's a bit of a tall order. But I mean, Jarrod, I do remember during Rio, we were a bit silver deprived for the first week, and then we couldn't stop bloody winning silver. So are we gonna be a bit careful now in our predictions? Because we were winning the Olympics after day one. Why don't they just stop it after day one, right?
JARROD LOOBEEK: Always the case.
BEN WATERWORTH: Always the bloody case. What's going on with that? I wanna quickly talk about the mascot, because I believe we always need to talk about Boorang and Soorang, because we do like a good mascot talk, before I forget. Now, this year's mascot is... Let's see if we can pronounce it correctly. Is it Miratiawa? Yeah, it's, I don't know.
COLIN HILDING: Anyone else want to-
BEN WATERWORTH: Miratiawa. Thank you, Colin.
COLIN HILDING: And Somadi?
BEN WATERWORTH: Somadi, it sounds like an Australian one. So, it is a figure with blue chequered patterns inspired by the game's official emblem. Fictional characteristics includes the ability to teleport. Kind of sounds a bit like-
COLIN HILDING: This is what you expected of the Japanese mascots.
BEN WATERWORTH: Yeah, teleported. 2042 designs were submitted, which selected three pairs of unnamed mascots to present to Japanese students. And they announced this on the 20th of February, 2018, basically. It is, Miratiawa is named after the Japanese words for future and eternity. While Samaiti is named after a type of cherry blossom.
COLIN HILDING: Let's correct, apparently it's So Mighty.
BEN WATERWORTH: So Mighty, oh, So Mighty, oh, So Mighty.
COLIN HILDING: I like that better now.
BEN WATERWORTH: Yeah, literally it says it right in front of you there too. Look, I mean, can I just say these, I don't know. Like they just kind of look like you, like there's nothing amazing about these. Like what's with the last few Olympic mascots? Like you remember fricking Wendell and Bendell from London. They were like giant penises with eyes, like Izzy. You remember Izzy? I'm always going on about Izzy. I'm not going to remember this thing in five years. I mean, Colin, what?
COLIN HILDING: Yeah, I mean, I have a bit of a collection of, you know, a couple of the five mascots from Vancouver because we had a bunch of them. And Casper even has the, what was the name of the one that you brought them from the Commonwealth Games?
BEN WATERWORTH: Oh, Borobi.
COLIN HILDING: Yeah, Borobi, yeah, so we got that. Buring and Surang, I would buy the plush figures of those still if I could find them. But my problem with these is, A, I think the backstories are typical Japanese. You'd teleportation is great. Cherry blossoms, okay, this is what you expect out of Japan. But these don't look like characters that you want to have, like a little toy of, you know, this, they kind of look plain. They look like, I don't know, like sixties, something out of Speed Racer in the sixties. You know, it looks dated to me. It doesn't look like something you want to play with. So I'm not crazy about Mirei Tawa and So Mighty. I like the name So Mighty, though.
BEN WATERWORTH: Wen Lok was the London one. I just need to correct myself. Jarrod, I mean, come on, like, what's going on here with this?
JARROD LOOBEEK: Like, yeah, not a fan. Every time I look at them, I just think of Pinky and the Brain and I can't get that out of my head.
BEN WATERWORTH: I hope that's the anthem when they walk to, like, the the metal thing. The doom, doom, doom, doom, the Pinky and the Brain, the Pinky and the Brain.
COLIN HILDING: You can see this on the Wikipedia page, but the rejected designs, the backups they had, they have the one that was designed here by Kana Yano, which is on Wikipedia as pair B. Those two I like.
BEN WATERWORTH: I'm going to find this now.
COLIN HILDING: Yeah, go to the Wikipedia page.
BEN WATERWORTH: They look like Pokemon.
COLIN HILDING: Yeah, and it's funny that they actually have the mascot selection process the same way they do Olympic host city selection process. Votes received. The winner is... But I really like this second pair. There are no names to it, but the one designed by Kana Yano. The third one looks really ridiculous, but I like those other two better. What are we going to call those things? One's going to be some type of...
BEN WATERWORTH: Kate and Bronte.
COLIN HILDING: There we go, Kate and Bronte. Those are my mascots for Tokyo.
BEN WATERWORTH: And typical Kate and Bronte, they choked, so they didn't get in. So I don't want to spoil it because we're still a few months away before we get to our Beijing preview. I'm just looking at the Beijing mascot for Tokyo. Much better. Like, it's, I mean, it's not outstanding, but it's better than the actual Beijing 2008 ones, and it looks like something quite, yeah, Beijing-y.
COLIN HILDING: I haven't seen this yet, I gotta look.
BEN WATERWORTH: I'm looking forward to, and we'll talk about the end of this episode when we do our special emergency episode on the eve of the Olympics, when Brisbane should get the Olympics. What are we gonna have again? Like, think of the prospects. Like, are we gonna have Sid Mille and Dickhead back? I don't know. Maybe we can be the mascots. They can be me. Yeah, Benny and Jarrod. Home Art Olympics. You know what?
COLIN HILDING: Okay, we need to actually find out how these get submitted and everything, and we need to make an official, I don't care if it's a stick figure, I will get Casper to draw them. Casper's a good artist. He will draw Benny and Jarrod, and we'll submit them.
BEN WATERWORTH: Done. One thing actually, before we talk about some of the guests on the show and some other things, just on the Australian team, should mention Andrew Hoy. I don't know if you knew this, Jarrod, that he's back. He didn't make the Rio team. One of our greatest ever Olympians. He's a three-time gold medallist, silver medallist, in quest training, competing in venting. The ripe old age of 62, coming up for his eighth Olympics. He's been to every Olympics except Rio since Los Angeles in 1984, because we remember the great days of, I think it was Barcelona, Atlanta, Sydney, the triple, they went back to back to back, basically, in the team event. But, I mean, what a great Olympian Andrew Hoy is. This is great that he's back at the age of 62. Good for Andrew.
JARROD LOOBEEK: Yeah, it's insane. The longevity of the equestrian riders, I don't know. I don't get it. I feel like at that age, surely you're a bit concerned about falling off. Like, pick something that's less strenuous on the body, like the synchronized drowning.
BEN WATERWORTH: I actually, I haven't done my research. I've talked about bat horses back, but we might have to find out there really, if bat horse is back. The oldest athlete, I did have this up before, is a 79-year-old Japanese equestrian rider by the name of Hiroshi Hoketsu. Incredible. And the youngest athlete at these Olympics will be a 12-year-old table tennis player from Syria, the very first Syrian athlete to compete in the sport of table tennis at the Olympics. She will be the fifth youngest Olympian in history. So that's pretty crazy stuff there. Good to see the age discrepancies there. Now, Colin and Jarrod, just a special note here for guests of Off The Podium that are competing at these Olympics. So we have the grand total of nine that have appeared on this show since we've started this program.
COLIN HILDING: Nine people we're going to owe an apology to when this Olympics is over.
BEN WATERWORTH: Two of them Australian, one of them American, six of them Canadian, all the pressure on the Canadians here. So we've got Evan Dunphy, who was fourth in the walk back in Rio. Catherine Pendrel is back. I thought she had retired.
COLIN HILDING: She just had a baby.
BEN WATERWORTH: Well, there you go. BMX, have I got the right support there?
COLIN HILDING: Sure.
BEN WATERWORTH: Mountain biking, one of those ones. Our runners of Aaron Brown and Brendan Rodney. Obviously, we've got Carly Masse, as you mentioned, and the greatest name in all of fencing, Maximilian von Haste in the sport of fencing. But yes, they are our Canadians. Our two Aussies to look out for, of course, sports climber Tom O'Halloran and Charlotte Kaslick in Rugby Sevens and our American. Now, I butchered his name so many times. Pronounce it Abdi...
COLIN HILDING: Abdi... Abdirahman.
BEN WATERWORTH: Abdirahman. So I got it completely wrong. So there are none that have been in the show. I've got a couple other ones that I want to single out as well that haven't appeared on the show, but I want to keep an eye on. Now, I don't know how I want to go about this because I don't want to predict anything because it's gonna like it. Our track record's not good. We've only had one medallist on this show after appearing on the show, and that was in a relay. Should have been a bigger medal. They lost to Hungary, but we won't get into that again. Colin, I think you've got something to add on this. Like, have you got a clip to play here?
COLIN HILDING: So yeah, there's a very important name you left out who was one of our Canada's biggest stars in Rio. Gold medallist, the first Canadian to ever win a gold medal in the high jump. Mr. Derek Druin, great interview, nice guy. And why don't we just hear a little clip here of something that Ben did. Of course it was Ben, as always, during that interview with Derek.
BEN WATERWORTH: I want to take this opportunity, Derek. This is something that we've not brought up before in this show, but Colin and I have talked a lot about it when we're actually covering games. I'm saying this right now, you're gonna win back to back gold in Tokyo. I've got that positive mindset. However, the slight tidbit with that fact is that whenever we get people on this show, they generally don't do that well at the next Olympics. So I want you to know that if you don't, but you will, you will win, I'm saying, but if you don't, you have every right to rip shit into us and basically blame us. I want you to know that post interviews on CBC, the first thing is I want you to be like, fuck off the podium, I shouldn't have gone on that piece of shit show. No one listens to it anyway. Fuck them, they cost me the gold.
COLIN HILDING: I will write that down in a list of excuses to give.
BEN WATERWORTH: Please do. Wow.
COLIN HILDING: So of all things, I mean, we're all aware of the curse and we have mentioned this to several of the guests on the show, but you went out of your way to say, I have a good feeling that you're the guy who's gonna break this. Three weeks ago- Three weeks ago, he gets injured and doesn't even have the opportunity to qualify. We could have had a back-to-back gold medal. He almost, I can say it with him. He would have been a lock for a back-to-back gold medal, but Benny here had to open his big mouth again. Thank God the man didn't die because we know Ben's had that effect on people before.
BEN WATERWORTH: But we have lost Derek Druin. Not even a chance.
COLIN HILDING: He's not even gonna be, he's gonna be watching it home, with his leg bandaged up or whatever it is he injured, cursing the name Ben Waterworth for 16 days.
BEN WATERWORTH: Jarrod, would you like to do the interviews from now on?
JARROD LOOBEEK: I think you just need to get people on after they've already won.
BEN WATERWORTH: We did, we started off good. We did, you know, Catherine Skinner, Tom Byrd, we were on a good start back in the day.
JARROD LOOBEEK: Make sure they're retired and tell them do not come out of retirement after this interview.
COLIN HILDING: We need to, we need to guarantee, when we interview somebody we're like, do you have any plans to go back to the Olympics after this?
BEN WATERWORTH: I'm telling you now, some of our guests afterwards for our Winter Olympics, I'm sorry, Brianna Walker. I mean, she's been on already, but God, we're screwing these. Don't come on off the podium. It's that simple. But I mean, in all seriousness, I mean, Kylie Masse, you know, could break the curse, could play this clip again in a couple of weeks. Actually, no one, screw it. As an Australian, let's say this right now, Kylie Masse will win the gold medal in the 100 metre backstroke. Come on, Kylie, get the gold. Bring it home.
COLIN HILDING: You don't even want Australia in that thing. It's gotta be Kylie at this point. If Kylie Masse, you are the last hope. Kylie Masse, you are our only hope.
BEN WATERWORTH: Help is Kylie Masse, you're our last hope. Kylie Masse.
COLIN HILDING: If Kylie Masse can win a medal, great. We've at least won an individual medal from guests on Off The Podium. If she wins a gold, the curse is completely shattered. Like we have destroyed this curse once and for all.
BEN WATERWORTH: Well, let's be honest. We could just be right now of all nine. They could all be, I mean, Evan Duffy nearly won a medal. I mean, you know, what's his chances? I mean, you know, is he going to win one this time? Colin, have you been paying attention to him?
COLIN HILDING: I mean, race walking has been kind of an on-off sport. I think it was almost off the table even at one point for Tokyo. But I mean, he's still in the mix there. You know, as long as nobody bumps him this time, that was kind of the big drama that made him famous. Yeah, I mean, there's chances. Catherine Pendle, who knows? I mean, again, she literally just had a baby. I think it's insane that she's even competing in this Olympics, but that just goes to show what a great athlete she is. We've interviewed some good people this time. Let's not screw this up.
BEN WATERWORTH: I'm just... There's not enough pressure on us Aussies here, Jarrod. I mean, you know, Charlotte's a team sport, so we can't blame her, like, that sort of stuff. And Tom O'Halloran, making the Olympics was a big deal for him. So we can't be blamed for the Aussies fucking up this time around, can we?
JARROD LOOBEEK: That's true.
COLIN HILDING: Oh, you can.
BEN WATERWORTH: Yeah, well... You mentioned racewalking. I'm glad we didn't get Dane Mr Smitty on since, you know, we want him to win another bronze. A couple of ones I wanted to mention here, just in terms of I had the chance to interview two other Canadians when I was working in Canada, two local Victorians, Jay Lamoureux and Georgia Similing, who have both qualified. I've noticed that they are both there in cycling, so very excited for that. And I mentioned the boxes as well. So you mentioned the Canadian boxes, Carolyn Veer and Tamara Thabeau, who both were medallists in, at least Tamara was. So I'm keeping an eye on them. And the Aussie Boxers as well, who did very well on the Gold Coast. Skye Nicholson, who had a great story. She won gold in the Gold Coast, as did Harry Garcide. Caitlin Parker won silver. But all great individuals who I had the chance to have a bit of interactions with during the Gold Coast Games. So I'll be keeping an eye on this, and we'll probably jinx them by mentioning their names here on the show. So, yeah, there you go.
COLIN HILDING: You know how creepy it sounds? I'll be keeping an eye on them.
BEN WATERWORTH: I'll be keeping an eye on them.
COLIN HILDING: You hear rustling in your bushes at night, it's Ben.
BEN WATERWORTH: Sounds like the bloody GoldenEye songs, you know, watching in the shadows as a child.
COLIN HILDING: As I wash you from your bushes.
BEN WATERWORTH: Yeah. I want to get to some of the metal stuff, but a couple of other things I want to mention here. A couple of fun stories that I've found along the way here. Colin, I know you're a man who loves his sex. But did you hear the story that the Tokyo Organising Committee have designed anti-sex beds for the Athletes' Village?
COLIN HILDING: An anti-sex bed?
BEN WATERWORTH: An anti-sex bed. So basically, they have made them on cardboard, essentially blocks, that they can't move, essentially. The beds are made out of cardboard and can only support up to 200 kilograms of weight, or they will collapse. I really don't know how the super heavyweight weightlifters and wrestlers are going to go in the boxes. But essentially, they don't want, the IOC have said they don't want people having sex because of COVID. They don't want physical contact, basically. So I don't know how like judo and all these other sports are going to work. Having said that though, they will still provide 160,000 condoms to the only 11,500 athletes. Jesus Christ.
COLIN HILDING: Can I immediately poke a hole in this?
BEN WATERWORTH: Condoms? Please don't. I noticed how you got pregnant twice, but come on.
COLIN HILDING: Okay, so they want to discourage sex for COVID reasons, COVID. And they figured the bed is where we're going to target them. These are the most elite athletes in the world. These are the most flexible, strongest people.
BEN WATERWORTH: They don't need beds.
COLIN HILDING: I mean, they're going to be doing it on the bathroom vanities. I mean, it's not even going to bother them. I don't have to go in a bed. They accept that as a challenge. I mean, this is part of my training here.
BEN WATERWORTH: I'm so glad that I showed you porn.
COLIN HILDING: Let's do it on the dishwasher.
BEN WATERWORTH: Come on. Since you have seen porn, you have become so educated in life that you realise that these things exist. Good job, Colin. Who would have ever thought that me showing you porn would have changed you this much? I just love the fact that this is a story. The anti-sex beds, which is just, wow, okay. Yeah. Anyway, also another story I wanted to point out. I think we talked about her back in Rio. The Uzbekistanian gymnast, by the name of Oksana Chuzavetina. She had a lot of sex. She is coming back to compete. Is this her eighth Olympics, seventh Olympics? She's I think the ripe old age of about 46 in the sport of gymnastics.
COLIN HILDING: She started in Antwerp, people.
BEN WATERWORTH: Yeah, she did. I saw that story on the Olympic website recently about the 100 year old Olympian. This is her.
COLIN HILDING: It's come full circle. She wanted to start and end her career at the Tokyo Games.
BEN WATERWORTH: Yeah, exactly. Good job. I mean, Jarrod, you remember talking about Oksana, don't you? We talked about her a fair bit. I remember during Rio.
JARROD LOOBEEK: I do. And she might be able to help us with the knowledge of the Australian wrestlers in Antwerp.
BEN WATERWORTH: Yeah, it's weird.
JARROD LOOBEEK: I just, yeah, I suppose the level, let's not, that's mean to say, but level of competition in Uzbekistan mustn't be that high. But yeah, the fact that she's back again, it's very impressive.
BEN WATERWORTH: I think if we all want to compete in the Olympics, let's bugger off to Uzbekistan where there was a chance. Is that or Tonga? Tonga, yeah. Just letting you compete in every single sport. Another thing that's also interesting to point out. The first time since Sydney, Assain Bolt has not been at the Olympics and the first time since Atlanta that Michael Phelps has not been at the Olympics. So yay, I don't know if it's a good or a bad thing. Are we both sad? Jarrod, are you missing Assain and Michael or?
JARROD LOOBEEK: You saying potentially Michael, not so much.
BEN WATERWORTH: What about Mr. Lochte?
COLIN HILDING: Oh, Lochte didn't qualify. What are we going to do for material?
BEN WATERWORTH: I know, Lindsey Vonn, has she switched over? I mean, I feel we've got to find our Ryan and Lindsey.
COLIN HILDING: We need to find our new Olympic idiot. We've got 16 days.
JARROD LOOBEEK: His Dancing With The Stars run would have lent well to the rhythmic gymnastics.
BEN WATERWORTH: I'm going to go out and limb and predict that they will either come from the sports of surfing or skateboarding. Just a prediction. Maybe just maybe putting it out there that they may come from one of those sports potentially. Now, medal predictions. Now, gracenote.com is a website that does sports predictions, apparently. So they have predicted the medal table here. The top 10. And sadly, Canada's not featuring the top 10. I'm sorry, Colin, they're predicting you will finish 18th. Four gold, seven silver, nine bronze for a total of 20. I'm sorry to report that they predict New Zealand will finish two spots ahead of you, also with 20 medals, but nine freaking gold. If New Zealand win nine gold, it will sink the bloody country. They don't know how to fit that many gold medals. I mean, they got excited over like, oh, Brie, we got two bronze in the winter. Like nine gold for New Zealand. If New Zealand win more than five gold, I don't know what I'll do. But the top 10, they are predicting, and I'll go from 10th to first. Italy in 10th, Germany in 9th, Great Britain. Britain? Oh, Jamie's got a breakfast with Colin, everyone. Thanks, Jamie. Thank you, Jamie. Great Britain in 8th. Australia will finish 7th, according to this virtual medal tally. France in 6th. Netherlands in 5th. Japan, the host nation, will be 4th. ROK will finish in 3rd. China in 2nd. And the USA, apparently, oh, it's a bit of a shock, that one. Dominating on top. I'd like to give our medal predictions, and I wouldn't mind almost predicting maybe just the top 3\. I mean, it's not that hard. Top 3 of the Olympics is generally the 3 same countries. But Jarrod, I mean, looking at that, any surprises? I mean, Great Britain dropping below Australia. It's been a while since we've beaten the Brits in the Olympics. So I don't know about that one. But I mean, standard top 10 there, wouldn't you say?
JARROD LOOBEEK: Yeah, I feel like we're very cusp this year.
BEN WATERWORTH: Yeah.
JARROD LOOBEEK: My personal prediction will contradict that. But thinking about it now, I feel like we're very in that kind of 8, 9, 10 spot.
BEN WATERWORTH: 12 gold, 13 silver, 15 bronze is what they're saying. The Netherlands here, Masseive 16 gold, 16 silver, 14 bronze. So I'm looking here at the biggest medal. They've got a little graph here that basically the biggest medal improvements is in the Netherlands. Twenty seven extra medals, they are predicting the Dutch to win. So I don't know how they are in the field hockey. Yeah, jeez. I mean, it's coming to the Summer Olympics all of a sudden. I didn't realise that.
COLIN HILDING: In the Winter Olympics, Netherlands won some of like 18 skating medals. I know that, but yeah, what's their big summer sport?
BEN WATERWORTH: Well, Jarrod mentioned the hockey is a big one. They're saying here that cycling is where it's coming from and sailing.
COLIN HILDING: I can see the correlation between cycling and speed skating makes sense.
BEN WATERWORTH: Well, they're saying here, and Jarrod, I'm sure you remember Sydney as well. The Dutch did great in Sydney with Van de Hoogenman and Inge de Bruijn. I remember those names vividly. The best ever Dutch medal performance was in Sydney. They won 25. But they're saying that they will comfortably beat this with more medals in cycling track, cycling road, sailing than ever before. Unlike 2000, the medal will come from a number of Dutch stars as opposed to just a few. Look out for the Dutch, apparently. Yeah, I don't know about beating Britain, though. Like, like, as much as I hate to say it, because I'm saying right now, right now, the French, forgiving you. Good on you, France. I'm on board with Team France in 2021. I'm on board because I want to be in Paris in three years. So I'm going to I'm all nice for the French. Good on the French. You know, I'm giving a big middle finger to this year, the British. Fuck the British. We're going to beat the British. I'm sick of the British. It's not coming home. You're choking, you're choking Wimbledon. Sorry, Colin.
COLIN HILDING: You want to feel good about something? If we're going to look at who is Britain's biggest star in Summer Olympics, Mo Farah was given something like 80 chances to qualify. And he didn't pass Olympics. He didn't qualify, even though they kept making exceptions. Mandy Bujold in Canada has to take the IOC to court to be allowed to qualify because she had a baby in an off year. Mo Farah, they keep throwing it at him, and he can't qualify. So there you go. Well, I love Mo Farah, but you know what? I feel I feel like I can I can help you out a little bit there. You should finish.
BEN WATERWORTH: You know what? Like I don't feel we will beat the Brits. I really don't. But if we do, I that's enough for me. Even if Australia wins one gold and Britain wins none, I'm celebrating. That's that's enough for me. But screw the Brits. Sorry, Britain. That's yeah, interesting that New Zealand, they don't know what to do with that. They just become the world champions in test cricket. Like, don't give them nine gold. No, like I've lived in New Zealand since the last Olympics. I don't want to have to put up with that crap. Is Tom Daley in Tokyo? I don't know. I didn't bump him to him recently, unlike in the Gold Coast.
COLIN HILDING: I mean, if shirtless posing is part of the Tokyo Games, then I can see where those nine gold come from, from Tom Daley.
BEN WATERWORTH: Yeah, like I don't actually know if he's going to Tokyo. Maybe, maybe not. Actually, before I get to the medal prediction, sorry, I keep drawing this out. I wanted to talk about tennis and maybe some of the other sort of the big name athletes that we're going to have during the Olympics. I mean, the one that I'm excited for, Jarrod, I know I don't think you're on the Djokovic bandwagon, but like, I mean, this guy has a chance to create history. Steffi Graf, the only athlete in the history of tennis to win the Golden Grand Slam in 1988. Of course, all four majors in a year, as well as the Olympic gold. Novak's got a chance. He's won the Australian, he's won the French, he's won Wimbledon. Get the gold medal and go on to the... I mean, come on, even you might not like the guy, but a Golden Grand Slam, I mean, this is pretty enticing prospect.
JARROD LOOBEEK: I can appreciate the effort. This, like this to me, feels like the... I almost want to say the biggest lock of the entire Olympics.
BEN WATERWORTH: No, you're just jinxing. You're saying that deliberately so he doesn't... I see what you're doing there, Jarrod.
JARROD LOOBEEK: Just one, he's playing like exceptional tennis this year, and then two, just nobody else is there.
BEN WATERWORTH: Yeah, I could have represented Australia, but I turned it down. So, you know, even I didn't want to compete in tennis this time around. Connor, you're a bit of a tennis fan. I mean, would excite you to see Novak Djokovic take the Golden Grand Slam in 2021?
COLIN HILDING: Yeah, I mean, anytime somebody can make history, it's always exciting. I don't even know who else is there. Like, is he the only big name that's competing? Is Rafa there?
BEN WATERWORTH: No, Rafa's out, Fed's out. Yeah, that's, I don't know. Who do we have for the men's side, Jarek? Because Kyrios pulled out.
JARROD LOOBEEK: Kyrios pulled out. Demon-Owl got COVID two days ago, so he's not going. Who do we... I don't even, it must be like Jordan Thompson or somebody. So I don't think, I don't know. The media was hyping up. Demon-Owl, like getting COVID is, oh, we've lost like a medal chance in the men's. That chance wasn't there to begin with, quite frankly. I feel like Djokovic's competition is coming from, well, nobody, but of the top ranked players, I'm assuming Medvedev's going for Rock, and then an outside shot of Sitsipas for Greece. But yeah, it's not big competition on that side of things.
BEN WATERWORTH: I'm seeing we've got Mr. Duckworth, Duckworth, quack, quack, quack, Mr. Duckworth, and John Millman are there. Our doubles meme, we've got John Peas and Max Purcell, and John Millman and Luke Saville. And women's obviously, we've got Miss Barty Sands. Stozer's back, Sammy Stozer, come on, Sammy. And is it Anja Tomlanovich?
JARROD LOOBEEK: Tomlanovich, yep.
BEN WATERWORTH: Thank you very much. And Storm Sanders going there with Ash in the doubles, and Ellen Perez and Sammy Stozer going there. Do we even have a draw yet for the Olympics? I don't know. Colin?
JARROD LOOBEEK: I think Ashley's got a shot in the doubles as well. They were playing with Storm, like Storm, she made semis, I want to say, at Wimbledon just two weeks ago.
BEN WATERWORTH: Yep, yep.
JARROD LOOBEEK: I think that's a medal chance, pencil that one in.
COLIN HILDING: Apparently Egypt has qualified for women's tennis for the first time ever.
BEN WATERWORTH: Finally, it's happened.
COLIN HILDING: Let's go, Egypt.
BEN WATERWORTH: Come on, Egypt, get out there, go on. Simone Biles is a big talking point going in again. She won about five medals in Rio, so she's back to kind of do some more damage there. I mean, look, I always like watching the gymnastics, and not just for those reasons, some of them. The older I get, it becomes creepier, but I don't really care, to be honest.
COLIN HILDING: Because this is the younger they get. Age gap is widening.
BEN WATERWORTH: I mean, basketball, again, they always talk up the dream team. I think they're just, you know, no LeBron. But we've got Kevin Durant's back, good for him. So yeah, I don't know. Are there any other sports that I'm missing? Any other big name athletes that I'm missing that I haven't really pointed out? I mean, they keep bloody pumping up Tony Hawk on the goddamn previews, but I mean, he's about 72. I don't think he's competing. But I'd love to see Tony Hawk compete. Wouldn't we all?
COLIN HILDING: I remember, I don't know if this guy is competing or whatever, but after the Tony Hawk craze started, all the extreme sports had somebody lend their name. And I think it was, was it Kelly Slater surfing or something?
BEN WATERWORTH: Oh yeah, Kelly Slater, legend.
COLIN HILDING: Yeah, so is Kelly Slater in the surfing?
BEN WATERWORTH: He'd be about 10 years older than Tony Hawk, I think. Yeah, I legitimately feel bad for people like a Tony Hawk and a Kelly Slater that kind of the Olympics came 28. Like, I mean, it's not like Gretzky kind of got one chance in an Olympics, didn't he? Kind of just as they sort of towards the tail end of his career. So it's kind of sad that these icons of world sport kind of don't kind of get that. But anyway, all right. I actually, I hope I haven't done this. I should have done this. I'm going to drag it out more. We need clothes. I've got a couple more things to talk about. I've got lots of notes here, people. CBC, how are you feeling, Colin? How is the coverage? Like, I mean, I know it's not yet started, but I mean, we're going to have our CBC done moment of the games probably or something along those lines. I mean, you can watch NBC as well, but, I mean, how are you feeling ahead of CBC?
COLIN HILDING: Well, it's really exciting because we're going to have so much coverage. I think it's pretty much around the clock on CBC, like as far as the network coverage goes. And then they've got this nice app here, the Tokyo 2020 app.
BEN WATERWORTH: Oh, fancy.
COLIN HILDING: Which you can filter by all the sports. You got the whole schedule on here. So I think this is going to be like in Pyeongchang. You can't really see anything there. I think it's going to be like in Pyeongchang where you can view every sport. It's not necessarily going to be the CBC coverage of it, but whoever is covering random, you know, handball or something like that is, you know, you could hear the Botswana call of that match or something. Oh, hang on for that. But yeah, even on top of CBC, we have TSN, which is kind of Canada's ESPN. They're going to be covering that around the clock. There's Sportsnet, which another 16 cable networks. I mean, this is going to be well surpassing every Olympics in history as far as TV coverage goes.
BEN WATERWORTH: Which I will say, among the many reasons I'm disappointed still not to be living in your great country, I was actually looking forward to living in another country for an Olympic coverage. I've never done it. Like even since the last Winter Olympics, I've lived in what, two different countries and no Olympics have been on since I've been living overseas. So I've still not had that opportunity to experience an Olympics outside of my own country. But I was looking forward to seeing that with CBC and everything along those lines next time, hopefully.
COLIN HILDING: Also CBC has brought in a lot of like, you always have the athlete experts, right? Not only do you just have that as far as commentary goes now, but they bring them into the studio. I don't know if you saw when they had the Olympic coverage, you know, every single Saturday for the last year. So we talked to Brittany McLean, she started just as that correspondent they'd bring into the studio, and now she's doing commentary. So I'm excited that they're going to be getting not just, oh, let's bring this person in, just like last time, Donovan Bailey, they brought him in just to talk about Andre Degrasse's performance, you know? But they're going to be having, oh, let's go to our expert to preview this event, and we're going to have all these famous Olympians from the past.
BEN WATERWORTH: At least you just don't get random, you know, guy who used to host a travel show coming in to commentate like we do, bloody do in Channel 7, you know? That's kind of what we do.
COLIN HILDING: And yet you can't get a job there?
BEN WATERWORTH: Hey, you know, maybe I just need to stop jinxing our Olympians and they will have me on their coverage. Jarrod, I guess let's get some warmups. Channel 7 bashing time, one of my favourite moments of the Olympics. And all serious, before we get to the Channel 7 bashing, a serious note, this is more than likely going to be Bruce McEvaney's last ever Olympic Games. He's obviously just stepped back from AFL coverage, which is very sad. But I don't think, because he didn't do Pyeongchang, did he? So I doubt very much he'll go to Beijing. So in all realistic nature, the legend that is Bruce McEvaney's last... I'm probably more sad about that than any other person retiring from these Olympics. So can we just take a special note right now to appreciate that for the next two weeks, we need to appreciate the legend that is Bruce McEvaney.
JARROD LOOBEEK: Yeah, let's just hope he gets some coverage.
BEN WATERWORTH: Yeah. Do you think he's going to bring up the old Kokomo again? Do we...
JARROD LOOBEEK: Fingers crossed.
BEN WATERWORTH: Throbbin at the mouth of the great nation of all I want to take you?
JARROD LOOBEEK: Always looking forward to see who I want to take you is going to go on the Olympics.
BEN WATERWORTH: But in all seriousness, Channel 7, I mean, look, I'm looking here at the app right now. It's not a separate app this time around. It's just a 7 plus app, but they've got the Olympics tab. We've got days until Tokyo. They've got the road to Tokyo here. You can watch a little lot of things. It's basically just the Olympic channel by the looks of things, but you can go back and watch Aussie medal moments. So you can watch the Rugby sevens from Rio. You've got James Tompkins making history back in Athens. Stephanie Rice in Beijing. Then you've got iconic moments of the Beijing Olympics, the best of closing ceremonies, highlights from Sydney 2000. I mean, you name it, it's all here on the Channel 7 app. Download now from your app store. But I mean, it's always a fun time for us. Can we get a weiner? Bethollen you to text us back again. I mean, she was my bestie back in Pyeongchang. So who are we looking forward to bagging out the most in the next couple of weeks?
JARROD LOOBEEK: Oh, there's a long list. Probably Hamish McLaughlin. Longlin, he springs to mind. I don't know who else. It's just, it's weird with Channel 7 that you're right. They just do have the random people who they hosted a Channel 7 show once in their lifetime. And now all of a sudden they're an expert on sport. But then in amongst that, they do have like the legends of commentary there, like you're Phil Liggett's and you're Bruce McAvaney's. I had to laugh though the other day that the fact that they're adding SBS commentators to their team to get a little bit of cultural diversity. A little bit of expert advice for the opening ceremony.
BEN WATERWORTH: Is Li Li and Chin coming to the Olympics this year?
JARROD LOOBEEK: No, unfortunately not.
BEN WATERWORTH: Oh, if you tell me that what's his face from Eurovision, he's going, I'm not watching the Olympics. I'm done. Have they announced any kind of like, what was it, the rave from Rio or whatever the hell it was, like the comedians and the fake Roy and HG? Are we having any like the tools from Tokyo or something?
JARROD LOOBEEK: Or? I don't know, one can only hope. The coverage so far has been, in my experience, just very light. Not a lot of advertising, not a whole heap of buildup. So it'll be interesting to see what happens when it actually starts. I'm expecting the worst, like you mentioned before, the swimming just being played over and over again. Highlights of our one medal win throughout the entire two weeks. Yeah. The hair montage for sure.
BEN WATERWORTH: Oh yes, hair montage, yes.
COLIN HILDING: Hair montage, what?
BEN WATERWORTH: Remember, I flipped my hair back and when you had the horse, Jarrod loved it, that was his favourite part of the Olympics.
COLIN HILDING: It's funny, because you guys always mention how much they'll replay the medal wins. And again, you're projected to win 30% more, 40% more than Canada. We don't even necessarily win that much, but if you miss seeing it once, you might catch it on the replay overnight. But then they never aired it again in Canada. We just move on to the next sport, so that's... It's so unusual. I would expect in the Winter Olympics, if you win a medal, they're gonna show it every single day. But here in Canada, they're like, we won a medal! All right, move on, next day.
BEN WATERWORTH: So Canadian. I'm just looking here. So Mel McLaughlin, you can... If you don't like us, we're terrible. We're only the fourth-best Olympic podcast, according to whatever that blogspot website was, which we should advertise, but we're pretty proud of that. You can listen to the Channel 7 Olympic Podcast with Mel McLaughlin called No Turning Back. Good on you, Mel. You're just trying to still remain relevant. Andrew Bogut's gonna be calling the basketball in Tokyo. Jarrod, that's good. Great to see you there. But in all seriousness, I believe that there's gonna be something like 45 dedicated channels across the app, as well as Seven Mate and Seven Plus. So I mean, that's pretty respectable there, Channel 7. So we don't have to put up with your crappy prime all the time. We can just flick over to the Botswani and handballers or something along those lines. And we will strive to be calling sports. We love doing it. I want, Jarrod, I want you to, in dressage, I want you to be going dressage, dressage, dressage, dressage, dressage. I'm expecting the moguls is one of my favourite moments from your time on this show, Jarrod. So I hope you've been practicing.
JARROD LOOBEEK: No, definitely up to scratch.
BEN WATERWORTH: We don't know what we'll be commentating, but-
COLIN HILDING: Can we do the backstroke since that's our last shot at getting interviews in the future?
BEN WATERWORTH: I'm down for that. I look at all seriousness. I think we should just do as best we can. I think we did the rowing back in Rio because I was about 10 minutes delayed. And then we at least did the moguls. So I feel like multiple sports. If we're doing this kind of in a nighttime slot when there's still stuff on. So yeah.
COLIN HILDING: We can bring a lot of excitement to surfing.
BEN WATERWORTH: Absolutely.
COLIN HILDING: And he's treading water.
BEN WATERWORTH: Handball is actually, I did not mention that in one of my favourite sports in any summer. Handball, that is an amazing sport. Did you ever play that in school either of you? Like European handball? I know we did at one point. Like our PE teacher was like, this week we're doing European handball. It's a fun sport to play.
COLIN HILDING: If we do handball commentary, we have to put on our best Botswana accent for it.
BEN WATERWORTH: Emma, not us Jamaican. It's a Botswana accent.
COLIN HILDING: Botswana, we got a handball team. Feel the rhythm, feel the ride.
BEN WATERWORTH: Get it up, it's handball time. Oh God. That's my new favourite country of these Olympics is Botswana. Like it was the unfunny Hungarians last time around. Let's get behind the beautiful Botswanans. Love it. All right, medical, actually, video game, either of you played the video game. I've played it. It's decent. It's okay.
COLIN HILDING: I was waiting for more of an opinion from you because I really want to pick it up.
BEN WATERWORTH: I would recommend it. It's cheap.
COLIN HILDING: The first time you mentioned it, you're like, yeah, it's all right.
BEN WATERWORTH: It's, I mean, look, it's the thing I don't like about it is that they've gone for more of like an arcadey feel. So you got like kind of like, you can create a, like a mascot-y sort of athlete to compete. So you've got like, you can have Sonic running the hundred metres, even though it's like the official game, not the Sonic and Mario one. So it's a bit more cartoonish, bit kiddish. I like the more kind of simulation-y ones where you've kind of got like the athletes, but it's still kind of fun. Like it's more realistic than Sonic. Like you've got, you can do sport climbing, you can do rugby sevens, there's basketball. Like sports that I've never seen before in an Olympic video game, it's not just button bashing, athletics and swimming. Like you got a bit more diversity. So yeah, I mean, I think it's like 50 bucks. Like if it was a full price, a hundred odd dollar game, no, but like 50 bucks, why not? You know, it's, yeah, it's there. Medical, medical, medical, I'm just throwing stuff now. Medical predictions, who's going to die during the Olympics? Um, shit, I shouldn't say that because somebody probably will now. Um, I want us to both predict both Canada and Australia. So I don't want just Colin you to predict Canada. I want you to predict Australia as well. And we have to predict Canada as well. So I don't know if I clarified this beforehand, but it's what I'm going to do. Um, so who, let's start off with the land of the true North, strong and free. Let's go with Canada. And let's start with Jarrod, the Canadian expert on this show. Uh, give me a gold, silver, bronze, and a total metal count for Canada.
JARROD LOOBEEK: Uh, well, Canada are going to be very polite and keep things simple for everybody, and win seven gold, seven silver, and seven bronze. Wow.
BEN WATERWORTH: Sevens and sevens. I like that. You sound like you should be working with Channel 7. The seven, the screens of seven, or whatever the hell it was. The Mega Wall. Oh, is the Mega Wall coming back? All right. Seven, seven, seven. You sound like Monica from Friends. Seven, seven, seven. Um, all right. Colin, no, you go last. I should go next. Um, okay. Geez, I legitimately should have looked this up and done this beforehand. I did all the other research. Um, I think you're being a bit generous on Canada there. Jarrod, I'm going to say, because of those four gold medals that they predicted that they'll win according to CBC, Kylie's not going to do it. So I'm going to go three gold, 11 silver, and let's go with 15 bronze. That's a pretty big hole. 29 medals, wow. Good job, Canada. All right, Colin, the realistic one now from the real Canadian.
COLIN HILDING: I'm going to be somewhere in the middle. I'm going to say we're going to get five golds. I'm going to say six silver, and I'm going to say 12 bronze.
BEN WATERWORTH: Okay, so that gives you 23 in total. Okay, I don't know what we win at the end of this, but it's kind of like our Eurovision predictions, right, Jarrod? So there you go. Okay, hmm, I like that. All right, Australia, Australia, Australia. Colin, you can start us off, Mr. Australia expert. Give us your best shot.
COLIN HILDING: All right, I'm going to say seven golds for Australia.
BEN WATERWORTH: Wow.
COLIN HILDING: Oh, is that good or bad?
BEN WATERWORTH: That's our worst turnover, I think, since Barcelona, but sure, we'll go with that.
COLIN HILDING: I'm going to say seven silver, and I'm going to say 15 bronze, which will put Australia winning a lot of Canadian golds.
BEN WATERWORTH: So you're saying we're only going to win six more medals than Canada at the Olympics.
COLIN HILDING: That's right.
BEN WATERWORTH: Jesus, I will say that's a choke if we do that. Jarrod, I'll let you go. Yeah, I'll let you go second. I'll save the best to last.
JARROD LOOBEEK: Well, if you thought I was being generous with Canada, wait till you hear these numbers.
COLIN HILDING: 48 gold!
JARROD LOOBEEK: I'm blaming the tennis endorphins on these predictions because, oh my goodness, here we go, 11 gold, 20 silver, and 23 bronze medals.
BEN WATERWORTH: 23 bronze! So that's 54. That's a pretty good hole, though. That would be our biggest metal hole since Sydney. All right. Hmm. We've got to be smarty. This is like the price is right. You just go a dollar higher and then you can kind of, you know. Look, I looked at these this grace note thing and I'm kind of like I'm feeling the hole like, yeah, no, I think we're, you know, 12 gold, but stuff it. I'm going old guns and blazing here, right? I'm going to say that we're going to we're going to do better than we think. I've changed my tune. This is the Ben Waterworth model of thinking here, apparently. I'm going to say 13 gold. Yeah, that's right. 13 gold. Yeah, I'm that guy. I think we're going to go with the let's go for 15 silver. Sure, that sounds good to me. And I'm going to go for 26 bronze. Because why not? Can I can I work out the Matthew 39? 54 as well, Jarrod. I'm taking you as well for the medals.
COLIN HILDING: I'm just saying this right now, when you guys end up cacking at everything, I'm going to end up the winner. Low expectations.
BEN WATERWORTH: All right. Well, where's Botswana going to finish on the middle tally? Everyone? Anyone? Anyone? Bula?
COLIN HILDING: I'm going to guess one spot above Australia.
BEN WATERWORTH: Oh, the iconic.
JARROD LOOBEEK: Yeah, probably.
BEN WATERWORTH: Probably. I'm so looking forward to the Olympics. Like, I cannot wait. Like, it's crazy. We haven't touched on something. What haven't we touched on, Colin?
COLIN HILDING: No spectators.
BEN WATERWORTH: Oh, yeah, that's probably an important thing. Maybe we should talk about that.
COLIN HILDING: And this is recent, so it's kind of... I'm still not quite over this yet. I don't know how to feel.
BEN WATERWORTH: Yeah, it's kind of... It's been announced, what, for about a week or so now that obviously, because Tokyo has kind of gone into like lockdown, lockdown, essentially. So they're like, oh, no spectators, which I think initially was a case it was no foreign spectators, right? But it was sort of the Japanese spectators. But now it's essentially like none at all. Yeah, I don't know how I feel about either. I mean, I think it's kind of... Had this just started, had this been a thing where we kind of were not used to spectators at sporting events, maybe it would be a bigger thing. But I think we've kind of lived in a world now for so long where it's kind of just sort of used to it. And like, I don't know if they're going to dub over sound. I don't like it when they dub sound effects over. It's a bit shitty. Like it annoys me. But yeah, I don't know. I don't know how I feel about it. Jarrod, what do you think about No Spectators? It's going to be interesting to watch.
JARROD LOOBEEK: Yeah, it's weird. I feel like I was just getting kind of used to the No Spectator thing, but then it feels like the rest of the world, like Europe in particular, has started having spectators again. It's like it's flipped. It was like Australia had spectators at our sports. The rest of the world didn't. Now the rest of the world does, and Australia doesn't. So I think it would be a bit weird. It just, I mean, it was going to be annoying anyway, having no foreign spectators, because it just means we're going to get all these at home family celebration moments played over and over.
BEN WATERWORTH: Yeah, which I think, come on.
COLIN HILDING: One thing that I'm slightly optimistic for is, if you remember back when COVID first hit, the first sports came back like hockey and basketball. Before they started piping in crowd noise, you would just be hearing, you know, from the coaches, they would make sure that like the TV crews and all that made as much noise as they could to kind of supplement some of that lack of cheering that we would normally get. And there's gonna be enough people on the sidelines that will at least get some type of audible reaction. My worry would be watching these sports where, and they just won the gold medal, and it's just like dead silence. It's also different in a lot of the sports that have come back with spectators, like team sports, you have very fast calls from the commentators. A lot of Olympic sports, it's not heavy on the commentary. So it's gonna be more noticeable to silence.
BEN WATERWORTH: We'll remove the chains for the commentary, yes.
COLIN HILDING: We can just start providing crowd noise, you know, start listening to our podcast live. Boo! But it's tough because the cool thing about the Olympics is you're watching these sports that normally don't get a lot of excitement, and you get to see big crowds getting really hyped up for it. Even yesterday, I was watching just some of the athletics, the Diamond League athletics, and it was small crowds. We're talking like 10, 20% capacity. And it still felt big. It's just, I don't know, a lot of these sports, we haven't really been able to see it without spectators before, so it's gonna be unusual. But we'll adjust to it within two or three days.
BEN WATERWORTH: One thing I will quickly add is I watch the Athens Olympics. I'm used to no crowds, so it's fine. We'll be going there. And also just quickly, IOC, you know, Mr. Bach, ah, ah, ah. Hobart is ready to go. We're still ready. Like you need crowds, just the same. Just fly everyone down south.
COLIN HILDING: Also, let's talk about the fact that Thomas Bach doesn't know the difference between Chinese and Japanese people. Have you heard that story?
BEN WATERWORTH: Oh no, I haven't. Controversy, I love this. What does it count doing?
COLIN HILDING: He was talking about the great Chinese people in Tokyo or something like that recently.
BEN WATERWORTH: And it caused a bit of an uproar.
COLIN HILDING: He didn't realise the difference between Chinese and Japanese.
BEN WATERWORTH: Good old to have a bit of a racism controversy on the air. The Olympics from the IOC.
JARROD LOOBEEK: Fancy letting in those foreign fans.
BEN WATERWORTH: Yeah.
JARROD LOOBEEK: No fans is not gonna be too dissimilar from the Zamboni stream at the Winter Olympics when they're sweeping the ice in terms of noise.
BEN WATERWORTH: Oh, God. We're gonna have some great commentary now that there's no sound. Like we can just do this. This is perfect. It is so exciting. The Olympics are here. Get excited, everyone. And our coverage is ramping up. We're gonna be very, very busy over the coming weeks, of course. Our next episode, 99.9%, we're jinxing it already, but we'll have the emergency episode this Thursday. We're hoping it's gonna be officially announced that Australia will get our third ever Summer Olympics. Still waiting for those winter games. But Brisbane is set to be officially voted as a host of the 2032 Olympics. Jarrod, it's probably just gonna be you and I, and I think Colin's gonna get up early to talk about a foreign city winning the Olympics. He might, who knows? But I mean, like, in all seriousness, like, we have not done an episode on this. I feel like we should have done one already, but this is kind of gonna be the official announcement, the reaction episode. It's weird to say the reaction episode when we basically know we've got the Olympics, but this is exciting. I mean, you know, to have two Olympics in our lifetime, if we both live for another 11 years, like, it's pretty exciting. This is a rare, rare thing to happen.
JARROD LOOBEEK: Yeah, it's gonna be great. I'm just so excited that I'll be older and, like, willing to, like, go to the Olympics, because Sydney, like, I feel like it was, like, too soon in my life, but now this is just every event I'll be there. You'll see me in the crowd at the synchronised drowning.
BEN WATERWORTH: Well, I mean, I'm 100% with you, because, yeah, I was 13 during Sydney in this. I remember as a kid when we got it, and then kind of my parents, yeah, we're going to go, we're going to go, and we never ended up going, which was disappointing. But, yeah, I'm kind of with you sort of at that age where maybe you don't appreciate it as much. But, yeah, the fact that, you know, in 11 years' time, again, living and breathing, hopefully, to kind of really appreciate the fact that there's an Olympics in your country. I mean, for you, it was a bit different. Obviously, you live in Sydney, so you were kind of there, but I lived in Brisbane, so, like, I can say a city I've lived in gets the Olympics. You know, it's not my home, but I've still lived there, so I can kind of appreciate that for what it is. So, yeah, I'm so excited that this is on the cusp of it, of happening and thoroughly deserving if Brisbane gets it. It's a great city, so I'll see how it goes. Colin, you're excited for Brisbane getting the 2032 Olympic. I mean, look at you, you're thrilled. You're even more excited than the Tokyo Olympics.
COLIN HILDING: Well, in all honesty, I was sort of mentioning this to Jamie the other night, and she goes, oh, that's gonna be really exciting for them. Too bad that you don't get to see the Olympics. I did remind her, though, that Los Angeles is coming up, and it's not that long of a flight to go to LA if I wanted to.
BEN WATERWORTH: You drive there, technically. I mean, take a week, but I mean, could, yeah. Yeah, I hear Jamie's yelling at you for something. But trip to Australia. Trip to 11 years' time to Australia. Why not? There we go.
JARROD LOOBEEK: Jamie's honing out for Flynn Flon.
BEN WATERWORTH: Yeah. But look, we could be talking Vancouver, of course. Look like they're in the running for 2030 again. So we might be talking about that around the corner. But stay tuned for that on Thursday. And then daily coverage. Now, we don't 100% know our scheduling, but off the top of our head, it's probably going to be more of a, at the end of every day, sort of a nighttime for Australia, which will be morning for Canada. That's generally what we're thinking. But I'm pretty sure we're all guaranteeing that we're all going to be straight after the opening ceremony. We're jumping straight on and we're going, fuck, oh, I want to take you. Yeah, the flag bearer, like the Mario and Sonic display was brilliant. Like quickly, bold predictions for the opening. I mean, who's going to light the torch? Who's lighting the cauldron, Jarrod? Your favourite Japanese Olympian.
JARROD LOOBEEK: Well, between Mario and Sonic, I mean, it's a little bit of a race, isn't it?
BEN WATERWORTH: But any predictions, any bold predictions for the opening ceremony put you on the spot, Jarrod?
JARROD LOOBEEK: I think just the obvious ones, like surely we're going to get some calligraphy in there. I feel like that's a lock. Yeah, I just, I feel like it's going to be very, they're definitely going to do that whole ancient to modern storyline that we get all the time.
BEN WATERWORTH: And then Nicky Webster style child from start to finish. I actually, I vaguely remember Nagano, like, and there was, I think there was Sumos. And like, I think it's one of those ones when I used to watch the ceremony channel and the Olympic channel, they would replay every now and then. Colin, I just want to say this right now. Please, can we have a good opening ceremony? We haven't had one since London. It's been a while. I mean, Sochi was fine. Pyeongchang and Rio were kind of crap. Gold Coast 2018 was a better opening ceremony, and we know how bad the closing ceremony was, but please, can we have a good opening ceremony? That's all I'm saying. Japan, don't let me down. Colin, opening ceremony thoughts, predictions.
COLIN HILDING: You know how, no matter where the Olympics are, they try to pander to the American television audiences. So I want to make a prediction. We're going to get some nice Tokyo drifting down a 400-metre track straight through. We're going to get a nice little Tokyo drift race.
BEN WATERWORTH: I am just saying this right now that I want the Die Hard tribute for the tower. What's it called? Nakatomi Tower. I want the Die Hard tribute to come from Tokyo. But actually, I mean, the most entertaining part of the last few ceremonies was the Tokyo display in Rio. That was hilarious that they got the prime minister basically dressed as Mario. So I mean, come on. I'm expecting the next two opening ceremonies in Tokyo and Beijing to be good because we remember how good Beijing was in 2008. So daily coverage will come straight after the opening ceremony, and then we will be in every single day recapping all the day's events. Hashtag OTP is how you can get in touch with us. If you want to go on Twitter and Instagram, we are on Instagram now. Follow us on there. We're on Facebook. We don't know if there's going to be team messages for the Australian Olympic team, as well as my name is for Canada. We're hoping there are. There's nothing up yet, but we will find the good ones and we'll read them out on air. Otherwise, we'll just go to Channel 7 Bashing on Twitter and read all the comments that we did there and get Ed Wienerbarth Olemew to tweet us. I don't know, but Off The Podium on all those platforms, just search for us on there, and we will provide you fun things and great coverage and all the things in between. But bring it on, boys. This is, this is, I'm pumped. Bring it on. So excited. So, so happy. We get two of these in like the next six months. Jesus Christ, this is even better. Jarrod, so good to have you back on this show, and I'm so looking forward to your commentary. Practice those moguling calls for whatever it is, bat horse, dressage, everything else, and let's get the Where's Richie books out as well, because we haven't really mentioned that. But thanks for joining us, Jarrod, and I'm excited to have you in the next few weeks.
JARROD LOOBEEK: Yeah, it's gonna be great fun.
BEN WATERWORTH: And Colin, Mr. Bronze, thank you for joining us. And next time, can you make sure that Jamie brings us all breakfast, please? That would be much appreciated.
COLIN HILDING: Will do. Just send your orders through.
BEN WATERWORTH: Is it like McDonald's, those touch screens, whatever it is? We'll do that. Thanks for tuning in. Bring on the Olympics. My name is Ben. We'll speak to you soon on. Off the Podium. Good night.
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