Tokyo 2020 Wrap Episode
After 16 days of amazing competition, it's time to farewell the Tokyo 2020 Olympics as we go over all the best bits, the worst bits and everything else in between in our comprehensive wrap episode of the games we thought never would happen! Just who was the star of the games? Are we sold on the new sports or do we have issues? Were these games better than we expected? Why do we feel both Australia and Canada did so well? How did our medal predictions turn out from before the games? And although we are sad they games are over, how come we can still be excited with the Winter Olympics being so close? Get your last dose of Tokyo 2020 action in one massive episode that you won't want to 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 our episode where we wrap up the Tokyo Olympics. They're over and done with, I should mention the Tokyo 2020 Olympics, just to think in case we've been going over Tokyo 1964, coming soon to the Off The Podium, so the OZ Network. Download that while you're here too. I don't know what we're talking about. I'm so pumped up and excited to talk about the Olympics. I'm also sad that the Olympics are over, but we're here to do a wrap-up episode. The first time we've done a separate wrap-up episode compared to how we've done this in the past. So something a little bit exciting, to milk the juice that is the Olympics. My name is Ben, and to milk the juice that is the Olympics, it's everyone's favourite juicer from Emu Plains, it's Jarrod Loobeek. Jarrod, welcome back.
JARROD LOOBEEK: Thank you, it's great to be back.
BEN WATERWORTH: We gave you the night off last night. I guess you had to digest that closing ceremony and get your thoughts together. So I guess I should probably ask you straight away. Closing ceremony of Tokyo 2020, Jarrod. Don't know if you listened to our show yesterday, but I mean, do you have anything to add on what the hell that was?
JARROD LOOBEEK: I mean, it wasn't great, was it? But expectations were low. So I feel like it kind of delivered about as much as I expected, which is not saying much. I feel like we got some culture. To me, the best part was actually when they got away to the video and went to all those little towns and had showed them doing their traditional dances. Actually, it reminded me a lot of in high school, we had a sister school in Japan that would come over. And every year, they'd do the same dance. And it was this whole fishing dance. And at the end, they built kind of like a human pyramid, which probably would have been more exciting than what they showed. But it was nice, that videos. And then we got that one Tokyo dance in the stadium, which was probably the highlight of the actual events there. But overall, it was very, I feel like just same as the opening ceremony, like same critiques. It just felt very like high school performance, community theatre. I don't know, it just, there wasn't a lot to it. Too many kids. I don't know what that like random like, I'm just going to call it like the Mary Poppins lady and the kids at the end. And I think just too many segments that ran on too long. Like, I lack a brass band as much as the next person, but the section went on like forever. And when the hosts are being like, like Yumi kept like bringing up the like, oh, they're still, and this is the Tokyo Scar, whatever they were called band. And she just kept bringing up them like, yeah, we know, because they've been playing for the last half an hour. And they just keep going like, I think that's what you need like in a ceremony is you either go the route of lots of sharp, like different little things, or you have kind of the like thread that's through the whole thing, but it kind of dips like in and out. So your Nikki Webster kind of like leading it, but she's not there the whole time. She kind of comes in and out, and then she's back in again.
BEN WATERWORTH: Yeah.
JARROD LOOBEEK: It's just so many kids and just such long periods, like the Mary Poppins segment about the stars or whatever, went on too long. Like, why don't we need, like everything was like three, four songs. Like, just do the one, get them off, get the next bit in. Like, it just, yeah, it felt like it really dragged, which is the same as the opening, and just very kind of amateur. Yeah, high school, comm games, but then I think that's even insulting to like comm games, because I feel like they've been better. So yeah, just very high school community theatre.
BEN WATERWORTH: You know, you got a bad closing ceremony when the Gold Coast 2018 closing ceremony was probably bad. I mean, bring me the Australian Idol reunion tour over everything that we got last night. I mean, Japanese Scar though, that was, I mean, yeah, it went on forever, but I mean, you got to admit, Japanese Scar was pretty cool.
JARROD LOOBEEK: It was, but just like I say, it was just too long. They were good, but they didn't need to do everything.
BEN WATERWORTH: What about the Paris display? I mean, we were fans talking about French president uttering a couple of syllables on top of the Eiffel Tower, the gullible Channel 7 commentators who believe the flag on the Eiffel Tower was real, happy French people dancing with medals, and competitive jet fighting coming to Paris 2024. I mean, it was something. It was very French.
JARROD LOOBEEK: Yeah, I think a little bit underwhelming, too, but I understand that a lot of the complaints are probably because of COVID restrictions and what they could actually do. I did like that they were like she was riding a bike on the roof of some museum, which just made me laugh because we talked about in the commentary, like jokingly, of like the break dancing happening on top of the Eiffel Tower and stuff like that. I'm like, well, maybe it's a possibility. Yeah. The jets were cool. I've never realised before how ugly the Eiffel Tower looks up close. I'm just like, could they just have like picked a better side to that or just run like a little bit of pain over it? They obviously CGI'd in the flag just to make the Eiffel Tower look a little bit cleaner up close from far away, standing up close, but I mean, basically what you expected. I did like the touch of like the athletes being there celebrating.
BEN WATERWORTH: I mean, I just thought it was so hilarious that Channel 7 took it so seriously. Like, this is a 90 minute flag. It's like the biggest flag. Like, it's so CGI. Like what? Like, again, we just think this was just some joke that was played on Channel 7, that they're actually believing this to be a real thing. Were you a fan of the moth? Were you a fan of the Olympic moth?
JARROD LOOBEEK: Big fan of the Olympic moth. I hope that that becomes a staple of the Olympic rings just moving forward. I think it should be built into all the elements.
BEN WATERWORTH: I love the footage that kind of went on Twitter that I didn't obviously see during the games, but they kind of cut away at one point. You could see like a volunteer or something like that swiping the moth away at the rings, and they kind of cut to the back of her. So, I mean, it's good to know that if we ever want to talk about the Tokyo ceremonies, we just talk about treadmills and moths, and that's enough, right? And here we were again thinking Rio and Pyeongchang were bad, which, I mean, again, expectations keep getting lower and lower. I said on the show last night that I recently, like in the last couple of days, rewatched the drumming sequence of Beijing 2008, which is just epic. I really hope that they come back. I mean, Beijing can't, I mean, we said this about Tokyo. I realised Tokyo can't let us down. But China, China is a communist nation. They won't accept anything else but like grand celebrations of everything, right? Beijing's going to be good, right?
JARROD LOOBEEK: I think so. I think we can expect the whole people power mantra. Just anything you do with a massive amount of people just looks impressive. So just fill the arena, make it look full. Don't do it. We don't need children. We don't need the fake camera crew going around with people. Short and punchy, switch between segments quickly. And just, yeah, I think whack a whole bunch of people drumming in again, and they'll be set.
BEN WATERWORTH: That's all we need. That's all we need is just people drumming. But, I mean, it's actually really kind of hard to believe that the games are over. I mean, it took so long to get here. We had a whole extra year and obviously lots of talking and everything throughout the games and keeping busy. But, I mean, in general, I guess just your conclusionary thoughts of the Olympics.
JARROD LOOBEEK: I think overall, they were great. I think we mentioned on the last episode that they were record set in terms of number of countries, different countries winning medals and number of first time countries winning medals, which is always great to see. And I just think overall, everything seemed to run really smoothly. And in kind of the early stages, you were worried that maybe we would get some kind of massive outbreak of COVID, like there were a couple of scares early on. But generally, it seems like things ran pretty smoothly and that didn't play a huge impact in terms of the athletes competing and people having to drop out.
BEN WATERWORTH: It weirdly reminded me a little bit of Salt Lake in 2002, which obviously came only, what, five months removed from 9-11. And, you know, so many people were worried that something was going to happen and all this kind of stuff. And obviously, it didn't. I mean, I guess we kind of had that, say, in Rio and Athens, they were concerned that venues weren't finished and that things were going to be terrible and all this kind of stuff. And everything went off without a hitch. I mean, that's generally what you see during the Olympics. That's why I think kind of you don't generally get too concerned in the lead up to things. But I mean, yeah, I guess kind of, you know, what, a week away when they put Tokyo back under a state of emergency and then kind of, I think they were getting, what, like a thousand cases a day or something like that, you know, it sort of was a bit swept under the rug. But I mean, in terms of the gains themselves, I mean, it was thoroughly entertaining. I think kind of, you know, obviously the success for both Australia and Canada helped that. I mean, so many different, you know, new events that we'll talk about, obviously, you know, these first time countries winning medals, San Marino winning three medals, Italy having the fastest man on the earth. I mean, things like this that you just could never have imagined. So yeah, I mean, you know, obviously we've got plans to kind of go over Olympics and kind of do that. Maybe we're going to rank the Olympics. I don't know. But I mean, yeah, I think kind of it's if I had to say right now, just off the top of my head, I'd probably go out and say I probably enjoyed these Olympics more than Rio, maybe. I'd probably say I would. Yeah, I don't know. What about you? Like, I guess kind of it's weird to think, sit here and go, hey, rank all the Olympics you've seen since you're alive. But I mean, just basing it on Rio, maybe.
JARROD LOOBEEK: Yeah, I think obviously it's still fresh, but it definitely feels like it was more enjoyable. But I do think that's probably in part due to Australia. I feel like we just were like, obviously, we were a lot more successful. So it kind of helps because it's all well and good to see different sports and like pick on, pick new favourites to cheer on. But there is just something special when there's an Aussie in the event that you automatically have somebody to default to go for. So just felt like doing a lot better. There was a lot more interest, particularly, I suppose, in the team sports, getting to, like we did a little bit better in the team sports than we did in Rio. So getting to later stages, you still had that involvement in the team events where normally, like Australia goes out, potentially Canada goes out as well early. And then it's like, well, who am I, who am I cheering on here? Am I really invested in watching this when there's individual events on at the same time?
BEN WATERWORTH: The one thing that's interesting, we mentioned a few times, yeah, record number of nations that won medals, it actually is interesting to see here. So 93 teams won. So it's kind of Colin and I were talking about, we're getting very close to that century mark. The previous record was 87, which was both set in Rio and Beijing. So London had less than 87, when that's interesting. But 65 nations won gold medals, which is a new record. And of course, we know Bermuda, the Philippines, Qatar won their very first ever gold medals. Burkina Faso, San Marino, and Turkmenistan won their first ever medals. And North Macedonia won its first ever silver medal, which maybe we need to publicise that a little bit more. But yes, Australia, obviously, six overall in the medal tally, 17 gold, 7 silver, 22 bronze. And Canada got a seventh yesterday, of course, 7 gold, 6 silver, 11 bronze, 24 in total. I know that, of course, New Zealand had their best ever games. India had their best ever games, which was kind of interesting. And I know a lot of other countries had their best ever games. Fiji had their best ever games, for example, because obviously they added a bronze to their gold that they got there. But even the fact that the US didn't lead the medal tally at all in the entire Olympics and then, of course, snuck through to win three gold yesterday to take over the top. And as we kind of went over yesterday, a few nations still have improved and did this and that did this and did that across the way. Interestingly enough, I'm just looking here to see, you know, Australia would have also finished sixth in Rio. I'm just thinking of how we would have gone with 17 gold back in Rio because Germany got 17 gold in Rio with 10 silver. So again, our silvers let us down. Jarrod sort of went over our medal tallies from last few Olympics. I mean, go back to Sydney. I think we won about 20 or 30 silvers. So, I mean, you know, like that's sort of there. But, I mean, you were calling for more silvers, but I mean, seven silvers, you'll take that, right? When you got 17 gold and 22 bronzes?
JARROD LOOBEEK: Yeah, I think so. It's just it's just an odd phenomena. Like when I look at it, the fact that like you would think that we would have like got more silver than gold, it's just an odd one.
BEN WATERWORTH: Yeah, it's very strange to kind of think about that. But yeah, like Canada as well, again, seven, six and 11. That's a pretty good turnaround for them. And the other one that I sort of mentioned last night, too, was Brazil. You know, generally kind of, as I said, Australia sort of started this trend of recent times where we were the first ever nation to win more gold in an Olympics directly after we hosted it for the first time, when 17 in Athens, after winning 16 in Sydney. I'm pretty sure the UK continued that trend after London, but Brazil went, had won exactly the same gold this time around a seven, exactly the same silver as they did in Rio with six, but they won one more bronze, or was it two more bronze. But they basically, so they improved their total medal count, which is crazy to think. So they might be the first nation to increase their total medal count rather than just the gold medals. I'm pretty sure the UK did all that there. So I mean, I like kind of seeing that from a nation like Brazil, who I kind of assume always do a lot better in the Summer Olympics than they actually do. But I mean, you know, things like that. I mean, Cuba did very, very well. We talk about Norway kind of taking over the world now when it comes to just all these types. But I'm scared to think what they're going to do in Beijing a few times. And then I brought this up last night. I feel sorry for someone like Kazakhstan, who won eight medals, but all of them were bronze. And then I also feel sorry for Ukraine, who won 19 medals, 12 of them bronze and only one gold. So that's again the Ben Waterworth argument that you should rank by total and not just gold. Well, having said that, if we did rank it by a total, Australia would fall to seventh. So we don't want that though, do we?
JARROD LOOBEEK: No, surely not.
BEN WATERWORTH: Or would we? One, two, three, four, five. No, we wouldn't. We'd still be sixth. Ben, do your math correctly. So there you go. I can actually count that. Did you have a highlight like in terms of all highlights, events, moments, things along those lines?
JARROD LOOBEEK: I think the one that sticks out the most and will probably stay in my mind is the most moment, like, oh, yes, that's right, that happened at Tokyo, is just Fox's Gold. Just because I feel like leading up to the event, maybe it wasn't a super, like it wasn't like this kind of top story. And I feel like throughout the event, it kind of evolved into like more of this story because like I obviously knew and like most Australians knew that she'd won silver before and followed it up with a bronze. But then when you get kind of the backstory of she's been world champion this many times, she's won this many things. And then seeing her in the K1 do so well in the heats and the lead up, the fact that she was consistently qualifying as the fastest, to then have her dad commentate as well, I feel like it added to the story. And then for her to lose, and then the way that she lost to, she hit a gate early, was still ahead of everybody because you're so good kind of in the rest of the field and then just hit that second to last gate, and that put her into the bronze medal. The fact that she was able to get like two gate penalties and still finish third was amazing in itself, but then the pressure that that put on to the C1, like when it was her final run, I just didn't even want to watch, like I felt like physically sick. And then afterwards, when she won, I was like probably shaking for like the next like half an hour because like the amount of like adrenaline, I felt like I was like there with her. And it was just, it was so well deserved, and I think it will be, yeah, as I say, it's going to be the moment that sticks out about these games to me leading forward. It's always like, obviously, Kathy from Sydney, it was like that type of feeling and that type of moment with Jeff Fox winning gold.
BEN WATERWORTH: Yeah, I'd agree with that. I think, you know, that was such an epic moment. And I mean, if it was the other way around, had she won the gold straight away, then kind of got the bronze and the second one, it wouldn't be the same. But yeah, like it kind of was all that pressure on to it and everything. And you know, I remember when she won the silver in London and the bronze in Rio and kind of, you know, she was always one that sort of was loosely talked about, but obviously didn't get quite the press to say the swimmers do. But yeah, I think kind of in the lead up, it became a thing. I mean, yeah, it reminded you're right, like it reminded me of Kathy in Sydney, it reminded me of Sally Pearson in London, kind of just this this talk that came. And I mean, I really like it's kind of weird how we sort of have those going in certain Olympics, because I don't really think we had those type of moments, sort of Athens, Bay. I mean, Athens may be the 200 metre just because it was the race of the century with Van de Hoogenbeek and Phelps and Thorpe. And it was kind of all about Thorpe getting redemption for winning the 200 by not winning it in Sydney. Beijing. I mean, did we really have one? I don't really think we did. I mean, Stephanie Rice kind of came out of nowhere, I felt. You know, she obviously won three. And Steve Hooker was pretty epic, but I don't really think we had that one moment. And Rio, yeah, I don't think we really did either outside of that. So it's kind of like, you know, when you've got that great white hope that you hope so much is going to do it, and then that happens. I mean, you would argue some of the swimmers, like, I mean, the way Channel 7 talked about, you think Ariane Titmuss, but I don't agree with that. I think kind of that was, you know, how it was. I think all our swimming ones were fantastic, just to a point where, you know, you loved all of them. And it was kind of great that they finally broke through to have this nine gold hole, which you always felt we were capable of. We just could never do it in Olympics. And like I would say outside of those, I mean, the boom is winning a bronze medal is just amazing. Like, for them to break through and get that, you know, obviously heartbreaking for the Kukaburras to get so close again, but even even freaking Nicola McDermott the other night was just out of nowhere, just, you know, one of these people, we had no idea who she was until now. She was just, she was just so fun. And I just want a personal note, Harry Garcide, I'm glad that we got a boxer in, like, you know, again, I'm sort of playing the selfish card, obviously I had a connection to boxing during the Commonwealth Games. But even to see the press around someone like Skye Nicholson, like, I'm glad, you know, not for the right reasons, obviously her emotional interview. But it's just nice because, yeah, like, I feel I'll always have a weird connection to some of these athletes just because I got to work with so many of them during the Commonwealth Games. So to see Harry go on to win that medal was great. So yeah, I'll add to Colin sent in a couple of ones there. He mentioned that he had a big soft point for both the 400 metre hurdles for the men's and women's with both having world records set in those. And he also added Tom Daly finally getting a gold, basically breaking the sweep by China there, which I feel we didn't really talk about too much there with that. But I'll be completely honest with you. I actually thought Tom Daly already had an Olympic gold medal. I thought kind of the way he's talked about, he'd already won one, but clearly not the case. And I'll just say from an Australian looking in at the Canadian side of things and kind of obviously Colin is not here to really kind of mention the whole Canadian aspect of things. I mean, the women's football team winning gold was crazy. I mean, that was one of the highlights of the game, sitting here watching that with you the other night and kind of just the reactions to that and seeing André de Grasse get a gold as well. I mean, this is a guy who's won six from six in all of his events, he's 100% for medals, which is crazy. And I also add, I mean, I feel we, I feel we, how do we under talk this woman Emma McKeon to win seven freaking medals and a medal in every event she went in to become the most decorated Australian Olympian of all time to become the equal most decorated female athlete in the history of the Olympics in one single Olympic Games. Like it's, it's astonishing. And I still feel she's being under talked. Like I still feel she's not getting the attention she deserves for this really. It's weird, isn't it?
JARROD LOOBEEK: It is. It's like, it's such an odd one. And I think the stat that stood out to me was the fact that she won the most in like individual medals at Tokyo out of anybody who was there. And it's just, I think, yeah, I don't, I don't know why. It's just, it's an odd one. I think in my head, swimming in general, it just doesn't feel the same as it used to. And I don't know why that is. Like, I don't know if this is like, maybe like I'm older now, so I don't idolize those people as much, but just growing up in like the era of like Ian Thorpe and Grant Hackett and Susie O'Neill and Patria Thomas and Liesl Jones, there was just a different vibe about it. Whereas now, like maybe it's, I don't know, maybe it's just expected that we do good at swimming. Maybe I've just become desensitized to it. But it is just a different feeling when really she should be like she should have been the one who was overhyped rather than Ariane Titmuss throughout the Olympics.
BEN WATERWORTH: I wonder if it comes down to and this is no disrespect to Emma McKeon, but she's quite a quiet, unassuming person. She's not a big personality. She doesn't have a story behind her, really. You know, it's kind of I don't know if that's it. But yeah, I kind of get what you mean about the sort of the swimming thing. Like, yeah, maybe it is just the thing that we're older. But I mean, I mean, growing up, no one could shut up about Ian Thorpe. I mean, he was the biggest thing we'd ever produce. Grant Hacker, I mean, Kieran Perkins, you know, Susie O'Neill. Like, as you're saying, these are people that were larger than life. People that were just, you know, huge. I mean, they were as famous as any football player in this country or cricketer. You know, as now it like, yeah, we talked about this earlier on about our swimmers, our household names, mainly the females nowadays. But, you know, I don't think an Ariane Titmuss or Emma McKean or a Kayleigh McEwen in like a non-Olympic year or even in a outside of a Commonwealth Games year, you know, you kind of, I feel that's going to be a trivia question in like two years time. Which Australian won seven medals in Tokyo? And you're like, fuck, who was that again? Whereas like, you could have easily answered that, like who won three gold in Sydney? I even thought, like, you know what I mean? Like, it's kind of, yeah, it's interesting. I don't know sort of why that is the case really with that. But obviously Australia has our most decorated athlete, Canada with Penny Alexiak, who again, follow her on social media. I mean, she is just the most normal, like, you know, just unassuming. You think she's just some sort of, you know, teenager, basically just living her best life. And she's the most decorated Canadian athlete in the history of both Summer and Winter Olympics. It's crazy there. We talked about Britain having their most decorated athlete now, New Zealand with Lisa Carrington. You know, I'm sure there's a bunch of other countries out there too that have got that as well. I feel like, you know, given that maybe we just get to a point where America gets talked about so much, we don't talk about that. But I mean, Caleb Dresser won five gold at these Olympics. I feel we need to talk about that. That was, you know, a pretty big deal. Katie Ledecky went on to win another four medals. So, I mean, you know, kind of you add to these sort of things. I mean, even again, from that side of things, like Simone Biles got all this attention. Whereas, you know, I mean, Caleb Dresser winning five gold medals. I mean, in a pre Michael Phelps world, we would be looking at that going, holy crap, that is that is. I remember Marion Jones back in Sydney, pre druggy Marion Jones. The whole thing was she was gunning for five Olympic gold medals. And from memory, I think she got three gold and a bronze or three gold and two bronze. I think she meddled in everything because she was doing the long jump and all the relays and all the events. Obviously, I've had all those medals stripped on from her since. But, I mean, nowadays, I just feel like we just so complacent in the worlds of Michael Phelps and the same bolts, and the guy wins five Olympic gold medals. They were just like, five Olympic gold, Phelps won eight, whoop-de-doo.
JARROD LOOBEEK: Yeah, it's an odd one. And then I like even think about it further, and you think about sports and how somebody can do so well in their individual sport. But because they only have the one discipline in their sport, like a wrestler or something, I was looking and there was there's a Cuban wrestler who's won four golds in a row. I didn't hear about it because he's just won the one medal at each Olympics. Whereas if you're a swimmer, obviously, you've got multiple chances. If you're a track star, you've got multiple chances. So it's just it's an odd one. And I do think it is that after kind of in a post Phelps era that we do, we just expect more. And for something to excite us, it has to be bigger and better than it was before.
BEN WATERWORTH: To put that into context, Jarrod, the top seven medal getters at the Tokyo Olympics are all swimmers. So they're the only athletes who won four and above. So Emma McKeown was seven, Caleb Dressel was five, Kayleigh McEwan was four, Katie Ledecky was four, Yufei Zhang from China four, and Ariane Titmuss was four, and Duncan Scott was four. Now, here's a test for you. Our leading, we've got three athletes in three different sports won three gold medals. Can you name either the sports or the athletes or both? One you should, well two I think you should probably get.
JARROD LOOBEEK: Was this Australian athletes?
BEN WATERWORTH: No, no, they're not.
JARROD LOOBEEK: Just three or more. Will you have athletics?
BEN WATERWORTH: Yes.
JARROD LOOBEEK: Swimming?
BEN WATERWORTH: Well, I'm counting the words.
JARROD LOOBEEK: Excluding swimming?
BEN WATERWORTH: Yeah, so these are the three or more who, so these athletes won three gold medals, and they're not swimmers. So yeah, I'm not going for the four and above. These are just solitary three. So the athletics you got, correct? Yes.
JARROD LOOBEEK: Diving?
BEN WATERWORTH: No.
JARROD LOOBEEK: Gymnastics?
BEN WATERWORTH: No. There was an athlete who won two gold and a silver in gymnastics. You'll kick yourself when you think about this. So athletics, of course, is Elaine Thompson-Harrar.
JARROD LOOBEEK: Canoeing?
BEN WATERWORTH: Canoeing, thank you. Lisa Carrington, three gold. And the other, Archery Sanan, won the mixed team, the women's individual, and the women's team for Korea. There you go. There you go there. So outside of that looking here, so I mean shooting, Vitalana Batseraskina won two gold and a silver in shooting for The Rock. James Guyne, swimming, let's bugger the swimmers, let's talk about the swimmers, artistic gymnastics, so Daki Hashimoto, two gold and a silver. In athletics, we had Sifan Hasan, who we'll probably talk a little bit about afterwards, two gold and a bronze. Cycling track, we had Harry Laverson from the Netherlands, won two gold and a bronze. And then table tennis, Mimei Ito of Japan, got a gold, a silver, and a bronze. Sunisa Li, in artistic gymnastics for the US, a gold, a silver, and a bronze. And athletics, gymnastics, all these kind of ones. Here, judo, we had Clarisse Agbandinou, mixed team and women, 63 kilos for France. I was going to say, how can you win multiple medals in judo, but that makes sense. Table tennis, Meng Chen, won women's singles and women's team for China. And artistic swimming, here you go, Svetlana Koloschenko, won the duet and the team, two gold. So that's good for her. So yeah, plenty here, two or more. But it's actually fascinating, you can kind of see the multiples here. Again, two, how many? We've got three Aussies, four Aussies, no, three Aussies, with four or more medals. I'm guessing that's got to be a first for that. And then you look at the three lots. So Kate Campbell, here's Molly O'Callaghan, who's never going to be talked about in the grand scheme of things, because she got all her medals in relays, but she's going to walk away with two gold and a bronze. There's a trivia question for you to answer that one. And Brianna Throssel, another one as well, all in the relays. So it's fascinating to kind of see that. And it's good to see a lot of Canadians on this list as well, too, with the three or more, Maggie McNeil, André de Grasse, Kylie Mast, Off The Podium guest, Penny Oleksiak. So, yeah, very fascinating. I want to talk to you about the sports. First of all, new sports. I think we kind of went over this a lot in the 16 days, but we won't include baseball and soccer, because I don't really classify baseball and softball as new sports. They're returning sports. So of our four, well, let's say 3X3 in there as well. So karate, surfing, skateboarding, sport climbing, and 3X3 basketball. I know it's, you know, you could turn around and say, well, what about the mixed-rules? But I mean, 3X3 is essentially a new sport, let's be honest. So, I mean-
JARROD LOOBEEK: AMX freestyle?
BEN WATERWORTH: Sure. New sports slash new events. Go for it. Give me your standouts and your non-standouts.
JARROD LOOBEEK: Well, BMX freestyle, amazing. Should stay. Should never be gotten rid of. Sport climbing, also amazing. As I said, I think on the episode, I would like to see more events in that. So, I think the combined is great, but also chuck in the individual of each, because I think it sucks if you're good at one discipline and not at the others. Surfing grew on me. I got a lot better used to it as well. I like that there's a bit of strategy in terms of who has preference for the wave. Karate, I only saw one about, so I feel like I can't really comment, and I was just like lots of yelling, but I didn't have an issue with it being there. The big issue for me is the skateboarding, maybe in time, it'll grow on me. I know some people loved the camaraderie and the fact that it was all young people, and they're all supporting each other, but it just degraded. I didn't like it. I didn't feel like there was enough respect and prominence of this is the Olympics, I want to do the best I possibly can do. I'm really fighting for my spot here, apart from the 13-year-old or 12-year-old or whatever 11-year-old who crashed at the end of the women's park, who was upset about it. That seems like an actual legit response. But yeah, just escape. It was underwhelming. It wasn't what I expected. The park, I suppose, a little bit more so, but the street was just people falling over and not doing tricks. It just felt, I know that the tricks would have been incredibly hard. I couldn't do them, but it just felt weird at an elite level that you land, you do three runs of this trick, you land one, and that's good enough. I think it was even more than three runs, but it was just people falling over constantly. It just didn't look high level or professional at all.
BEN WATERWORTH: It's the poor man's big air. I'm guessing that's their version of the snowboard or the ski big air at the winter. The difference is, that's spectacular, because I hear big air, and you literally get big air. It's incredible. And I guess there would be arguments made, well, it's no different to aerial skiing or diving. You've got a couple of seconds. Fair enough, you do. That's a valid point. But at the end of the day, aerial skiing and diving is spectacular to watch. Whereas this is a 12-year-old doing a jump for three seconds and falling on their butt and going, Oh, bro! And then like going away. Yeah, it's kind of, you know, there. Was there any sports of our regular sports? And let's throw baseball, softball in there as well. Was there any that you found a new appreciation for that you kind of watched more these Olympics that you hadn't really? And maybe on the flip side, was there a sport which you kind of used to, which you kind of thinking like, Eh, I wish I didn't watch that. What's it doing at the Olympics?
JARROD LOOBEEK: Um, I think maybe the team's sports, and I want to say soccer in particular, it's something that I'll loosely follow kind of when the World Cup comes around, but in the Olympics, I've never really followed it. And it's kind of been a like who won whatever. But this time, probably because of like the Aussie influence, it was just exciting to watch. But then I even watched the gold medal match between Canada and Sweden, just because obviously supporting Canada. But it was just interesting at that point, because I'd seen these teams throughout the tournament to see how they progressed. Like I was invested in Sweden's run as well, because obviously universal in the group stage and the semifinals as well. So I think soccer is one that I had a new appreciation for. Outside of that, I feel like maybe I didn't enjoy the equestrian as much as usual. I just felt different this time around. Maybe the uniqueness of Bat Horse kind of rubbed off a bit. Now, it's just like, oh, they just, they wear hats. I think fencing is something that I watched a bit more of and was exciting too. Like it felt like there was a lot more to it than in the past. I probably shrugged it off as just kind of, I'm never going to be interested in that. Probably in part because of the great, the games, and their mocking of fencing has probably contributed to my point of view there. And I think that too is great. And obviously the modern pentathlon, after Chloe's win in Rio, I'm just more invested in that. I think it's such a great sport, and just the ending to it is, I think, the best ending you'll get in any of the Olympic sports really.
BEN WATERWORTH: Yeah, no, I agree. I mean, you know, I've always loved it, and it was great. I just love the stadium that they just had this all in a stadium now, and I just wish there were crowds there to see that. Just on the new sports, I mean, yeah, I'm pretty much on the same page as you. I saw a bit more of the karate. It just, to me, was just taekwondo with less protection. And it's not to take away from it. It's still entertaining. I enjoyed, particularly as we went over the other day, the guy, when he was down, still getting kicked the shit out of him. But it's also hard to get invested in something you know that's not going to be there in four years. It's kind of, you know, all the other new sports are coming back. You know, obviously, I know baseball and softball aren't, but again, I'm not classifying them as new sports. So it's just, it's hard. And I feel bad. I feel very bad for them, for karate as well. I mean, sports climbing was epic. I'm with you. Like, have it combined, but then also have them separate. Like, because I feel that's, that's an event where, like, you should, like, I mean, that's almost saying, well, I mean, I guess modern metathalon is combined, but I don't know, like, I don't know a comparative sport that you could have.
JARROD LOOBEEK: Gymnastics is what I feel. Like, if gymnastics, they only had the individual all around, and that was it. And you could be great at the bar, but you suck at floor, and then, oh, well, you're never going to medal because you're not good at all the disciplines. I just think sport climbing, like, they're really different, too. They, like, have different skill sets. And you saw that in the way that people performed. Like, they could be fast up the wall, but they couldn't complete a single boulder.
BEN WATERWORTH: And I remember Tom talking about that during his interview, that, like, that was a controversial thing that they, you know, it was great that it got to the Olympics, but a lot of people weren't happy. Because I think from memory, he said, even at the World Championships, they're all separate. Like, it's kind of, it's a thing. Yeah, surfing definitely grew on me. I was unsure about it, but, like, it grew on me. And I appreciated the surfer's mentality a lot more. And again, it's very similar to skateboarding, but I equate it more to snowboarding, where it's kind of like, yeah, you can go... There's nothing wrong with kind of having this cool, like, bro kind of culture. But as long as you're still respecting the fact that you're at the Olympics, I think, like, kind of there's a level there. And I feel the surfers are on par with the snowboarders. Like, you're still gonna have your Sean Whites and your Chloe Kims, who are these massive athletes outside of the Olympics, and they're gonna be bigger than the Olympics. But they still go to the Olympics. Like, Sean White, if you go to his social media, the first thing it says is, like, three-time Olympic gold medallist, not, like, 20 times X Games gold medallist, you know what I mean? So, like, clearly he holds that in high regard. I just didn't get that from the skateboarding. Like, and it's just, you know, and... Yeah, again, it could be one of these things that just grows in you over time, and it's fantastic we won a gold medal in it, but, I mean, you know, at the end of the day, are we going to remember his name? I've forgotten his name. Or a Keegan, whatever it is, right? So, I mean, you know, there. I was very happy to see baseball and softball return. I'm very sad to see that they're not there in Paris. Really hoping they will be back in LA, and I stand out and think they should. Yeah, I enjoyed the mixed relays. Shut up, Colin. You're wrong. The mixed relays were fun. They were just, they were interesting, and they were kind of unique to kind of do that going along there. Yeah, I'm with you. I probably watched more soccer than I ever had before. I've watched more fencing than I ever had before. I watched more handball than I ever had before, and I just absolutely love that sport. I watched a lot more volleyball, both beach and regular volleyball, than I had ever before. Probably this is the least I'd ever watched cycling, I have to say, at an Olympics. Cycling is usually one of these ones that I'm always hooked into, but we only ended up with one bronze in the track, didn't we? So, yeah, athletics is always one I love, and I always forget. I always sometimes think to myself, like, swimming, yeah, and then I'm on athletics. And then I'm like, oh, actually, athletics is great. Athletics is really, really good. So, yeah, I kind of think, sort of covered, there wasn't really, I mean, I think, if I think about it hard enough, I probably watched every sport at least once. Boxing, obviously, I had a bit more of appreciation for having seen it a lot more during the Commonwealth Games. The wrestling was fun to kind of, you know, watch a bit of that. But, yeah, got all those kind of things going along there as well. Obviously, as we keep saying, we're going to do a sports episode so we can talk more about that along the way. We're going to do an athlete of the games, so to speak. So we've obviously did an athlete of the day every day. And, you know, I actually just thought of this, and it probably would have made sense, but we didn't do it this way. We probably should have taken each one of our athletes of the day, and then we had to vote from them. Like, they were like our nominees for the athlete of the games, because, spoiler alert, we're going for someone that wasn't even one of our athletes of the day. So, yeah. But we kind of had a bit of a discussion in our group chat today and sort of put up a few names, and there were two that came up through all of us, which we'll go over in just a second, and I'll go over some of Colin's here in a moment. But Jarrod, take us through kind of some of the people you were discussing outside of the two that ultimately came down to our finalists.
JARROD LOOBEEK: Well, I kind of looked outside of athletes, and I suppose at teams as well, and something that immediately sprung to mind was the Fijian men's rugby sevens, just because of the emotion, the fact that they went back to back. And also, I think it's right that there was nobody in the team who was from Rio, like it was a completely new team, which is, or maybe one.
BEN WATERWORTH: I thought there was at least one or two, because I remember them saying there was at least one that had won gold in Fiji, in Rio, sorry.
JARROD LOOBEEK: But I suppose basically it was nearly a completely new team. So the fact that they could come back, do the same thing with a largely, I suppose you would say, like inexperienced new team, I just thought was amazing. The songs, the emotion was exactly what was missing at other events. And then outside of that, the Japanese baseball team, as well, just because of the fact that it's back for the One Olympics. They'd never won gold in the men's event. The fact that they're able to pull it off against the US as well, I think was just a great achievement for them at their home games.
BEN WATERWORTH: Yeah. And I think we mentioned last night, too, that the thing we didn't mention with both baseball and softball, both won by Japan, both beat the US. And I always find it fascinating that baseball is a sport you just assume that the US would win all the time, and they've only ever won the one gold. It's kind of like how yesterday we talked about when the US women's volleyball team won their very first gold. That was a sport that I assumed they would have won a shit ton of gold in, but no, they haven't. Yeah, on the team sports, I mean, yeah, I'm with you with Fiji. They went into this. Rio, I think they were like the unbackable favourites. This was like, you know, they're going to win. It's kind of like Australia and Rio were the unbackable and the women's. This time around, Fiji weren't really being talked up that much, because I think a lot of countries have caught up to them in Rugby Sevens over the last five years. So it wasn't really a lock. So when they went through, it was great. And even to see the women get a bronze was fantastic as well, because I remember when we got the Fijian quarters and the women's, I was like, oh, that's better than Britain, who I think we could have gotten had we, you know, beaten New Zealand, or whoever it was we lost in that last game. Turned out not to be quite the case. Obviously, we probably would have rather go around the other way. I want to give a nod to the team sports of the Indian men and women's hockey team. Obviously, the men claiming the country's first medal in that in 40 odd years in a sport that's only second to cricket. I mean, it's a big, big deal. The women are a goal away from getting a bronze as well, obviously knocked out Australia and very close to claiming their very first medal as well. The boomers, I'm just going to be Australian centric there and say that to finally pull through. The Cucabarras for everything that they kind of did to get there and to lose in heartbreaking fashion. The Canadian soccer team was fantastic in that. I know it's not really technically a team team sport, but like I guess in this case, you could say like, oh, the Australian swimming team, but like the Korean archery team basically won everything except one. The Chinese diving team won everything but one. The Cuban Olympic team, can we just mention the Cuban Olympic team just for, you know, always San Marino Olympic team. But in terms of the individuals, maybe, yeah, I'll go through some others. I mean, Colin just quickly, he sent through some for him. So outside of our two that we'll go over in just a minute. Again, I'm going to butcher his name. I did this yesterday. Iliad Kipchaj, the Kenya marathon winner, back to back gold, of course. Amazing. He's what, the third man to ever win back to back, the world record holding marathon. I mean, it's a guy who meddled in like the five and ten thousand metres, I think, back in like Beijing and Tokyo. London, sorry. So, you know, amazing athlete. Hongcheng Kuan, the fourteen year old, who I think is like a four year old, in the ten metre platform, she got basically nearly a perfect score. And fourteen again, like her first ever major international event. Like, God, how many gold is she going to win? And obviously Lisa Carrington, you know, Kiwi or not. I mean, three gold in the Olympics for any nation is great. For New Zealand, it's even greater. And for her to go ahead and essentially, you know, winner, become New Zealand's most decorated athlete. So those were Collins. I'll just chime in before I get to you and just say that I basically had Lisa and Mylis as well. Here we are again. We said this, what, 20 minutes ago about Emma McKeon basically being underwhelmed and not told that she won seven fricking medals. Hundred percent from all of her events. I mean, how can we not have her in the conversation? And it almost hurts me that we're not awarding her the athlete of the games, you know, because I really think on paper statistically she should. But, you know, we're going a different route. And again, similar case to Caleb Dressel. Again, he won five fricking gold medals. I mean, that is amazing for him to kind of do that. So I think he deserves special props. And Marcel Jacobs. No one knew who this guy was. No one, I think, talked about him in the 100 metre race as the heir apparent to a same bolt. And he backed that up by winning gold in the fucking four by one. It reminded me of Canada back in Atlanta, that Donovan Bailey did it, and then Donovan Bailey helped them win the four by one. So I mean, this guy is a dual Olympic gold medallist now, a guy who barely took up sprinting until the last few years. He was a long jumper. So yeah, I mean, God, like, if you had have said after Rio that the person who's going to trump the same bolt as the next 100 metre champion was an Italian, you'd be going, what is this, Mara and Sonic at the Olympics? You wouldn't believe it. So I think Marcel Jacobs should get a mention there as well. Jarrod.
JARROD LOOBEEK: Yeah, I think they're all worthy. I was just going to add to, I spoke about him before, but me one Lopez from Cuba, the four back to back golds in the Greco-Roman wrestling. We talked about the fact that it's impressive to win multiple medals, but when you just have the single event that you can meddle in to get gold from Beijing onwards pretty much, it's just huge, really.
BEN WATERWORTH: Yeah, I mean, in a sport like wrestling as well, like, I mean, it's not boxing where you turn pro. I mean, I know Kurt Angle did, but I mean, that's a different thing in wrestling when you go pro. It's like, I mean, no offence, don't come and attack me, wrestlers, but it's not a real sport. I'm a wrestling fan. Like, I grew up loving wrestling, so don't get me wrong. Like, I'm not trying to bag it out, but I think deep down, people will know what I'm trying to say. But yeah, like, that is a really fascinating thing. And he's also 38, too. Like, I mean, you know, he's sort of, he's going up there with that. One thing I do want to mention, like, Andrew Hoy, and Colin, this isn't just me pulling out the Australian card. 62 years of age to come back after not making it to Rio. This guy started in 84, and he adds a silver and a bronze. And when they interview him afterwards, and they're basically like, oh, we'll be back in Paris with you. And he's like, why Paris? Let's keep going. I'll be back in Brisbane in 2032. Like, I don't doubt him. 73 years of age in Brisbane. Why not? Yeah, like, you got to give that to 62. You talk about all these 12-year-olds and 13-year-olds winning freaking Olympic medals. I mean, let's go to the other spectrum. 62 years old. OK, it's not the most athletic of sports. But I mean, I'm sure you get a sore bum from riding that horse all the time. So, yeah, but basically our final two came down to two athletes from the same sport in the world of athletics. And one I mentioned I will bring up that I feel we did not talk about her at all. And I feel ashamed that we didn't. And I wanted to bring her up early because of the heats where she fell over on the last lap and was dead last and basically went from dead last. Did she win the heat or second in the heat? And then went on to what get bronze in that event. But then she won gold in the 10,000 and the 5,000. And I think she became the first ever athlete to win it in both long distance and middle distance at the same time. Incredible. We're talking about Safan Hassan, who again, I don't think we mentioned at all, Jarrod, outside of me reading the medal winners, which I feel ashamed. I mean, this is an amazing story. I mean, to like 10,000 and 5,000 metre gold medal, sure. But then going on to win the 5,000, I mean, this would be like, you know, Kieran Perkins basically going on to win, you know, a medal in the 50 metres, you know, after winning 1,500 metres. You know, Michael Phelps never did the 1,500, did he? You know, Katie Ledecky, I guess you could argue, kind of did. So, you know, she's up there. But I mean, to run a 10,000 metres, get a gold and still be able to get a bronze in the 1,500 metres, incredible. So she's, I guess, kind of our runner up for athlete of the games. But I mean, thoughts on Safan?
JARROD LOOBEEK: Yeah, I think it's just a huge achievement. I almost feel like she got overshadowed because Australia did fairly well in the 1,500, that that kind of pulled focus. But I remember watching the heat because one of the Aussies was in it. And the fact that she got tripped over so kind of, I feel I was like about middle of the race as well. And then back of the pack for her to just come streaming through it. And this is from, as we say, a middle distance to long distance runner, to have that speed, that sprint, to go past all the field and win that heat was just incredible. And the fact that nobody has ever done medaled in all three events before just goes to show how grueling it is and the difference between those distances. It almost feels like five to ten. It's doubled, but that's not huge. But then to put back that up with the 1500 as well, which is, if anything, that I suppose, yeah, middle distance, more of a sprint in certain stages of it. The fact that she was able to meddle in that as well was just, it's massive. And it's one of those things where you question whether it will be done again. And if it is done again, it might maybe buy Saffan at Paris.
BEN WATERWORTH: I remember they talked up a lot back in Atlanta and Sydney with Michael Johnson because it was sort of rare for somebody to go the 200, 400, because they'd generally do the 100, 200. And that kind of led a lot of the debate around the world's fastest man debacle that we had between Donovan Bailey and Michael Johnson. So again, not quite the same because obviously there's a bit of discrepancy between a 10K and a one and a half K. But I mean, other things here that is great stats. So she's the first athlete to ever meddle in the 1500, 5000 and 10,000 metres at one Olympics. She is the first Dutch woman with an Olympic athletics medal in long distance. And she is the first non-Kenyan or Ethiopian to win the 5000 metres since Gabriella Szabo back in Sydney. So it just goes to show you the dominance kind of of those African nations when it comes to those. But the one that... So Savannah basically came up in all of our votes. And then the other one that came up in all of our votes is somebody who, again, we did talk about. She nearly got athlete of the day on one of the days, but I can't remember who got it over that day. Probably one of the days we shut down Colin. But, I mean, coming into this, the talking point for this event was Shelly Anne Fraser Price, the woman with all the names. She was the one who was getting all the attention. But Elaine Thompson-Harrar kind of just slipped under the wayside. She won the 100 metres in an Olympic record. She broke Flo Joe's record, backed it up for the 200, became the first woman to ever do the double-double twice, the double twice, and then backed it up by winning a gold in the 4x1. So she got the silver in the 4x1 back in Rio, but now five gold and a silver, and kind of, as Colin pointed out, you know, same bolt gets lauded with all this praise for him winning the triple-triple, although one of those has obviously been taken away from him because one of his teammates tested positive in one of the Olympics he was in. So he's got the eight. But yeah, I mean, I think kind of, you know, it's something that was constantly talked about as being so unique that, you know, same bolt did it. But I mean, yeah, it's on the same league of that. So, I mean, to do the double double now and then kind of back it up, I mean, just incredible. And again, I want to go to Jamaica and find out what's in the world. Why are they so fast? Like, seriously, this is just insane. I mean, I want to see a Jamaican Formula One driver by the end of this decade, because seriously, if they're that fast on land, put them in a Formula One car, that'd be ridiculous. But yeah, I mean, look, sadly, they didn't get one of the athletes of the day. I think it's a worthy recipient of the athlete of the Games. You know, an amazing achievement. And I guess the argument, I'll go back to Emma McKeehan, we're on paper, but like, going back to your point, like swimming is easy to come away with that many medals because you can, you know, do that many events. Gymnastics, you would say, is a similar thing. Athletics, yeah, you sort of can, but it kind of comes from a place where, you know, realistically, Elaine might win four, because say, like, they win the medley relay. Long gone are the days where these 100-metre runners are doing the long jump as well and the triple jump. It's rare to see that happen now. I think we had that American who was doing the long jump and the high jump from memory. But yeah, I mean, great achievement by Elaine. Three gold medals. Now she has five gold and one silver overall, and she's won only like 27, 28, 29. So, I mean, she's still got only three years to Paris. So, I mean, she could add to that. Come Paris and join Bolt on eight gold.
JARROD LOOBEEK: Yeah, super impressive. Like you say, the Jamaicans are just, there's something in the water. They're just so fast. I think that what adds to this story too is definitely the frostiness between Elaine and Shelley, which was great because, I mean, who doesn't love like a little bit of like drama and controversy? And it was a good difference from the women's skateboarding to see this competitive rivalry should be. But yeah, the little, the tap on the back at the end of the 100 metres, the Shelley and the third place are like taking all kind of their photos separately. Like it was just, it was a fun story. And for her to win gold, Elaine to win gold in all three, it's just, it's huge. Especially because I feel like the 100, 200, sure, like it's an individual event, but the relay, so much can happen. We saw like in the men's and the women's, like a couple of upsets in the heats and stuff. So much could potentially go wrong here. So to get the three is just, is really impressive.
BEN WATERWORTH: Yeah, I completely agree. I'll add Colin mentioned that similar to what I, I mean, I guess I shouldn't say similar to what I was saying, because obviously I was going off this after reading what Colin said. So he added, I think of Bolt did this and became the biggest star in the history of the Olympics, and she's done it as well, and that's huge. She did it when nobody was even talking about her anymore and assumed she was washed up. So there you go. Maybe it's the hair. Maybe you just need to have naturally coloured hair, essentially. Before we kind of close things out and look ahead to some of the stuff we got going on here, I got some facts and figures about these Olympics, which I find quite interesting. Obviously, we know the most decorated medallist was Emma McKeon. Caleb Dressel, the most gold medallist. We should mention Emma McKeon, she won four gold. So, I mean, you know, while she won seven, four of them were gold. 13 years and 330 days, Momiji Nishiya, the women's street skateboarding gold medallist, was the youngest, which she is not the youngest in history. That goes to Marjorie Gestring, who won gold at 13 years and 267 days, American diver in Berlin. So there you go. The oldest gold medallist was German equestrian writer Dorothy Schneider. 52 years of age. And she also had another teammate, Isabel Wirth, who was also 52 years of age. So there you go. We had the diving 10-metre platform. I think the combined age of the gold and silver medallist was 29, which I think was still younger than Melissa Wu and bronze. But then you've got combined age, at least two of those members on that team of 104. So again, still hope for us as Olympians, Jarrod. Obviously, Andrew Hoy was the oldest Olympic medallist, and the youngest Olympic medallist was Kokona Hiraki, 12 years old, and the women's 12 years old winning Olympic medals. That's just sad. Not sad, it's great. Let's be honest. It's just, it makes me feel sad. I'm jealous, all right? According to organisers, there were 42 and a half thousand COVID tests done during the Olympics with a positivity rate of 0.08%, and 571,000 screening tests with a positivity rate of 0.02%. So that's exciting. 250 million videos were sent in on the cheer wall from around the world. And according to the IOC, social media posts generated more than 4.7 billion engagements during the Olympics. Zero positive cases were discovered of doping during the Olympics, so therefore, no athletes have been disqualified yet. Hello, Russia. However, Georgia's national shot put record holder Benik Abramyan misses qualifying event on Tuesday after being provisionally suspended for competition due to a positive result in an out of competition test on July 31st, and Brazilian Olympic volleyball player Tanada Kasekta was sent home before the final clash due to a doping case before the Olympics. Can I just point out that didn't we have curlers sent home from Pyeongchang for drugs? And yet, this game's, summer has like what, double, triple the amount of athletes? None? Like, curlers got sent home. And yet, this is an Olympics with weightlifters and cyclists and all the sports and all the drug cheats. Hello to all our fans of all those sports listening. Curlers got sent home. Seriously. Now, I want to look ahead to Beijing very shortly, because that's obviously our next limit. We might as well talk about Paris quickly. I guess they're only three years away, Jarrod. Did you know that? But I'm very keen to try and go. I say this all the time, and I'd love to work there. I mean, I'm never going to compete. Until they bring podcasting in in Brisbane, 2032. If I get a job at the organising committee, I'll be sure to include it. But I mean, I got to say, I got pumped a bit last night for Paris. Like, I think it's kind of, it's unique that they're going to become the second city to host the third Olympics, but they haven't hosted it in a hundred years. And I mean, Alba Vil, we were both, well, I think, were you alive in 1992? Or was that before you were? You were, okay. Sorry, I always forget how old you are. You look young, Jarrod. But I mean, I vaguely remember Barcelona, but I do not remember a thing about Alba Vil. So I've never witnessed a French Olympics. And yeah, I've been negative on the French before. I had my reasons. I'm salty. I'm that guy. But now I'm over that. So I'm back to being pro French. So I'm actually looking for one of my, as a kid, one of my favourite events growing up that I loved and got obsessed with and got weirdly into France afterwards was France 98, the FIFA World Cup. It was the first full World Cup I ever watched. And after Germany got eliminated, I was on the French train. I loved watching that final, Zidane scoring the goals, Petit getting the third. I loved it. And just I got, there was this documentary that SBS showed a year later on it. And they played all this French music and showed all the celebrations in Paris. And I'm like, fuck yeah, go France. So if I can somehow manage to get to Paris in 2024, I will be there. But I'm looking forward to it. And I'm kind of excited that it's only three years away because, well, it doesn't really feel like it was five years this time around because a lot of stuff has happened in that five years. But it's kind of interesting to think we're literally only three years away. So I say bring on Paris. Jarrod, are we excited for Paris?
JARROD LOOBEEK: No, 100%. I think to, it's just going to, more than any other Olympics, it's going to feel so different from the previous one. You would hope and think. The fact that in 2024, presumably, we're going to have some form of spectators there. There'll be crowds. It'll be like the medal presentations will be different. The opening ceremony will be different. So I just think even from that point of view, while Tokyo has been amazing, particularly like as an escape from COVID, the fact that we could have a COVID-free Olympics in 2024 is something to really look forward to. And like you say, it's just weird to think that they haven't, like France hasn't hosted a Summer Olympics in 100 years. It's just, it's odd. You would think that they would have had it somewhere in between. So the fact that it's going back there, I think they're going to throw everything at it. There'll be no money wasted as far as I can see.
BEN WATERWORTH: And yeah, it's kind of interesting. And this is no disrespect to our last host cities, but I mean, I remember when Sydney finished, you're kind of like, oh, Athens, cool. And then like Beijing, you're like, oh yeah, Beijing, cool. London, I remember, I was a bit salty at London for a while because I was so pro New York winning 2012. And I remember when London won, I was so shitty. And then you kind of just, oh, London, they've got it all the time. And I mean, let's be honest, London was a great Olympics. Like it's one of my favourite Olympics. Rio was just, it was exciting that it was in South America for the first time, but you're kind of like, okay, cool. And Tokyo was kind of like, okay, cool, you know, Tokyo. I think the next three Olympics cities now, summer Olympics, like are genuinely so exciting. Like Paris, I'm over my Paris hate. Let's bring on Paris. LA, like don't even get me started on how excited I am for LA. It's a city now that I've been to multiple times. You know, it's so weird to think that America has not hosted an Olympic Games at that point in 26 years, including, that's including Salt Lake. And to me, growing up, America basically got an Olympics every 10 years. So this is odd that they haven't hosted. And then obviously a certain little Olympics in 2032, which is, you know, very exciting for us as Australians. So yeah, that's exciting. So bring it on, I say. But bring it on, I say, for 179 days away, Jarrod Lubik, the real Olympics are on. Don't even get me started on how excited I am for the fact that the Winter Games are less than six months away. My favourite Olympics. I love the Winter Olympics. And I just feel like yesterday we were talking about Pyeongchang. Like, it's just, it's ridiculous. I don't even believe that this is another Winter Olympics about to come up. But I mean, how are you feeling about the Winter? I don't know if I've ever really got your thoughts on whether or not you like the Winter or Summer better. Maybe you have, and I just don't listen to you. I don't know.
JARROD LOOBEEK: I feel like I don't have a preference between the two. Like, I probably change my mind on the daily. But I think the thing that I'm looking forward to and love about the Winter Olympics is that every Australian medallist gets a prize.
BEN WATERWORTH: Yeah.
JARROD LOOBEEK: Even if there's events where we were, like, world champion or we're expected to medal in, just the nature of those sports in general is a lot more kind of unpredictable with a lot more of, like, the extreme sports and anything really being able to happen on the day, like, typified by Stephen Bradbury. But yes, I'm just looking forward to that excitement of, oh, we could get a medal here. And the different, I suppose, perspective of, I mean, the media, they'll still probably hype stuff up, but the different perspective of, oh, Australia was in this event, we finished seventh. Like, that's amazing. Rather than the summer of being tainted of, Australia was in this event, we finished seventh, oh, we didn't get a medal.
BEN WATERWORTH: And that's, like, I will say that the negative about the Winter Olympics from an Australian perspective is that because there's so few medal chances, I feel they get hyped more because it's kind of like they're hanging on to hope, like, a preview of the Summer Olympics is like, we're gonna win here, we're gonna win here, whereas in Winter, it's like, we've got two athletes. So let's, like, all jokes aside about, not even jokes, I shouldn't say it that way, I mean, Chumpy Pullen, back in Sochi, probably the most saturated I have ever seen an athlete in summer or winter games buying, and that was Channel 10, that wasn't even Channel 7, that was Channel 10. It got to a point where I was so sick of hearing the word Chumpy in those Olympics, and I'm like, oh my god, stop talking about Chumpy. And now, I mean, god, like, may he rest in peace, still very sad that, I feel terrible I made a joke about him dying the other, not good. But yeah, I'm with you though, like, the positive thing, the great thing, like, I mean, you know, we generally send, like, 40, 50 athletes. It's kind of almost like you know these people, because you get to, they, and like, I feel happy for these athletes, because this is where they get notoriety, they get mentioned. Like, I mean, you talk about these swimmers and household names and things like that, that we have in this country for the summer games. And, you know, admittedly, in six or 12 months, still only a few of these summer athletes, no one's going to remember what's his face, I don't even remember his name, you know what I mean? Like, in six to 12 months. Whereas, like, the winter, like, literally, no one talks about these people in Australia until the winter games on. And maybe even then, it's like, oh, guess what? The winter games, oh, Scotty James, you remember him? You know, Jarrod Hughes, remember him? You know, that sort of stuff. Like, I bagged out that little section last night before the opening, the closing ceremony, we had the Zoom call last night with all the athletes. But I was glad that they got Brit Cox on there, you know, because Brit Cox should be a household name in this country with the success she's had, you know, people like that. There are so many other winter athletes that should, like, deserve the credit they get every four years, but should get more for the success they're having on the world stage. And again, it's a case of going into Beijing. We have so many world champions, so many World Cup winners, so many people. And I then feel sorry for them that they get so much pressure put on to them. It reminds me a lot, again, Formula One references of when Mark Webber and Daniel Ricciardo come to Melbourne. They both said, like, they love racing in Australia. Of course, they love racing at home, but they also hate it because they say that there's no other country in the world that puts as much pressure on their drivers coming to Melbourne and Albert Park. And like Mark Webber was renowned for choking all the time in Melbourne. He never did well. And Daniel Ricciardo finished second once, but then got disqualified for something out of his control. And you can just tell that these drivers outside of Australia are different. So, yeah, I feel bad for them that they get all this lumped on them. But I am looking forward. And from a Canadian perspective, I mean, this is what I think sold me as a kid loving the country of Canada because I love seeing that. And I honestly probably get more excited for Canada winning gold medals at these Olympics than I do for Australia winning gold at the Summer Olympics. As weird as that says, I love it. And ice hockey, what can you say? I mean, there's not a bad sport at the Winter Olympics. There's no single sport that you can say is shit at the Winter Olympics.
JARROD LOOBEEK: It's true. And I think as well having not only having less sports, but having less Australians competing in sports, you get to see, you get to see more because they're not playing the same replay over and over again.
BEN WATERWORTH: Well.
JARROD LOOBEEK: I mean, they do, but they're few and far between. So it's not every day is like another replay. We just get the same replay for the whole Olympics instead of a new one every couple of days. But yeah, because there's not Aussies in every sport, like they'll play the whole event. You don't have to chop and change between things. They'll just sit on an event and you can watch it. Instead of, oh, the Australian's gone. They haven't done well. Okay, we're done with that event. We're not going to show any more of it.
BEN WATERWORTH: Yeah, and as much as we bag out Channel 7, I feel they do better in the winter games, because even outside of the let's play, the bronze from Scotty James 50 more times. Oh, he's Sean White. Remember how amazing he is? We get it. It still happens. But I feel that that's when the seven mate comes into play, because you're going to be able to see he's curling. He's Nordic combined. Remember you and I how weirdly obsessed we got up saying, watching ski jumping till like two in the morning? I remember us having that conversation. Like, we can't stop watching it. The ski jumping's still on. Like, it's just incredible. Um, yeah, no, I just, I'm so excited. I'm literally smiling right now to think that, you know, because I'm usually so sad after an Olympics. I used to say it's SALS, Severe Olympic Withdrawal Syndrome. And like, I got teary during the closing ceremony, I admit, because it was terrible, but also because like the Olympics are over. You're sad. But then there's that part of you, you're like, fuck, the Winter Olympics are now only like 179 days away. I keep looking at my counter. So it's that close. And then let's also put this in perspective, Jarrod. Not quite the same as an Olympics. The Commonwealth Games are less than a year away. Like, that's crazy. Like, not as close to the winter as they were for the Gold Coast and Pyeongchang, but I think it's what? July, they start in Birmingham. So I always love the Winter Olympic calendar year because you have the three big ones. You have the Winter Olympics, you have the Commonwealth Games, and you have the World Cup. And next year is like usually the Commonwealth Games because the Commonwealth Games is always sporadic, right? But they're generally around the World Cup. But next year is unique because we've got bookends because like the Winter Olympics in February, the Commonwealth Games in July, and the World Cup is not until like November because of the whole heat situation in Qatar. So I know you're not a big soccer guy, but I mean, I would like to, and I'm going to propose this right now. As an Olympics podcast, we do the Olympics and Commonwealth Games. I propose that we do a World Cup episode next year. I'm going to see if I can get Colin to watch some games, because I doubt Canada will make it. But what do you think about that? Would you be on board for doing a, maybe a couple, we can do a group stage, and then we can do a finals, as we did on Survivor Oz, why not on Off The Podium?
JARROD LOOBEEK: Yeah, I think so. I think the other thing as well, like to look forward to is, and I feel like more than usual, I'm looking forward to is the Paralympics in a couple of weeks.
BEN WATERWORTH: Oh, absolutely.
JARROD LOOBEEK: I mean, it's probably because of being in lockdown at the moment. Like the Olympics has been amazing. It's like, oh, like, we're in lockdown, what do we do? Like the Olympics are on, I'd be watching anyway, but just lockdown just adds to the want of something to do and watch. So the fact that the Paralympics are coming up so soon, I think it's just going to be ideal this time around, and hopefully they'll be getting some, I feel like they might be getting a little bit more coverage than usual given the current situation.
BEN WATERWORTH: I think Colin and I loosely agreed last night that we should come together and do a Paralympics episode, maybe one or two, but I'm with you. And this is the thing, moving forward, and I'll talk about what we've got coming up in just a second, but I think it's great. We should do a Paralympics one. I also would seriously like to, when the Youth Olympics are on, because I watch the Youth Olympics when they're online. Not for those reasons, Colin, if you're listening, because they're still in the Olympics. They're still an officially Olympic sanctioned event. So plenty of stuff coming. But on that page, we're obviously going to be in the process now where we're going to reach out to some of these athletes we've seen. Our goal is to hopefully maybe have an interview for you every week in the lead up to the Winter Games. And that's not necessarily just going to be winter athletes. We hope to get some Tokyo people on as well. So we're sort of in the planning process. But I can tell you right now, we've got five in the bank, five that we've recorded during the last couple of weeks already that were banked. And these are all winter athletes that four of them should be competing. Sorry, three of them should be competing in Beijing, and two of them are retired from their respective sports. But we're obviously kind of going on that notion where we're trying to tick off all the sports as well. So we're going to be airing these weekly, maybe more when we get more. But so next week, I'll say our first interview will be with an Australian Luge competitor. We've never had somebody from Luge on before, Hannah Campbell Pegg. Now, she competed back in Vancouver, and was it Turin or Sochi? I think it might have been Sochi. Good to see that I know my... I did this interview. This is actually a lot longer than the last two weeks. But it's a great interview, learning a lot about Luge. And I kind of alluded to last night on the episode, we were talking a bit about the Royal NHG style of commentary. And it's fascinating with Hannah because she actually talks about how Luge kind of suffered because of Royal NHG. That people... And I think we've talked about this on this show that we kind of assume it's a sport. You just... You push, you lay down, you do nothing. That's it. It's the do nothing sport. It's fascinating the amount of stuff you've got to do on that damn sled on the way down. It's so much more than that. So we'll have her coming up. A possible competitor for Beijing, and one of the best interviews we have ever had on this show. I'm saying this right now. I'm calling this right now before anyone's even heard of it. Ashley Werner, who is a bobsledder. Now, obviously, we were lucky enough to talk to Bree a couple of months ago back in relation to Monobob. But Ashley talks a little bit more about sort of the women's team. Ashley was Bree's teammate, the ones that got pulled from Pyeongchang at the last minute. Ashley is amazing. She is such a hoot. It is such a fun interview. Everyone will love this chat, so stay tuned for that. Another athlete, big name, Danielle Scott, who we've tried to get on the show multiple times before. Big name in aerial skiing in this country. She's finished on the podium at World Cups and World Championships. A genuine medal contender. Not now, after she's appeared on this show. Another great interview by Danielle, so you'll hear that one as well. Our first biathlete in terms of the sport of biathlon. I don't know if she's bisexual, but if she is, good for her. Sarah Snosal is a New Zealand biathlete, kind of. She's Canadian, but she's also New Zealand. She's kind of like the Dale Begg Smith of New Zealand biathlon. She is the only ever competitor in the sport of biathlon from New Zealand. She competed back in Vancouver. Fascinating chat. She's got a lot to say, and it's interesting to kind of hear a story about how she ended up competing for New Zealand. And the really interesting story that I find with that is how she didn't make the team for Sochi. I don't want to spoil it, but it's New Zealand's fault. It's got nothing to do with her ability. It was New Zealand's fault. And then the other one, a genuine prospect for Beijing in the sport of curling, Australia's potential first ever representative in the sport of curling, Tali Gill and Dean Hewitt. Now these two actually finished fourth at the World Championships in 2019. If people weren't aware, Australians had a team in curling that finished fourth at a World Championships of curling. They've got a qualification event in December, and I don't hope, I hope I haven't jinxed them by them appearing on this show, but it's a great chat to learn about how two Aussies get involved in the sport of curling and what it will mean to them should they become the first curlers from Australia to ever represent their country in the Olympics. So five that we've got already in the bank that have been recorded. So stay tuned for them in a few weeks, and then we'll have more there. Jarrod, do you have any requests for guests? Request for guests, summer, winter, horses, moths, treadmill people?
JARROD LOOBEEK: I mean, always keen to hear more about the moguls from the mogul athletes.
BEN WATERWORTH: Yes, just so you can come on and go, mogul, mogul, mogul, mogul, mogul, mogul, mogul. We'll get all the Canadians on this time so they don't win medals, and we won't get Brit Cox on and all that. So final thought, I forgot to mention this the other night. I'm just going to hold this up for Jarrod because he can't see it, but let's hold this up. Our Aussie Heroes album. Have you been collecting these? Still, Jarrod or?
JARROD LOOBEEK: I have been. I haven't opened them yet, though. I've got a bunch there waiting.
BEN WATERWORTH: Now, I went to my local worst the other night, and I had to get some cash out, and I kind of smooth talked the cashier into keeping it, because he's like, yeah, we're not meant to have a cash out, but okay. And he's like, actually, we've got to get rid of them. He gave me a thick handful of these. I'm guessing it was like 20 there, right? I'm going to hold this up again. Look who's still blank. Chloe's still missing a head. Can I just say, in the 20 odd stickers I got, every single one I had, there was not a single one that I didn't need, that I needed. So you know what I did? I went onto eBay last night, and I bought the remaining ones I need, and I bought an extra Chloe. So I bought two Chloe's. No one's taken it away from me.
JARROD LOOBEEK: So you're the kid from the ad?
BEN WATERWORTH: Yes.
JARROD LOOBEEK: Is Jeff Gilmore's from Michael Cleum?
BEN WATERWORTH: But the thing is, I haven't been living in this country for a while, and I know they have all those weird fruit ones, and that they had the trading days, right? Where's been the Aussie heroes trading now? I'd be the oldest one there, going down and trading them around. I remember I did the Coles one year ago, and they had little AFL, little Lego men in the albums, getting all excited for those. But I'm expecting the worse. I want the winter one. Don't be hypocritical. I want my winter album. I want a Dale Begsmith sticker, and I want five of them. So maybe we need to bombard Woolworths with the winter Aussie heroes. What do you reckon?
JARROD LOOBEEK: I think it's only fair. I think, if anything, that's kind of more exciting because surely they're a little bit more exclusive, whether you make it or not.
BEN WATERWORTH: I'm thinking Jeff Henke, one of our, you know, obviously they've named the centre after him up there in Brisbane. I want Mazzali Stegel. I mean, Mazzali Stegel is a household name in this country now that she's in politics. No one gave a shit about it when she won a bronze medal at the Olympics as when she got elected because she's independent. I mean, I'm going to say, we made jinx athletes on this show by not winning medals, but they get elected to parliament. So there you go. That's what... If our curlers don't make the Olympics, they can go on to parliament. Final medal tally, by the way, for Off The Podium after these Olympic Games. We got zero gold, two silver, three bronze for a total of five, which brings our grand total up to zero gold, two silver, and four bronze. So we are the winter Olympic Australian team, basically, on Off The Podium. Any hopes, do you think, that we can get a gold finally?
JARROD LOOBEEK: Yeah, I reckon it's about time that we reverse the curse.
BEN WATERWORTH: Yeah, get some real guests on.
JARROD LOOBEEK: Speaking of predictions, predictions, pre-game predictions.
BEN WATERWORTH: Wow, Jarrod, I've got this on my notes, literally in front of me, to do this, and you deserve a gold medal. Look at you, you are the best host of Off The Podium. Colin, the worst, what a little baby. Yeah, I've highlighted, I've given us points. So, you know, in Eurovision, download now, hopefully returning in 2022, how I would give us a point on who gets the closest, and then you would get like two points if you get it accurate. I actually realise I haven't given people two points if they've been accurate or not, so maybe I need to quickly go over this. But, okay, based on the one point scenario, all right, for gold for Australia, Colin said seven, well off. Bad Colin, bad, bad Colin. Jarrod, do you remember what you said?
JARROD LOOBEEK: No, but I imagine maybe too high.
BEN WATERWORTH: You said 11. It's not bad. You did all right. I, however, get the point because I said 13. None of us thought we would get 17. So there you go. Point to Ben. All right, for the silvers, Colin said 7. He got that dead on point. So he actually gets two points for that. I need to add another point to his tally. So well done there, Colin. Appurate. Do you remember what you said, Jarrod?
JARROD LOOBEEK: Probably like 20 something.
BEN WATERWORTH: You said 20. So there you go. I said 15. So not even close. And for the bronze, Colin said 15. Do you remember what you said?
JARROD LOOBEEK: Probably went higher again.
BEN WATERWORTH: Australia won 22 bronze medals in Tokyo. You said 23. Oh, so close. But you get the point for that one. I said 26. Now, Colin said 29 for the total. And obviously you and I both went for 54. So we both get that. We actually, in all seriousness, I remember that conversation a week ago going, we're going nowhere near it. We're only eight off it. So not too bad. All right, now you remember your Canada count, don't you?
JARROD LOOBEEK: I do, fondly.
BEN WATERWORTH: Now, and refresh our memories. What was your Canada count?
JARROD LOOBEEK: Seven gold, seven silver, seven bronze.
BEN WATERWORTH: And given that Canada went seven gold, six silver, 11 bronze, you get the two points for the gold. I said they would win three. I went for their standard Canadian three. Colin went for five. So you get the two points for there. Now, in usual times, I would give you the point for the seven from the 777, but Colin Hilding got exactly correct. He said six silvers, so he gets the double point there. I got 11, so nowhere close. Usually, I'm the one who wins at Eurovision. I sucked at this one. For the bronzes, now to clarify, Canada got 11 bronzes. I said 15. Jarrod said seven, obviously. And Colin went for 12. He was so close again to getting it there accurately, which means Colin gets a point. My total count was 29. Jarrod's was 21. Colin's 23. Colin Hilding won the Off The Podium medal count. He cried his way to the victory. So what does he win for that? Do you reckon?
JARROD LOOBEEK: Just the pride that comes with it, you know? Same as the Olympic skateboarding, right? You don't get anything. It's just the pride of competing.
BEN WATERWORTH: I was going to say free choice for athlete of the day on day four of Beijing. No, I listened to Jarrod because he was the best host during these games. Thank you to everyone who tuned in during our coverage. Obviously, we've been here every single day doing this for the last, well, I guess, 18 days, really. We had the Brisbane one and then the preview. No, yeah, something like that. 19 episodes basically over the last three weeks, so we've been very, very busy. Jarrod, for you, I think you were on every episode about what, like three? So you did very well. How are you tracking off the last few weeks? Are you ready for a few nights off this week to maybe get back to normality?
JARROD LOOBEEK: Yeah, I think the, as much as I'm upset the Olympics are over, I think that kind of break between the Olympics and the Paralympics is going to do me good so I can recharge and get ready for those long nights again.
BEN WATERWORTH: I feel the Paralympics are on closer. They're usually about a month or so. Like, this is only about two or three weeks. I don't, are they generally that close? I feel there's usually a bigger gap in between them.
JARROD LOOBEEK: Yeah, I feel like you're right, because it almost feels like normally you almost forget that, oh, that's right, now we've got the Paralympics, whereas this, it's such a short turnaround that, I mean, it's memorable, it's being talked about, it's already being advertised. But I feel normally it's like, I think sometimes too they've been carried on different channels, which probably adds to that. They end and they're not advertised as a different channel, but it definitely feels like it's sooner than normal.
BEN WATERWORTH: It's usually, I mean, I remember back when the ABC generally always had, and the ABC did actually quite a good coverage of it. I think it was 2016, the first time Seven had them, and I feel they don't show them as much. ABC, I swear, used to show them all the time. Whereas, yeah, but we mentioned it slightly last night. The Paralympics are incredible. Just, you know, to see what these people can do, we're just absolutely insane. So, yeah, we're looking forward to watching those. But to everyone who's tuned in over the last few weeks, we thank you from the bottom of our heart. It's been a lot of fun bringing all the coverage, all our new social media followers, all our famous Olympians who have liked us. You know, we like you too. And it's been a lot of fun. So stay tuned, we've still got stuff coming, as we said in the next few weeks, interviews galore, a couple of other bonus episodes here and there, and then bring on Beijing! Bring it on! I say, bring it on. Jarrod, pleasure, thank you for joining me again.
JARROD LOOBEEK: Yeah, it's been great.
BEN WATERWORTH: And until next time, it's Sayonara from Tokyo, and we'll speak to you next time.
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