Tom O'Halloran Interview
We're back for another great interview as today we speak with a history making athlete who is the first Australian male athlete to be selected for an Olympics in the sport of sports climbing, Tom O'Halloran! We learn from Tom just how he got into the sport and why he has always had a dream to represent Australia at the Olympic Games. We also learn about the unique year he had in 2020 to even get to Tokyo, why making the Olympics wasn't quite what he expected it to be with the events that followed and just why a story from his childhood may be brought up on Channel Seven during the Olympics should they listen to this interview! It's one insightful and fun chat 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 another exciting interview. We are so pumped to be able to bring you a series of interviews in the coming weeks. We did this a bit last year and sort of slowed down a little bit, but now we're back to bring you a series of chats with some athletes, both former and current Olympians. Many of these Olympians are in the process right now of getting ready for both Tokyo and Beijing because believe it or not, we are within 12 months of both the next summer and winter games. Obviously with all of COVID, we're kind of in this unique situation where we've got two Olympics essentially in the space of six months. Kind of like the good old days back when both winter and summer games used to be in the same year. So plenty of exciting interviews and other episodes to come your way in the coming weeks. We're kicking things off today with a Tokyo 2020 Olympian, Tom O'Halloran, who has created history as the first ever Australian male selected to represent Australia at an Olympic Games in the sport of sports climbing. Now, last year, we spoke with Ella Easton, of course, who was striving to get to the Olympic Games. Now, since we spoke to Ella, the trials have happened. And unfortunately for Ella, she didn't quite make Tokyo, but Tom did. Tom has his spot confirmed and will be representing Australia at the Olympic Games in a few month time. And this is a fantastic chat with Tom, learning a little bit about how he got into the sport, the process of qualifying for the Games, going over the controversial nature of the Olympic tournament and why it's a little bit different to what they're quite used to in the sport of sports climbing, and also a lot more stuff here, which will really get you to know Tom. There's one particular story in this interview, which I know that come the Olympic Games, we will not forget this. And when we are watching Tom compete, we will be bringing this up. It's a fantastic chat. You're gonna learn a lot about Tom right now, and we're gonna hear it right now. Here is our chat with Tokyo 2020 Olympian in the sport of sports climbing, Tom O'Halloran.
BEN WATERWORTH: It's a massive pleasure to be able to welcome our next guest here to Off The Podium, a history-making guest. Our next guest is the very first Australian male to be selected to compete in the sport of sports climbing at the Olympic Games. He achieved that feat by taking out the Oceanic Championships last December, therefore securing the quota for men's participants at the Tokyo Olympics. He has climbed all around the world, he has been on Australian Ninja Warrior, and he's done it all when it comes to climbing, and I'm so excited to learn a little bit more about his career, his journey, to get to the Olympics and everything else in between. Tom O'Halloran joins me right now. Tom, welcome to Off The Podium. It's a pleasure to have you here on the show today.
TOM O'HALLORAN: Hey Ben, how's it going? Thanks for having me on.
BEN WATERWORTH: It's a pleasure. I am so excited. I was mentioning to you off air, we spoke with Ella Easton last year, and didn't really know a whole lot about the sport, so you gave us a great insight. And now to talk to you, obviously now confirmed for the Olympics, which I mean, do you get sick of hearing that Tom, Olympian Tom O'Halloran? Is that something you've gotten sick of hearing in the last couple of months?
TOM O'HALLORAN: No, it's probably still just hasn't quite sunk in yet. I think that's the thing. So maybe, yeah, saying it more and more, maybe one day it'll be, maybe by the end of the interview, if you keep saying it.
BEN WATERWORTH: All right, we'll count how many times I can say it basically, Olympian Tom O'Halloran. Because it must be unique, I read in an interview that you sort of, I think it was just after you'd won the championship and gotten that quota that when you started this sport, it of course wasn't an Olympic sport. And now it is. So it's kind of something that I can imagine when you got into the sport, you never could dream that you would one day be competing for Australia at the Olympics. I mean, was that kind of when you got into the sport, kind of how you fell into it, that was there ever a whisper that this could become an Olympic sport one day? Was it rumoured or was it just back when you started nothing along those lines?
TOM O'HALLORAN: Yeah, look, so I started in 2004 in the new climbing gym had just opened up in Brisbane. And yeah, it was just, I don't know, you just go in there. I didn't really expect anything of it. It was like, you know, a kid going to their first cricket game or first swimming carnival or whatever it was. Like it's just, it's the first time I'd ever experienced that sport. Didn't really know that much about it. And I was just hooked from that point. It just felt like that's what I wanted to do. And like, yeah, I would have been 12 at the time. And year 2000 was, you know, obviously the Sydney Olympic Games. And that was the first time I'd ever seen or heard of the Olympics. And I just remember seeing that opening ceremony and all the things that went along with it and just being like, whoa, I want to be an Olympian one day. And yeah, just was never good enough, I guess, at any particular sport and never felt the drive on any of it. And then climbing just clicked and it happened to not be an Olympic sport. It's like, oh, well, you know, that's just is what it is. And yeah, it was kind of interesting when there was those rumours going around that maybe it could be. And that probably started like late noughties, I guess, but it was all just kind of like rumours. And it wasn't, you're not really sure. Like, you know, I'm 16 or 17 at the time and just going through school and just being a normal kid as well as doing a bit of rock climbing. And it was, yeah, you're not sure what is the truth and what's just like some people talking going, gosh, this would make a good Olympic sport. And yeah, it was pretty surreal. I think 2016, it got announced as, yeah, it's happening.
BEN WATERWORTH: Which, cause I remember when it was announced, it's sort of it, it was what, five sports, basically, with karate, surfing, skateboarding, the return of baseball and softball as well. And I remember when sports climbing was announced, I think we were doing an episode around about the time, cause I remember talking about it on air and we were just baffled. We didn't know what this was. We were like, rock climbing, that's a thing. Like, that's gonna be an Olympic sport. And it was kind of very interesting. And yeah, we spoke with Ella about it. She explained it. You watch it and it kind of just, it blows you away when you see how exciting it is, because with the three different disciplines, speed climbing, I believe you're climbing up that wall in about five seconds, aren't you? I mean, it's barely time to think when you're watching it, let alone kind of digest what you're seeing. I mean, is that a common reaction from people when they've never seen it before, kind of watching and going, wow, what is this?
TOM O'HALLORAN: Yeah, I guess it definitely is. And like the first thing prior to all this Olympic stuff, the first thing that people would say, oh, wow, like you do rock climbing. Is that about just getting to the top the fastest? And so it's like, well, yeah, you've got one third of it sorted now. And then the next question is, is that without ropes? And it's like, well, the bouldering side of things, that's one of the disciplines that is without ropes, but you only go up to about five metres high and there's big squishy mats and yeah, it's, I think it's pretty cool to watch people kind of, to go from me having to explain it all of the time to people of like, you know, this is how it works and breaks down, to people just kind of now having an understanding. And I think like the explosion of the bouldering gyms around most of the capital cities around the country, people are just becoming more understanding of what the sport is and kind of falling in love with it in the same way that I have and, you know, my partner has and everyone else around me.
BEN WATERWORTH: When back in 2016, it was announced that it was officially gonna be an Olympic sport, did you, did that spur you on? Did all of a sudden something just kind of ignite in your mind where that dream as a kid watching the Sydney Olympics was all of a sudden, well, this is a realistic goal now. I could be at the Olympic games one time.
TOM O'HALLORAN: Yeah, it was almost a little bit of both because I had kind of hit that point where, so in 2000 and end of 2011, I moved down to the Blue Mountains from Brisbane. And because I just wanted to climb more and I didn't want to have to wait till the weekend to go climbing, working all week. And I just fell more and more and more in love with outdoor climbing. And that was just like where I felt amazing and awesome. And it was just, yeah, I didn't want to compete anymore. I had done world youth championships and a whole bunch of national comps as a kid. And the competitions were fun, but I've really fell in love with the outdoor climbing. And when it got announced that it was an Olympic sport now, it was hard to wrap your head around because traditionally speed climbing, bouldering and lead climbing had all been separate in the competition side of things. And the climbers that are the world's best in the speed climbing are a very different athlete to like the lead climbers. And those two never really cross. And so there's a big uproar as to, and unfairly speed climbing was seen as kind of the runt of the litter. That was just like the, ugh, that's that one. Yeah, no one really cares about it except for the Russians. And yeah, so there's a big kind of like rocket or hornets nest kind of thing when the combined discipline got announced. And I was initially just like, nah, don't want to touch it. Yeah, I don't want to be a part of it. I don't want to have to do speed climbing. I don't want to have to, you know, do that. But then that little niggle in the back of my mind of like, this is something that you wanted to do as a kid. And, you know, it's a dream. And I'm in a position where it's quite feasible for me to qualify. At that point, I'd climbed a lot of the hardest routes in the country outdoors, and had dabbled here and there with a couple of like state level competitions just because, and done reasonably well at that. So it was sort of, yeah, it was a bit of a process to go through it. And then it was about the beginning of 2019 that I finally committed to like doing it. And so I think 2016, they announced it, 2017, 2018, are kind of like, okay, I'm not sure either way. I'm just gonna get myself back in line with, because the difference between the outdoor climbing and the indoor climbing, like you using your hands to grab onto things and jumping around and stuff, but it's becomes very different and quite specific, the skills that you have to learn. And it's just, you've got to get comfortable with it, basically. I was like, okay, if I'm gonna do it, let's just keep my toes in the water and check out how it's all gonna work.
BEN WATERWORTH: And here we can sit here and call you an Olympian. I'm just gonna say it again to you right now, Tom. Tom O'Halloran, just to confirm that.
TOM O'HALLORAN: Yep, yeah, it's just crazy. There's a whole lot of ups and downs through that whole period and motivation. And then, yeah, throw the Corona curve ball in there for all of us. Yeah, but it's pretty awesome to be sort of at the end of that journey, but the start of this next part.
BEN WATERWORTH: So with the World Championships, sort of this combined format, so basically it all comes down to combining what bouldering, lead, and speed. At a World Championship, are they generally contested separately, and then you also have a combined as well, or are they just purely separate and combined is only something you use at certain competitions?
TOM O'HALLORAN: Yeah, so until 2018, I think, or 2019, they had been completely separate. And at the end of the competition, there would be a couple of people that had competed in all three, and they would just tally their scores together on, you know, a fourth spreadsheet and go, yeah, cool. Like, Sean McCall, you won the combined thing, but no one was ever really seriously competing for it. And it was just sort of like this extra thing. It's like, oh yeah, cool, I'll work it out. And then with the announcement of the Olympic format for climbing, because we only got one set of metal, one set of medals. And so that was where the combined came into it. It's like, well, how do you choose which individual discipline do we do? How about we showcase all three, everyone gets to see it. And then in the future, you're like, hey, imagine if we got speed climbing separate, blah, blah, blah. And so that, I think 2018 in, I can't remember where the world champs were that year, but yeah, I can't remember. Anyway, that was the first time that we'd seen it all. And so you had to compete in all three individual disciplines and then they got them all together, the top 20 athletes, and that moves you into the combined semi-final where you then did all three, one after the other essentially, and then through to finals. And it became really hotly contested because everyone's trying to get the Olympic format preparation in and become familiar with the format. And yeah, it became like a proper thing. And now, you know, with the initial everyone just like, ugh, combined, don't want to touch it. I think it's actually this kind of stroke of genius by our international federation because it really does show who the best overall climber is. And I really respect that as a skill. It's like, who can, it's not a specialist, it's who's the best across all three. And that's really cool. And I think, yeah, we now get to see that. And a lot of people really got on board with that idea. And it's super competitive now.
BEN WATERWORTH: So how does it work in terms of the combined score? Is it an aggregate time, even though you've obviously got different things in each of the formats? I mean, do you get points for crossing a certain time in one discipline and they combine? I mean, how do you tally a score, essentially, so that you can walk away as the gold medallist?
TOM O'HALLORAN: Yeah, so basically it's quite simple. They've just gone, you know, your place in, the order of the event is speed, bouldering, lead. So if you came fifth in the speed climbing, first in the bouldering and tenth in lead, your score will be five, because you came fifth times one, because you came first times 10. So you end up with an aggregate score at the end of that of 50.
BEN WATERWORTH: Okay. And is it high score wins? Not like golf, it's not like, oh, lowest, it is like golf.
TOM O'HALLORAN: Lowest score wins. So, you know, potentially there's someone that goes first, first, first, and you end up with one times one times one. So you end up with one, which is pretty special. And we may see that at the Olympics. There's probably one male climber from Japan. And like, he's, yeah, he's good.
BEN WATERWORTH: Nice. What's his name? What are we, who are we looking out for?
TOM O'HALLORAN: Tomoa Narasaki.
BEN WATERWORTH: Okay. We'll remember that name then when we're watching it too. Now, I believe your specialities at LEAD, am I correct in saying that? That's your preferred, well, your favourite, I guess, speciality of the three?
TOM O'HALLORAN: Yeah, that'd definitely be my favourite one. That's been, yeah, just what I enjoy doing on the weekend outdoors. And yeah, if you give me a free day of rock climbing, it's like, cool, I'm gonna go LEAD climbing. But then it's interesting through this combined format. I think probably my strongest discipline has actually become the speed climbing, which, you know, if you told me that a couple of years ago, I'd shudder and just go, oh, no, don't think so. But based on my time at our Oceania Championships, which was our Olympic qualifying event, I ran quite a quick time comparatively to the rest of the field. So yeah, there's definitely some room there for me to do quite well in that discipline, which is a really great kind of springboard for the rest of the day.
BEN WATERWORTH: And how do you train to climb faster? Is it literally go up a 15-metre wall like 100 times a day and just try and speed? Is it conditioning yourself on the upper body strength? I mean, kind of how do you find that extra time that you want to improve on for your next competition?
TOM O'HALLORAN: Yeah, so there's a real art to it. So basically the speed route is the exact same route everywhere around the world and has been for 10 years. So it's rope learning that as much as you can. And depending on your climbing style and your strengths and height and all that sort of stuff, there's kind of slight variations in sequence up the wall, but it's the same holds. And there is a lot of rope learning on it. But then there's also just that sheer power. Like I would encourage anyone that hasn't seen the, like you just look up men's speed climbing world record, women's speed climbing world record and watch them. It's a 15 metre high wall. It's five degrees over hung. And it looks like they're crawling. Like they're going so incredibly fast. Like it's just like, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom. And yeah, it's just turning up the power in your legs and your arms. So an analogy that I've heard, which I kind of get on board with is your legs are the engine that's pushing you up and your arms are the steering wheel. So that's keeping you on board and changing your direction, but your legs are just driving. So it's getting like big, strong, fast legs. So that kind of training looks probably similar to like a sprinter or something like that for legs. It's like, you know, I'm doing it at the moment where it's, you know, it's box jumps, it's explosive deadlift kind of things, lots of one-legged kind of power and speed work. And then like the upper body stuff is a lot of doing some levers, doing like explosive chin-ups and that sort of thing, just to get really like fired up.
BEN WATERWORTH: You never skipping leg day, you never skipping it.
TOM O'HALLORAN: Not anymore. Yeah, yeah, it sucks. The dweeby little climbing legs, like, cause you need strong enough legs for climbing, but you do not need that. And yeah, here I am doing leg day twice a week. Wow. It's crazy.
BEN WATERWORTH: Wow, which it's just, it must be interesting when you go to the gym and you kind of, you know, training. And I mean, I don't know, depending on which gym you go to, whether you're training along with other athletes and that. But I mean, do you sort of get in conversations? Like, do you maybe have a sprinter at the gym that you're trained to that you can say like, well, I'm doing similar work to you, or get some suggestions maybe to get on that power that you're talking about that you get from the legs that obviously sprinters really need to when they get off the blocks.
TOM O'HALLORAN: Yeah, so I live up in Blackheath, so it's quite a small community, and there's not too much kind of teamwork as such, which is a bit of a bummer. But I've kind of gotten used to just kind of running my own race with it. But I do have a really awesome climbing coach. He's a physio. He's also one of the best climbers in the country and just super, super knowledgeable on all of that training stuff. So he's been really good at showing me the exercises, how to do them properly and really lock it into that. And that's been awesome to not have to worry about that. Because until probably 12 months ago, I was kind of entirely self-coached in a way, like consuming a lot of information on websites and books and podcasts and stuff. But yeah, until then, I hadn't really had external input from someone else. It's like, cool, this is what you should be doing. So that's been really awesome. And I've definitely learned a lot through doing that with him. And it's interesting too, like you said before, getting faster on the speed climbing wall. There's 15 moves, basically, give or take, to get to the top. And if you can make each one of those moves 0.1 of a second quicker, you've shaved off one and a half seconds at the top of the wall. Which is easier said than done. It's like the high jumpers. It's like, just jump one centimeter higher. It's like, you can't. So the men's world record is 5.48 seconds to do 15 metres.
BEN WATERWORTH: Geez, that's crazy.
TOM O'HALLORAN: Insane. And the women's world record is 6.97 or something like that. It's mind blowing how quick they are. And my record is 7.12.
BEN WATERWORTH: Right. So I guess that's, I mean, and you're always working like a clock. I can imagine it's like a sprinter who maybe, you know, you're pushing to break the 10 second barrier. Are you just like drive by pushing like the seven second barrier? That's like your next goal. And then you kind of keep working it down to go over that five point, you know, for the world record.
TOM O'HALLORAN: Yeah, I definitely, before going into the Oceania event, I wanted to get to seven and a half seconds because I was running it at around eight seconds. And it was like, oh, like every now and then, I just like at a training kind of thing, I just dip underneath the seven second, the eight second barrier. It's like, cool, seven and a half seconds, it'd be awesome at Oceania. And then I ran a couple of seven and a half, so like 7.4 and a seven in the final, which was totally awesome. One of the best climbing experiences of my life, myself and the other guy, who was, he was my main rival in my mind for the whole competition and for the two of us to be going head to head. He beat me, he ran a 6.98 or something. So it was just, it was awesome.
BEN WATERWORTH: And I believe you fell in the last leg too, in the lead.
TOM O'HALLORAN: Yeah.
BEN WATERWORTH: Is that true? Sort of what happened there?
TOM O'HALLORAN: Just fell going for the last move. And I, yeah, interesting. Like if people went and had a look at the footage, like you see me, I was at the top. I was feeling so incredibly good. It was the end of two pretty intense days of climbing. Day one is a 12 hour day. Day two is like eight or nine hours. Like the big days, it's a lot of time to be, and you're in isolation the whole time, just with you and the other competitors. Like you can't come out and just, you know, go to the cafe and hang and chill, and just find some, you know, time away from the intensity of the whole thing. So yeah, it gets to the last thing, last discipline, it's a lead. I do my best to not try and do that, the math of all the placings and where I need to, because I just find that no matter what I need to do in terms of like coming a place, I can't control that. All I can control is if I climb my best. So it's just like breaking it down to being as controllable and smaller task in a way as I can. So I come out for lead, I'm feeling really good. I feel like I've warmed up well, I'm not too fatigued. And get up to the last move, and it was just like, oh yeah, I think this is it, here we go. And go to do the last move, and my left foot just pops off. You just see it just like, boof, I just didn't place it very well. And I'd kind of like, as I'm setting up to do the move, I was just like, yeah, awesome. You've just topped this out, and this is going to be fricking fantastic. You're gonna hit the last hold, clip the last quick draw, and the crowd's gonna go crazy. And yeah, just got out of the zone, and paid the consequence. But in the end, it was enough to, yeah, to end up second in the lead. So I came second in the speed climbing, second in the bouldering, and second in the lead, which gave me six at the end of the day, and was the lowest score out of all the other guys.
BEN WATERWORTH: And here you are, an Olympian, Tom.
TOM O'HALLORAN: Yeah.
BEN WATERWORTH: An Olympian. Which when you make that error at the end, and you're kind of down, I mean, how long is in the process of you, I guess, obviously feeling dejected, and I mean, are you at that point like that's it? I stuffed up here, like, I'm not going to make it. Like, I can't imagine that's a very fun period between you falling and then having to wait until the fucking results to see if you made it.
TOM O'HALLORAN: Yeah, so I was the second last climber out. And so I only needed to wait one more person, but so I do that, I come down, and all these people are like, oh, good job, that's awesome. Like, Tom, the other guy who was my kind of main competitor, he's out there, you get to watch everyone at the end of the lead. Once you've climbed, you can just watch what else is going on. And he's like, oh, good job. And everyone's coming up to congratulating me. And they're like, yeah, you've got the spot, you've got the spot. And I was just like, I couldn't believe it. At the European Championships a couple of weeks earlier, someone was, they'd come out second last, they'd climbed, they were in the top spot and they had the Olympic spot. The last person to come out wasn't in contention for winning the overall competition. But depending on how they went on that lead route, could totally, due to the multiplication process, stuff up all of the rankings, and that guy could move down the order and lose his Olympic spot. It's kind of, you need to look at the maths and see it. But basically, I was worried that the last person coming out, I was certain that they couldn't take the Olympic spot. But if they beat me, it's like, could that move me down the rankings? And then people coming up and showing me the math, because there's a live scoring update. And they're like, no, this is it. You've got the spot. And I'm reading it. I'm looking at the math and I'm like, I don't understand. No, I can't have. That can't be me. And they're like, yep, you've got the spot. And it just, yeah, it was so surreal. It was like this kind of crazy, just like, yeah. It was weird.
BEN WATERWORTH: Can never, yeah. And so Oceana McKenzie was a female. She went through the female one. So like, did both of you go out and have a big party? Is there like, you know, a celebration right before Christmas? I mean, you know, this is the best Christmas present you could probably get, right?
TOM O'HALLORAN: Yeah, well, it was a bit tricky because like, she's from Melbourne. And for those following on that Corona stuff, like on, so we had our event that the Olympic qualifiers were meant to happen in March on like the 24th of March or something like that, that weekend on 2020. And a week or so prior, Coronavirus exploded and they closed all the gyms, they shut off everything. And yeah, we were a week out and they cancelled our event. It was like, oh, this sucks. And there was a nice pressure release in a way, because there's a lot of intensity building up to that event. And then the pressure release valve gets opened and it's like, oh, awesome, that feels better. But so, we get to November or December, sorry, and the Corona stuff's all looking pretty good and everyone's chilling out. And I actually went in on the Tuesday before our event starting on the Saturday, went down to the venue and was just doing a few last little training sessions and was chatting to the gym owner, who's a friend. And she's one of the heads setters for the comp. And I said to her, oh, how awesome is this? Like, no Corona stuff? Like, even if it kicks off now, it's like it can't expand out quick enough to be an issue. On the Wednesday, the Northern Beaches cluster kicks off and they start shutting everything down. And there's a couple of climbers that are living in the Northern Beaches. And one's, yeah, it's just like, oh my God, like, here we go. This could all be over again. And our International Federation for Climbing said that our Olympic qualifying event had to happen by the end of 2020. And being that it's the last weekend of 2020, like, if it didn't go ahead, it wasn't happening. And they'd go back to a previous sort of qualification thing that's all a little bit too complicated to explain, but that wouldn't have been me getting the spot. And so then on the Saturday, we finished the Saturday event and we've all got to wear masks and there's lots of really safe protocols going on around the place. That's a full day. On the Sunday, we didn't need to be there at the gym until like two o'clock or something. And it would run into the night, the competition. But that was when Gladys Beretic-Lean gets on and says, basically there was an update as to whether things had to close down, what the new four metre rule, two metres, whatever it is. And we were looking, and there was a sort of group message stuff going around saying the event could be called off depending on what happens with her announcement and the advice from the medical people. Like the event could get called off and that'd be it. I was lucky enough that I had won the Saturday event, so I would have still gotten the spot, but, and Osh would have gotten the spot as well, cause she won the Saturday. But it just, like part of me was like, oh, that'd be awesome. I don't want to go through the intensity of today. But part of it just would have been crap as well. Like you want to be there and everyone's like, yeah. So in the end, it was all good. We were able to get through and run it under, safe protocols and we weren't pushing it outside the boundaries of what was safe. But yeah, Osh, anyway, it's a long way of getting around to this story. Osh is from Melbourne and they were closing the border hard that night. And so anyone that got in after midnight had to do hotel quarantine or whatever it was. So then we had athletes that were like, you know, I've not, but people hadn't done particularly well on the Saturday. And they're just like, oh, I'm actually just gonna go back to Melbourne and I'm gonna go home and pull out of the Sunday event. And people were trying to like work out because they just need to cross the border at Aubrey Budonga. And that's like five hours away. And it's like, oh, when's the event gonna finish? Can we like hire to get a, you know, work out to get a hire car and quickly make a dash across the border so that, you know, the Melbourne climbers have gone through a tough period being locked down and all that. And to be then locked down in self-isolation for Christmas and New Year's and all that, it just would have sucked. So yeah, pretty much everyone, as soon as it finished, it was like bang, like people just went. So there's people going back to Canberra, back to Queensland, back to Melbourne. And the gym was empty, like straight after. There was just like, there was no celebration. It was like, cool, medal ceremony, let's go.
BEN WATERWORTH: It's about the Olympics, whatever, let's go home.
TOM O'HALLORAN: Yeah, yeah, exactly. And then, yeah, we just got in the car, myself, my partner and our daughter, and we're just driving home, just on the M4, back up to Black Heath. And it was just like, oh, yeah, it's just like the biggest thing ever. And it's just back to normality. Yeah.
BEN WATERWORTH: You kind of turned around and go, so what did you do today? Nothing, I mean, I just qualified for the Olympics. Nothing unusual there. What's the process then from that point in terms of like the AOC? Like, do you get a phone call, like a letter from John Coates, like congratulations, like, you know, your uniform will be available on this day. Like, I mean, because I can imagine there's a bit of a process around, you know, the Australian Olympic Committee and kind of what happens from that point when you were qualified for an Olympic Games.
TOM O'HALLORAN: Yeah, I was waiting for that phone call on the Monday. So like, you know, the 23rd of December or whatever it was, it's like, yeah, sweet, I'm gonna get a phone call. Here we go. Nothing. Oh, it must be like Christmas. Yeah, I'll wait for the new year. Oh, cool. First week, you know, government departments, they'll be back, you know, they're having a bit of extra time. Second week of January. That's still nothing. That's still nothing. And then I ended up ringing up a national coaching director for sport climbing. I was like, hey man, like, am I gonna hear anything? And he's like, no, no, that's it. You've kind of on your own now until getting to Tokyo, you find out a couple of things. And so it's like, it's a little bit different to what you think. I don't know whether that's just like Corona stuff or whatever, but you know, there is just so much going on at the moment for everyone. Like the, I am now in communication with different people from the AOC and like organising all sorts of things. But it's just like, it's so hard at the moment because there's so many people that are a lot of sports that aren't yet qualified. A lot of athletes and they're going around and doing the World Cups through Europe and South America and stuff, trying to get their final qualification stuff happening. And the AOC is trying to support them in making sure that travel doesn't get disrupted too much. And keeping a track of them for health and safety points of view. So there's a lot going on. And it's pretty difficult to try and, I'd imagine, keep all these plates spinning at the moment.
BEN WATERWORTH: Which also too, I mean, people are still questioning every single day whether the Olympics are gonna happen. And I can imagine that you don't think about that, because to you, you're going to the Olympics no matter what. And the organising committee in Tokyo basically said, no matter what, we're gonna make these happen somehow, which obviously adds to that uncertainty of it. But I mean, at the end of the day, I guess it doesn't really matter if they call you up a week before the opening ceremony. I mean, as long as you get in a plane and you've got a couple of rings on your jacket underneath the Australian logo, that's all you really care about, right?
TOM O'HALLORAN: Yeah, totally. Yeah, look, it's one of those things, it's easy to kind of run off down different headline things that come out and all that. And it's like, until I actually hear something official from someone official, I don't care about what anyone is like, Fox Sports can run that story or do whatever they want to do. It's like until I hear from John Coates that it's not going ahead.
BEN WATERWORTH: You're there, yeah. You're an Olympian, Tom. You're an Olympian, as I keep saying. So between now and then, I mean, what's the training regime like? You know, you're mentioning like leg day a couple of days a week, but I mean, are you up at four in the morning every day kind of training? I mean, do you have a set regime basically between now and then? And also, do you have any competitions that you compete in between now and July?
TOM O'HALLORAN: Yeah, so training's pretty intense at the moment. There's a lot of days of training, and a lot of those days are double sessions. So I do like something in the morning and something in the afternoon or evening. And it's just like a lot of work. Like you don't feel good in your body in a way, because you just, there's a lot of fatigue and a lot of just like a lot of dirty work kind of going on. But it's kind of all building up to being able to perform at the end of the year or middle of the year, the end of this cycle. The competition side of things is a little bit tricky. Like the World Cups happening over in Europe and through Asia. And it'd be amazing to get over and do a few of them just to get that experience and just test where you're at because the tricky thing at the moment is that you can't really see where your performance is at as such. So that'd be really cool, but then there's a lot to consider around that in terms of just coming home and having to do the two weeks hotel quarantine. Like two weeks out of a training cycle at this point is a lot. So big decisions to try and make whether or not I do go over there. And I've got my partner, Amanda, and six-year-old daughter Audrey, and that's potentially missing out on time with them, or if they do come with me, that's a lot of money. Like just isolating on the way back home is like suddenly like $8,000 or something, or whatever it is, $9,000, which is pretty much what a price, you know, a trip to Europe is gonna cost you. So, you know, you're doubling all of those expenses. So it's pretty hard. But I think that, yeah, we'll just probably try and manufacture as much as we can do in Australia. So there's a lot of the climbing gyms, there's a super psych to help out where they can. And Sport Climbing Australia is really excited to try and give us the best possible opportunities in Australia to make it happen. I'm sure there'll be a couple of domestic comps that pop up at a different point. And yeah, it's basically just trying to like, manufacture it as best as we can. And I think that, you know, if it was a non-COVID year, it'd be overseas and travelling about, and it'd be just brilliant, but everyone's kind of in the same boat really. And so everyone's adapting, everyone's sort of not quite having the ideal situation running through. So yeah, we'll just see what we can do.
BEN WATERWORTH: In terms of the financial aspect of it, of course, I mean, it's all well and good for, I guess people like myself to sit here and think, well, you're going to the Olympics, you know, that's your career, you're off. That's kind of, you know, the goal there, but it's obviously a bit different for yourself. Sports climbers that I read you, you know, you just lost your job around about the initial time of the original qualification and sort of gone on to some benefits and all those sort of things. And kind of at the moment, you're fundraising a little bit for the Olympics. So I mean, what support is there from say, sport climbing Australia, the AOC, like do they contribute anything towards that? Or is it all really self funded? And that's why you sort of, you set this fundraiser up to get you to Tokyo.
TOM O'HALLORAN: Yeah, it's pretty much entirely self funded all of it. But I think sport climbing Australia of, we're just a new sport, basically, like not new sport in terms of an Olympic kind of thing. And so it's just difficult to get any traction with that. They're not sure like as much as it's, the Olympics and everything, it's still a business, and it's still I think maybe privately run sort of thing. And so it's got to make profit. It's got to like, we don't know what climbing is going to do. They don't know how much that's going to be worth. So yeah, it's basically entirely self funded, all of this stuff. So up until basically the beginning of this year, the most I'd received in basically 10 years of being one of the best climbers in the country, I'd received $2,000 of sponsorship money.
BEN WATERWORTH: That's crazy. Does that change though, when you go into your local store and say, sponsor me when you can actually say that I'm an Olympian, do they all of a sudden perk up a little bit more?
TOM O'HALLORAN: It's funny, sometimes some people kind of do, and other times they just like end. And it's been interesting, but I've been able to, I think just due to the fact that it's been so tricky and there's a lot of stuff going on. I've had a couple of sponsors sort of come to the table a little bit more, which has been amazing and reached out to new sponsors. And they've been able to be really generous with being able to kind of help give me that opportunity to do the best that I can, which has been awesome. And I'm so appreciative of it.
BEN WATERWORTH: Give them a plug, Tom. Give the sponsors a plug, right? I feel like you need to plug them.
TOM O'HALLORAN: No, so yeah, the North Face is totally awesome. And Black Diamond and Tenea Climbing Shoes, Cliff Bar and Awesome Woodies. And my partner, she's the sport dietician, Thrive Sport Dietetics. Thrive Sport Nutrition.
BEN WATERWORTH: Go out and support those sponsors that are supporting Tom.
TOM O'HALLORAN: Yeah, yeah, jump on board. I think, yeah, it's just, it's been really cool to be able to, you know, get a little bit of support. And it's not like I'm a professional or anything like that, but it just helps pay for, you know, driving a three to four hour round trip to Sydney to get into the climbing gym and pay for my tolls and still get home in time for school pickup.
BEN WATERWORTH: Yeah, for sure. I'm just thinking right now of cool runnings when they're trying to raise the money to get to Calgary. Start doing a song like, some people say, you know, you don't believe sport climbing is in the Olympics. Like you start a song, make it go viral, the internet, all that sort of stuff. Yeah, yeah.
TOM O'HALLORAN: Yeah, let's, I've got a bit of time at the end of the day.
BEN WATERWORTH: Start penning a few tunes. You know, it could work. I mean, sport climbing itself in Tokyo, I believe it starts on about day 11. So you kind of got a bit of time. I mean, I'm not sure sort of how often you go into these competitions and, you know, I'm guessing sport climbing not really often be part of these multi-sport events. So do you look at that as something where it's just extra training and you maybe try not to get swept up by the Olympic experience? Do you maybe not arrive in Tokyo till sort of closer to your competition? I mean, is that something that you're thinking about or have kind of, you know, got a plan for at that point during the games?
TOM O'HALLORAN: Yeah, so basically with it being a COVID Games, there's a lot going on around, you know, controlling the things that they can control. Part of that is, you know, maybe not as many crowds, if any crowds, and it's just gonna be a televised thing. And another one is we are coming in five days before our competition day. So I fly in on like the 28th of July.
BEN WATERWORTH: So you don't get an opportunity to do the opening ceremony, even if you wanted to, you don't get that opportunity.
TOM O'HALLORAN: Yeah, and honestly, I don't even know if the opening ceremony is gonna be like what we have seen in the past. Like, I haven't heard anything, but I would imagine maybe it's just like the flag bearers from the country. So who knows? I think a lot of this stuff is still up in the air until we get closer to what is going on. If by some miraculous stroke of, you know, whatever, coronavirus just suddenly disappears or whatever, you know, things will look a lot different. But yeah, it's just going to depend on, you know, especially a big one is, you know, infection rates in Tokyo, in Japan and all that kind of thing. So it's a moving target kind of thing for working out what's going on. But yeah, basically coming in five days before our competition day and we'll be out within 48 hours.
BEN WATERWORTH: Cause I can imagine, like, I've said this often to a lot of our guests, you know, particularly savers like swimmers, you know, often they don't go into the opening ceremony because, you know, they're up, you know, the next morning early to compete. But I mean, personally, as someone who clearly, I'm at that age now where I'm never gonna make the Olympics, but you never know, curling is an option. I'm living in Canada now. To me, half the experience would be the opening ceremony. You know, that would be the thing. And I can imagine that if you were given that option, Tom, if they sort of things got relaxed a little bit, they had kind of a normal opening ceremony that I'm sure you'd probably be like, fuck this, I'm going to the opening ceremony. If I've got an option, you know, I'm not competing the next day. So what else?
TOM O'HALLORAN: Yeah, a hundred percent. Like that was the thing that in the year 2000, that I remember sitting there watching and just going, that is what I want to do. Like you're just seeing all these athletes from around the world wearing their tracksuit pants. And there's this enormous flame in the middle of the stadium. You're just like, wow. That, and that was like a motivator through that whole time is just like, I want to be there. I want that. It's like, yeah, that's when people ask like, what are the top three things of the Olympics? Like number one surely has to be the opening ceremony. Then you've got like the 100 metre final and the 50 metre swimming. Like they're the absolute marquee events of the Olympics.
BEN WATERWORTH: Soon to be sport climbing as well though. We can add a fourth one to that. That's going to go that way. Do you have a goal? Like, I mean, obviously the goal is to win a medal. I can imagine like, you know, win the gold, of course, but do you set yourself? Is it down to the timing you were talking about before? I mean, do you want a top 10 or is it like, boom, I'm going medal or I'm going to leave disappointed?
TOM O'HALLORAN: Yeah, look, honestly, everything's just going towards getting myself in the best possible shape and not being injured and being able to do the best I can. Yeah, it'd be amazing to get a medal. That'd just be like, just unreal. I think that would be even more mind-blowing than just becoming an Olympian, to become an Olympic medallist would be insane. But really, it's a bit of a cop-out answer, I guess, but I just want to be able to show up and feel like I did my best. And whatever that becomes, I'm stoked, but I want to feel like I prepared myself in the leading up to it, and just did my best on the day and climbed confidently. And yeah, just left it all out there on the wall, basically.
BEN WATERWORTH: I'll tell you what, if you don't get a medal, and we're saying it now, you will get a medal. I'm trying to be positive here for you, Tom. Just behind me here, I've managed to actually secure myself a Tokyo medal. So like I'm happy to shoot you one of these, basically. I've also got a Sydney and a Rio one, if you ever want to claim yourself to be a three-time gold medallist. I am. Had to pay for them. But I still, you know, three-time gold medallist, right? It counts.
TOM O'HALLORAN: There can't be that many people. Like you're in that kind of Usain Bolt kind of league, isn't it? That's pretty awesome.
BEN WATERWORTH: What, a Thorpey win five? I'm just two behind him. So, you know, I got, you know, more than the Campbell sisters.
TOM O'HALLORAN: But did Thorpey do three in a row?
BEN WATERWORTH: No, he did two. He retired after Athens, so he's a one or five.
TOM O'HALLORAN: He may cumulatively have more, but you've got...
BEN WATERWORTH: And a longer period of time, 20 years to win three gold. He did it in four. So, yeah, I started when I was 13 apparently.
TOM O'HALLORAN: That's longevity.
BEN WATERWORTH: I know, right? That's definitely how it works. Tom, we wrap up every interview with a series of fun questions. Now, these are based on a Canadian questionnaire that they have on the Canadian Olympic Committee website. They give to their Olympians just before they go either to the winter or the summer games. And sort of a little bit of a get-to-know-you kind of some favourite sporting moments and random things like that. So I thought we would close this out, spur you on, and you can remember these when you're climbing that wall in Tokyo as, hey, that awesome podcast I did, you know, these helped me on. So I'm going to start off with, you might have actually already answered this one. Maybe it was sort of your very first experience watching back in Sydney, but what is your favourite Olympic moment?
TOM O'HALLORAN: I reckon probably like, yeah, maybe that big one is just watching that 2000 Olympic opening ceremony. But I was still like unsure as to what all of that was. And I was living up in a really small little like kind of town at the time. And we didn't have a TV and there weren't many people living up there and there wasn't many TVs. Sounds like a bit of a weird hippie commune, but it wasn't. But we went around to a friend's house to watch Kathy Freeman's run. And I didn't know anything about it. But like there was, I say everyone, there's probably like 10 people stood there. That was everyone watching that race. And I was just blown away by like, it's a running race. Wow. There's tens of thousands of people in that stadium. And they're all just watching this person running around. And it was just, and everyone in the living room watching it where I was, like, you just like, there's something about what sport does to bring people together like that. And it was just, yeah, it was amazing and watching it like win was, yeah. It's hard to comprehend as an eight year old when you don't really have the boxes to put it in.
BEN WATERWORTH: But it's just... Anyone in Australia at that time can remember that they can't. I mean, we just had the 20th anniversary last year and people were living it. Even just recently with Bruce McEvaney kind of stepping down. You know, a lot of people were living his famous call from that race. And I was 13 and I remember it vividly, you know, sitting in that living room with my family watching it. And it didn't matter whether you were a sporting person or not. I think everyone in Australia was just watching this moment of Kathy Freeman.
TOM O'HALLORAN: 100%.
BEN WATERWORTH: It was insane. And yeah, anyone can remember that too.
TOM O'HALLORAN: On a side note on that sort of like, it's kind of an Olympic story. So my dad is a professional photographer, or was for quite a while. And one of his jobs at one point, he was going out and he took photos of a whole bunch of different sporting people at their homes for interviews and stuff like that. And I got a birthday card from Susie O'Neill.
BEN WATERWORTH: Oh, wow. That's a nice present.
TOM O'HALLORAN: So I went to her house with dad and got a birthday card from Susie O'Neill.
BEN WATERWORTH: Did you get to wear any of her medals? Did you have them on display?
TOM O'HALLORAN: They were on display. I think it was Susie.
BEN WATERWORTH: She's got a few. She might not. I might have more than her. I don't know. I have to tell you. I remember asking this one to Ella, and she had a very good answer. Because you, in a way, Tom, are in a sport where you could almost consider yourself a superhero. You're very much like Spiderman, I want to say. So if you could have any superpower, what would it be? I feel you've got one. You're Spiderman already.
TOM O'HALLORAN: Yeah, exactly. So that would be a waste, wouldn't it?
BEN WATERWORTH: Give it to someone else.
TOM O'HALLORAN: No, probably one of the other things that I really love is the water. So some sort of like ability to hold your breath for a while would be pretty sweet. Some sort of like Aquaman, Aquaman type thing, which probably wouldn't have been a thing that you would choose until what's his face became Aquaman.
BEN WATERWORTH: Jason Momoa, yeah, made it cool, right?
TOM O'HALLORAN: Became a bit cool.
BEN WATERWORTH: He was a laughing stock, and now Jason Momoa comes in, welcome, provision to come aboard, and then boom, everyone loves him.
TOM O'HALLORAN: Yeah, exactly.
BEN WATERWORTH: Yeah. All right. I'll take that. Your favourite sports movie, what is that?
TOM O'HALLORAN: Oh, good one. There's a couple of really good climbing movies that are just like full out froth vest of that sort of stuff. What was it?
BEN WATERWORTH: Sylvester Stallone with Cliffhanger? Was that that one?
TOM O'HALLORAN: Yeah, that's something, that movie. When you watch it through the eyes of a climber, you're just like, oh my goodness. And there's that Donald Sutherland movie, Scream of Stone.
BEN WATERWORTH: Vertical Limit was one that I used to watch a lot as a kid.
TOM O'HALLORAN: Yeah, I think in terms of an actual proper climbing movie, there's a movie called The Real Thing, which is from the 90s that was really good. An Australian climbing movie from this similar time was Coming Out Your Hyper. And yeah, I like the surfing movies as well. I watched a really good one called Pentecostal the other day that was very good. That's on YouTube. People can just look it up.
BEN WATERWORTH: Check that out.
TOM O'HALLORAN: Yeah.
BEN WATERWORTH: See, I just watched Point Break for the first time a couple of weeks ago. Now that's...
TOM O'HALLORAN: Yeah.
BEN WATERWORTH: Not quite seen the other one yet, but I'll work my way up there. I'll sort of start with that one. What is your funniest childhood memory?
TOM O'HALLORAN: Probably actually... So, when I was living up in that small town, Winfield, I always just loved climbing. I was climbing through the mango tree in Brisbane. I'd watch Tarzan and just go and climb on that. I'd be traversing around the house on the window sills and stuff like that. And up at Winfield, I managed to one day, I was like, you know what? I'm just going to try and do this. And I've lined a bucket up on the edge of the roof of the house and climbed up onto the single story roof. I was probably like seven or something at the time, or eight. I've climbed up onto the roof of the house, up around the gutter, and pulled myself over. I was light enough to not rip the gutter off the house, which was good. And I've pulled down my pants and tried to do a poo into the bucket from the top of the single story. And I got half of it in.
BEN WATERWORTH: Did mum walk out and the other half landed on her or something?
TOM O'HALLORAN: Yeah, I got busted by the neighbours. I thought I'd gotten away with it. And then the people that kind of, it's like all in this big paddock. And the people up at the back of the paddock kind of were like, later that afternoon, they're like, you know, your son was up on the roof with his pants down trying to poo in a bucket. And yeah, I got busted.
BEN WATERWORTH: What's the punishment for climbing onto your roof and doing a poo in a bucket?
TOM O'HALLORAN: Yeah, it was quite funny.
BEN WATERWORTH: I really hope someone from Channel Seven listens to this. And when they're doing like your profile before you climb in Tokyo, yes, here's Tom O'Halloran, you know, two time straight ninja warrior did this, did that. Also as a child, attempted to poo in a bucket whilst climbing his roof.
TOM O'HALLORAN: It was half successful.
BEN WATERWORTH: Yes, you should do it in the Olympics. Like if you're doing shit, like literally do a shit.
TOM O'HALLORAN: Yeah, yeah, yeah, just screw you world.
BEN WATERWORTH: I'm not doing well. That marathon runner back in Rio pooed himself when he was running.
TOM O'HALLORAN: So like, yeah, exactly.
BEN WATERWORTH: Do that.
TOM O'HALLORAN: Yeah. Following tradition. Have some bad ramen or something.
BEN WATERWORTH: I wasn't expecting that answer. Let's just say that. One thing I shall quickly add, as a Brisbane boy, I mean, Brisbane's about 80% chance out, seems, of hosting the 2032 Olympics. Can you keep pushing now for another 11 years to complete the home games, perhaps?
TOM O'HALLORAN: It would be cool. What would I be? I'd be 39 or 40 at that games, which, you know, in climbing is not too crazy. Like it's, yeah, friends that are still very, very, very good in their late 30s and 40s. I guess that thing is like the drive at that point, isn't it?
BEN WATERWORTH: Yeah.
TOM O'HALLORAN: You see a lot of people like the professional surfers and all that, like in 40 players, maybe 40, not so much, but just that drive. But it would be cool. Yeah. It's got to stay with mum and dad.
BEN WATERWORTH: You bugger the Olympic village. Mum and dad, it's gone. Stay with you. Can I have my room back?
TOM O'HALLORAN: Paris and then Los Angeles or something. Yeah.
BEN WATERWORTH: Yep. So a couple of good ones there. Then exactly. Bris Vegas up there. What is your favourite pump up song?
TOM O'HALLORAN: Oh, so there was one the other year. So there's a climbing kind of electronic music podcast from Sheffield in England. It's called Decomposed Radio. And it's basically like their little tagline is, it's not going off, it's gone off. So yeah, it's basically like climbers and people within that kind of climbing scene that DJs put together little live sets or whatever and upload them. And that's really good. And one of the mixes was by this girl called Sophie Kelty. And the first 10 minutes of that hour and a half set just gets me so psyched and happy. And it just feels like, it's not like total rev up, like raw kind of stuff. It's just this like, oh, it's awesome. And I was listening to that at World Champs in Tokyo in the isolation area, and just dancing around by myself in a room full of like 300 other athletes.
BEN WATERWORTH: Why not?
TOM O'HALLORAN: I probably looked silly, but it was like, it just, it felt awesome.
BEN WATERWORTH: You're not pulling in a bucket, so who cares?
TOM O'HALLORAN: Exactly.
BEN WATERWORTH: You're just, you're chilling out to those tunes. Speaking of podcasts, I believe you're a bit of a podcaster yourself, Tom. You host Baffle Days, the Australian climbing podcast. How's that like? And kind of what's, do you enjoy doing the podcast as well?
TOM O'HALLORAN: Yeah, it's super fun, hey. It's one, like, I used to do a lot of travelling for work, travelling over to Western Australia and all around sort of, all around the country, really. And we just consumed a lot of podcasts in that time, just driving on the road by yourself. And there was no Australian climbing podcast at that time. There's several from overseas, America being the big one. And it's like, man, someone's got to do an Australian climbing one. Like, this sucks. Like, why have we not got that? And I had kind of said, maybe we could do that. My partner and I, she's a big time climber as well. And yeah, we're just like, screw it. Let's do it. And there's a couple of false starts. Like, you felt a little bit self-conscious. Oh, is it going to be crap? I'm looking to do a good job and all that. But in the end, it was just like, cool, let's pull the trigger and make it happen. And it's been super fun. There's a lot that goes into it. Like, I don't think people understand it. Hey, like it takes hours to get it all together and create all the content and stuff. But it's so fun to be able to have the conversations that I've had with people. And yeah, it's cool. Yeah, I've really enjoyed it. So we're trying to get sort of a mix between like interviews, like I guess this one. And then with Amanda being a sport dietician, we're going to start throwing in a few nutrition type things and talking to different climbing coaches. And then also just kind of like a round table discussion of different things. So yeah, we like to do a bit of a mix. And yeah, it's just awesome to get that stuff out there.
BEN WATERWORTH: Where can people listen to it, Tom? Where can people listen to it?
TOM O'HALLORAN: I think pretty much everywhere that you get your podcasts, Spotify, Apple. I think it's on Google Play now. Yeah. So Baffle Days, if anyone's kind of interested. Yeah.
BEN WATERWORTH: I was going to ask where that name comes from.
TOM O'HALLORAN: So, Winfield was the town where, you know, watch the Olympics and stuff, and we lived up there for a year, and that was just where we went on holidays all the time. And it was on a place called Baffle Creek.
BEN WATERWORTH: Right.
TOM O'HALLORAN: And we always just called it Baffle. We got to Baffle. And there was just something so fun and simple about living up there that it was kind of just this throwback to that. Like when there was a few people that lived there and then a few people that lived in Bundaberg or nearby, or we're in Brizzy, and it was kind of like their weekend or holiday house sort of thing. And these are shacks. It's not like going to Surfers Paradise for your weekend. But whenever everyone was up there, they would catch up on it five o'clock and go around to someone's shed and sit around and have a drink and just chat. And there was no distractions from phones or anything like that, because they weren't really much of a thing back then. But it was just simple just hanging around, chatting, telling stories. We didn't have a TV. We didn't have a microwave. So we'd put the bread that had been frozen on the back of the water tank in the sun for it to defrost. And it was simple and fun. And so it was a bit of a throw into that, of just trying to capture that simple, fun storytelling.
BEN WATERWORTH: Fantastic. Awesome. I like that. I can imagine putting the bread on a water tank in Queensland, it would be defrosted in about five seconds. Wouldn't it take long?
TOM O'HALLORAN: Yeah, you couldn't close the back door and go back inside like the butter and vegemite out.
BEN WATERWORTH: You'd have toast basically by that point. Also growing up, who was your favourite childhood sporting team? Or I guess, I mean, I don't know, is that grown up into adult food? I mean, guessing from Brisbane, I could guess, but I don't want to be presumptive here.
TOM O'HALLORAN: Yeah, I was big into the Brisbane Lions for a while there. Anyone that knows or is familiar with the Brisbane Lions in that kind of early noughties, yeah, so Nigel Lapin was his girlfriend and then fiance was a substitute teacher for me back in like 2003 or 2002 or something like that. So he came into the class and I had like all my Brisbane Lions gear, like I've got the Brisbane Lions bag from the ECA. And so I had like my footy and my shirt and my bag. So that was pretty cool. What else? I loved cricket. Like Mike Hussey was one of my favourites and Maddie Hayden. I'm a left-handed batsman and I was big into my cricket. So yeah, just like the cover drives were just impeccable.
BEN WATERWORTH: I'm actually surprised that you're sort of as a Queenslander more into the Aussie rules. I was expecting a Broncos fan, but...
TOM O'HALLORAN: Oh, no. South Sydney Rabbitos.
BEN WATERWORTH: Ah, I see. Well, okay. I'm a Sharks man, but I'm a smart man in terms of the distaste for the Broncos. So I lived in Brisbane for a little bit and would constantly go to Lions and Suns games just because I love my footy. But I'd only ever go to a Broncos game when the Sharks have come up or the State of Origin or something like that. I wouldn't drag myself to watch the Broncos. But Lions doing okay. They've got a good side. They obviously did alright last year.
TOM O'HALLORAN: Dib for a few years, didn't they, after the Gora years?
BEN WATERWORTH: Yeah, we've got a good Tassie coach at the helm now as a proud Tasmanian. I'm glad that you've got Chris Vagan up there coaching you guys.
TOM O'HALLORAN: The right people in the job.
BEN WATERWORTH: Exactly. Smart people, the Tasmanians. The most recent TV show that you binge watched, what was it?
TOM O'HALLORAN: Big Mouth.
BEN WATERWORTH: Ah, nice.
TOM O'HALLORAN: On Netflix. It's probably not appropriate for many people, but God, it gets me in stitches every single time. It's just like any boy that's gone through puberty that says that that wasn't their childhood is lying. God, it just gets me every single time.
BEN WATERWORTH: It's always great when you watch a show like that and you just connect to it and you're like, yeah, this is real life. This is how it happens. I remember that. God, it's going way back. It's been cancelled now, I think, because of cancel culture. Summer Heights High, basically. Yeah, exactly. This is high school. I'm married to a Canadian and I'm like, if you want to see what Australian high school is like, Summer Heights High. This is perfect recreation of it.
TOM O'HALLORAN: And honestly, it may be really hard to try and find, but there's a Kiwi comedy called Seven Periods with Mr. Gormsby.
BEN WATERWORTH: Yep, yep.
TOM O'HALLORAN: It's super niche. That is so good. I feel like that's what that Jonah character was based on.
BEN WATERWORTH: I see it. Yeah, I remember that show, actually. I lived in New Zealand for a while, and I bring that up, and people, I think, must have been so niche that even they couldn't remember it. But yeah, that's a blowout. Opening the memory banks here. What is your least favourite food?
TOM O'HALLORAN: Um, probably good food that's gone off, and now you don't get to eat it.
BEN WATERWORTH: Ah, that's a good answer. Yeah, nothing more disappointing than that, is there? Like you see something really good, and there's mould on it, you're like, oh, I was looking forward to that.
TOM O'HALLORAN: Yeah, oh, damn, that's been in there for a bit too long.
BEN WATERWORTH: And you kind of question it, don't you? You're like, well, I could just scrape it off.
TOM O'HALLORAN: It was kind of okay three days ago, when it was four days old.
BEN WATERWORTH: Or when you take a bite and you don't really like, when you get a loaf of bread, you've made yourself a sandwich, and you go back later on, you realise the other side you didn't see is completely covered in mould, and you're like, oh, I ate that earlier today.
TOM O'HALLORAN: Yeah, fingers crossed, boys.
BEN WATERWORTH: What is your favourite chip flavour?
TOM O'HALLORAN: Chip flavour, ooh. It's kind of gone a bit radical these days with all the like Red Rock Deli and all that sort of stuff, isn't it? I would have said salt and vinegar. Yeah, probably still some sort of like salt and vinegar. Well, there's those like balsamic vinegar and whatever. Like they're pretty good, yeah.
BEN WATERWORTH: Something mixture of those, okay. I like it. If you weren't an athlete, Tom, what would you be? Don't know.
TOM O'HALLORAN: I think sports always, if I wasn't doing climbing, I'd be surfing a lot more, for sure. I'd move straight to the beach and surf. And it wouldn't be a competitive or anything like that, but just chilling out doing that.
BEN WATERWORTH: It's gonna say it's an Olympic sport now, so there's options for that.
TOM O'HALLORAN: Yeah, yeah. And I was just, yeah. It'd be cool to try and catch up with some of those guys because you're watching them on the TV and you're like, oh, wow, there they are.
BEN WATERWORTH: What are you gonna be like in the Olympic Village if all of a sudden you're bumping into these surfers? Because again, they're gonna be there at the same time.
TOM O'HALLORAN: Yeah, yeah, totally. And a couple of the skateboarders as well. I wonder if they're gonna have the same thing with me.
BEN WATERWORTH: They love Ninja Warrior. They were like Ninja Warrior fanatics. Like, aha, there you are. Great, you know, sign my shirt.
TOM O'HALLORAN: Yeah.
BEN WATERWORTH: What is your favourite vacation spot?
TOM O'HALLORAN: It would have been Baffle. Yeah, Winfield, back in the day. But then we probably now, I love going down to Calabarra for climbing, just near Nauru there. And Amanda's folks are from over in WA, and they've got a spot down at Dunsborough, just near Margaret River, and the surfing and just awesomeness down there is pretty special.
BEN WATERWORTH: Yeah, have you ever done any climbing in Tassie? Have you brought yourself down there at all?
TOM O'HALLORAN: I've not yet, no. I really want to. I haven't been to Tassie yet, and it's on the list, but it's just-
BEN WATERWORTH: You could climb up Mount Wellington, perhaps, you know? There's the organ pipes up in the top there. I don't know if that would be allowed, but fuck it, just do it. You're an Olympian, you can get away with it.
TOM O'HALLORAN: Yeah, do you know who I am?
BEN WATERWORTH: Exactly, cops come up, get down from there. I'm an Olympian, okay, on you go, son.
TOM O'HALLORAN: Yeah, as you were. Would you like a hot chocolate and some donuts?
BEN WATERWORTH: Literally how it happens in Tasmania. Call yourself an Olympian, you get away with it. It's really easy. Final question for you. What do people usually describe you as?
TOM O'HALLORAN: It depends. I have been described as lots of different things. I don't know.
BEN WATERWORTH: Do we need to get your partner in here to be like, hey, what do you describe? Not today, I'm in a bad mood with you.
TOM O'HALLORAN: Yeah, exactly. Don't ask that question last night. No, I don't know.
BEN WATERWORTH: I want to say a link.
TOM O'HALLORAN: I'm a climber. A climber. No, I don't know. No, I think a lot of people are kind of I don't know, it's so hard to say good things about yourself, isn't it?
BEN WATERWORTH: Yeah.
TOM O'HALLORAN: Maybe that's something that they would say that I need to actually learn to...
BEN WATERWORTH: Talk up yourself.
TOM O'HALLORAN: Yeah, or just love myself a bit more.
BEN WATERWORTH: You got a few months of the Olympics. You can work on it.
TOM O'HALLORAN: Yeah.
BEN WATERWORTH: Just kind of get it out there.
TOM O'HALLORAN: Isn't that do with a really big head?
BEN WATERWORTH: Yeah, that's the one. Yeah, pulling in a bucket and all that kind of stuff. Tom, it has really been an absolute pleasure to chat and learn a little bit more about yourself and the sport. And yeah, we're going to be definitely keeping an eye on this in a couple of months' time in Tokyo. I'm sure this is going to be one of those things that people are maybe confused about, but they're going to watch and their eyes are going to be opened up to it. It's kind of like when an Australian watches a winter Olympics, and then all of a sudden you're like, fuck, hurling, this is amazing, going on that way. But best of luck for Tokyo. And plug yourself in. I know you just said you're hard to talk about. Like social media, can people follow your progress, your journey sort of in the lead up to Tokyo? Where can people find you?
TOM O'HALLORAN: So I just do Instagram. So that's at Tom underscore O'Halloran. I think that's it anyway. Yeah, probably something like that. If there's a Tom O'Halloran and he's climbing, it's probably me.
BEN WATERWORTH: Yes.
TOM O'HALLORAN: In the little thing. And yeah, trying to do, like trying to keep people a little bit up to date with what's going on on there. And trying to make a few little videos for YouTube, that kind of stuff that's kind of fun and quirky and that sort of thing. So just, yeah, Tom O'Halloran on YouTube. Check it out. Yeah. And Baffle Days, if you're interested in climbing kind of content media.
BEN WATERWORTH: Yeah. And we'll link to that through when we put this up. And also too, to the fundraising page for the Australian Sports Foundation, where people can also donate there. I'm seeing here the page in front of me. Great, great page. And obviously getting a few donations there. So by all means.
TOM O'HALLORAN: And it's all tax deductible as well. So that's a big one. So any donation, I think above $2 is a tax deduction.
BEN WATERWORTH: Great.
TOM O'HALLORAN: So and it's all like, this is the official thing. It's not some sort of like cheeky knockoff or whatever. This is like the official sporting thing. So yeah.
BEN WATERWORTH: Get them bored, get them bored.
TOM O'HALLORAN: It's super appreciated, any of it. So yeah, thank you so much.
BEN WATERWORTH: Not a problem, Tom. And we definitely, as I said, wish you best of luck. And we'll get you back on with a gold medal around you. I can wear mine, you can wear yours. Yours is probably more real than mine. But whatever, we can just share stories about being Tokyo Olympic gold medals. But Tom, seriously, pleasure and best of luck for Tokyo in a couple of months.
TOM O'HALLORAN: Awesome, thanks so much, Ben. Yeah, it's been super fun to chat. Thank you.
BEN WATERWORTH: And a massive thanks to Tom there for his time. And I'm not lying when I say I am actually very excited to see sports climbing. Ella sold a sport so well last year on the show, and this is one of these sports that Jarrod, Colin, and I, we almost laughed at its conclusion when we first heard about it, and here we are now just wanting to see it so much. So we are looking forward to seeing Tom climbing those walls in Tokyo and hopefully not pooing in buckets along the way. So we'll see how that plays out. But as I said, we have so many interviews coming your way. We're lining up a heap of interviews in the lead up to both Tokyo and Beijing. So we're gonna be mixing it up a little bit. There'll be some winter, there'll be some summer. And we're actually trying to do something a bit unique in the fact that we wanna try and cover off every single Olympic sport. We've gone through our interviews in the past. We've gone through our guests, worked out who we've had on the show, what sports that we've had on the show. And we're sort of trying to tick off all those bases now so we can at least have one athlete from each sport in both winter and summer games. And this is a very fun process. We will not lie that some of the athletes that we are tracking down, we're gonna have some current athletes who are either about to qualify for Tokyo or have qualified for Tokyo. And we're also gonna have some athletes who are esteemed in their careers in terms of their medals won, their representative careers, and everything else along those lines. So we're covering a lot of bases here on Off The Podium, and we are very, very excited to bring you these interviews coming your way very, very soon. So stay tuned for that. And to stay tuned, of course, you can like us on Facebook, follow us on Twitter, and subscribe to the podcast. Wherever good podcasts are available, Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher. We are now on iHeartRadio as well, Amazon Podcasts. You can find us there, and we appreciate your support. Wherever you're listening, on the world, in the big world of ours, as we get pumped and excited for the next Olympic Games. Because as I said at the top, we've got two coming in six months, all things go to plan, and we're gonna be quite busy, and that's how we like it. We like talking about the Olympics, and that's what we're here to do. Big thanks again to Tom, thanks to you for listening, and we will speak to you next time on Off The.
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