August 26, 2025 • 16 mins
A group of concussion researchers have likened Run It Straight events to “dwarf tossing”, where organisers turn “real human risk and harm into a spectacle”.
There are growing calls to ban these events – where two people tun head-to-head at each other before making body-jarring contact.
These ‘sporting spectacles’ have gained popularity in recent times – with competitors promised thousands of dollars for winning.
The social media driven craze made international headlines earlier this year when 19-year-old Ryan Satterthwaite died after suffering head injuries in an impromptu contest with friends.
Today on The Front Page, NZ Herald reporter Neil Reid is with us to take us through the latest on the world’s newest full-contact competition.
Follow The Front Page on iHeartRadio, Apple Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts.
You can read more about this and other stories in the New Zealand Herald, online at nzherald.co.nz, or tune in to news bulletins across the NZME network.
Host: Chelsea Daniels
Editor/Producer: Richard Martin
Producer: Jane Yee
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:05):
Kielda.
Speaker 2 (00:05):
I'm Chelsea Daniels and This is the Front Page, a
daily podcast presented by the New Zealand Herald. A group
of concussion researchers have likened run It Straight events to
dwarf tossing, where organizers turn real human risk and harm
(00:27):
into a spectacle. There are growing calls to ban these events,
where two people run head to head at each other
before making body jarring contact. These sporting spectacles have gained
popularity in recent times, with competitors promised thousands of dollars
for winning. The social media driven craze made international headlines
(00:51):
earlier this year when nineteen year old Ryan Sattathwaite died
after suffering head injuries in an impromptu contest with friends.
Today on the Front Page ends at Harald, reporter Neil
readers with us to take us through the latest on
the world's newest full contact competition. First off, Neil, let's
(01:17):
start with an easy one. What is Run It Straight?
Speaker 1 (01:21):
Run It Straight? Head It's beginnings in America is a
practice move used by NFL teams, Basically running backs running
into defenders, improving both defensive skills and running skills, trying
to bust the tackle from there, and it ended up
actually being banned in America by the NFL basically for
(01:41):
safety concerns, and in the meantime it's become sort of
somewhat of a social media sensation on both sides of
the Tasman. The version of running straight that we have
in New Zealand and Australia is two people running for
about thirty meters away from each other. One person's got
a ball. The other person's job is to either smash
that the ball carrier as hard as they can.
Speaker 2 (02:03):
I wasn't even aware that there was a ball involved.
I mean, I've seen some of these videos. They're pretty
terrifying and people end up convulsing on the floor in
some instances.
Speaker 1 (02:13):
Yeah, during some of the organized events and Allkland earlier
this year that the hero went with a reporter and
a videographer and there were a couple of people that
were not cold. There was another person that was lying
on the ground convulsing. So that's quite a telltale sign
of a concussion impact, exceptely not for the faint heart.
And I think part of the issue with the health
(02:34):
bodies that have called for it to be banned is
it's okay for some of these big hits to be
had on a rugby field or a rugby league field,
but these are actually athletes that are trained to handle
those hits as safely as possible in the background as well,
both rugby and leap. In our part of the world
that the laws have changed where you know, you can't
(02:55):
hit someone above the shoulder line and people can still
get cancuss not just being in the head, but she
tackled around the chest or the shoulders. Concussions caused by
the size of impact, not necessarily where the impacts made.
Speaker 2 (03:11):
Tell me about this research paper.
Speaker 1 (03:13):
Yes, there's a group called the Repercussion Group. They're made
up of academics, concussion experts, concussion researchers and also people
who are living with the impacts of concussion. So among
this group there's quite a strong New Zealand presences. Petry
Hume and Alistairedom. They're both from the Auckland University of Technology,
professors and very skilled in the area. Doug King, who
(03:37):
is a very qualified nurse who's made a real passion
himself of research and concussion and trying to find answers
to concussion and thempacts to it. And also one lady
who's got to be coming from it from a different strand,
Irene Gottlieb. Her husband is Jeff Old. It used to
be in All Black Blues Forward of the late seventies
(03:58):
and early eighties a month or two. Legendo for the
past probably ten years has been living with early onset
dementia conditions. It's quite quite a sad story what's happened
to Jeff. So amongst that four is also experts from
the UK, from Australia and America, and they've been looking
over the last few years and ways to make sports safer,
waves to highlight the life changing impacts that concussion and
(04:23):
evil people.
Speaker 2 (04:24):
And they reference dwarf tossing. What do you think the
significance is of that comparison? What message are they trying
to send when they compare it to such a derogatory sport?
Inverted comments, because when was that a thing?
Speaker 1 (04:46):
Dwarf tossing, jeez, would have been the eighties, eighties and nineties.
Speaker 3 (04:51):
Year.
Speaker 1 (04:52):
Since they're probably the nineties, it's been very unpopular. I
mean there used to be in New Zealand sort of
organized dwarf tossing events at bars around the country. It
was sort of how it was it happened. In the
white paper that the Repercussion Group have published on run It,
they've described it as well, likened it to dwarf tossing
(05:12):
in the sense we organizers and their views turn real
human risk and harm into a spectacle. It's a pretty
hard hitting paper that put out, and I think they've
used that term ready to make a bit of a
stand saying look, you know, for a while, amongst some
people who went to a pub, they found dwarf tossing entertaining,
similar with running straight. Some people find it entertaining, other
(05:35):
people find it horrent, and they probably used the most
emotional language that they can think of to get their
point across.
Speaker 2 (05:42):
The researchers liken the collisions in these events to car
crashes without a seatbelt. What does that mean in terms
of that brain injury risk.
Speaker 1 (05:56):
In terms of the collision size. I think that's what
they say. It's been sort of long talked about, probably
the last maybe ten years, just talking about an impact
on a rugby league fields from guys that are actually
trained to take their bodies, a conditioned to take the headers.
It is like a thirty kilometer and out crash. I
(06:18):
think the rests are even more with running straight because
a lot of the people that are involved, they're not
professional sports people. They don't work out in the gym
eight and nine months a year to be conditioned to
take these hits. So when you've got two guys that
are all ladies, that are fairly well built running at
each other full tilt, there's no rules on where you
in rugby or league, you can't hit from above the shoulder.
(06:41):
It's the shoulders to the jaw. Yes, several Jesus of
force that are involved in the impact. So yeah, it's
pretty scary to think, you know, it's the equivalent head
or crash. Without a safety belt. The rest of your
body stops moving, but at the same time, your brain's
still moving in your head. Something's going to have to give.
Speaker 2 (07:02):
What is the incentive of signing yourself up to one
of these events?
Speaker 1 (07:08):
In New Zealand Australia this year with some of the
organizing organized events, there was a surprise of twenty k
which is quite interesting that the Ziller actually won the
twenty thousand dollars and went off to a World championship
in the Middle East. He actually apologized for being involved
in the sense that he could actually did portray a
(07:29):
bit of a bad look for people's safety.
Speaker 3 (07:34):
You heard about that one story about that kidding, Yeah, yeah,
that's pretty rough. Like I feel sorry for the families
that is enjoying their pain from something that's been something
that was safe, but like, yeah, that caused harm to somebody,
that's not what it's all about. It that's all about
(07:54):
just making sure that everyone's all safe, making sure that
they're all well trained. But I also know what they're
doing because that that helped me way more than anything else,
because Madam like losing your life. That helped me so
much because I was like, he could have been something great.
Speaker 1 (08:13):
So he's obviously twenty grand. There was several other events
and Auckland that we was supposed to be held that
were canceled due to the backlash, and counsel then pulled
out of allowing the organizers to use see venues in
the Middle East. There was a competition where two hundred
and fifty thousand dollars was up for grabs and you
know it's for a lot of people that's life changing.
(08:34):
That is incredible.
Speaker 2 (08:36):
Yeah, that's a quarter of a million.
Speaker 1 (08:37):
Dollars back yourself to put a big hits on it.
That's the money that's hard to turn down the score.
Speaker 2 (08:44):
Why do you think these events are so popular from
a spectator's standpoint? Is it kind of like driving past
a car crash scenario that old that old chestnut.
Speaker 1 (08:54):
I think definitely. I think that then they kind of
stuck out with Runner when it exploded in such a
sensational fashion earlier in New Zealand. It's it's very much
I liking it to motor racing and speedway. There's a
lot of people that might not be huge petrol heads
or like watching the cars go around the track, but
there's a lot of people that go to speedway and
motor sport in particular to watch the crashes. There'll be
(09:18):
people that go to football or rugby league that go
there to see the big hits. And I think those
big hits that used to see in the eighties and nineties,
especially in stat of Origin where you know it was
as she glorified someone smashing someone into smotherings, I mean
that those big hits are kind of vanished from the
game because the game has been made to be a
bit safer, where if you hit someone too high it's
(09:40):
at your legal now. So there's definitely an audience out
there that love love big, physical confrontation, love someone coming
off second best.
Speaker 2 (09:55):
This is the heart love of the hits.
Speaker 1 (09:57):
So the part is persons where we're very helpy.
Speaker 2 (10:06):
What role do you think masculinity or the societal perceptions
of being a big, tough guy play into it.
Speaker 1 (10:14):
I think huge Chelsea, yeah, and rugby league. It's not
just the professional level, but if you go into a
too addressing rooms at are even a club level, which
you've done many a year. I mean there are some
people that are really fire up seeing opponents and they
want to built them and smash them with run it
(10:36):
Straight to It's not just the organized events. If you
look on social media of people doing it in the
backyard and unfortunately where the tragedy and he's where someone
died doing run in the backyard. But you know these
videos of mates standing over other mates after the politics
and I think masculinity and being the tough guy that
that definitely plays a part.
Speaker 2 (10:56):
Unfortunately, So there's a call to ban these It Straight
events in New Zealand. Do you think the government has
to actually intervene at some point for that to happen.
Speaker 1 (11:07):
Yeah, most definitely. Obviously the Repercussion Group doesn't want this
event in New Zealand, it doesn't want this event anywhere.
Auckland Council were very proactively this year where they withheld
access to their venues where running Straight events were meant
to happen on These events are offering a lot of
cash for the winner. The only way that it can
be been formally is for the government to step in.
(11:30):
That's what the Repercussion Group's calling for, so that no
doubt would come down to the Minister of Sport or
the Minister of Health making a ruling. We're get to
hear from Mark Mature's the Minister of Sport on it.
He's previously been briefed as a government has been briefed
on Runner, especially after the tragedy where palmerslor team lost
his life.
Speaker 2 (11:49):
I mean, thinking of other ways to try and stop
this in its track. You've got to think about social
media platforms. Right, this is where we're seeing all of
the videos, and this is where you're seeing all the
traction for these events. Could we do something like, I
don't know, getting tech companies to stop monetizing these videos.
But then again, I'm thinking, well, how likely is that
(12:10):
going to happen? Because eyeballs mean money for these tech companies.
Speaker 1 (12:15):
The repercussion grows really hot on social media companies demonetizing
that content. There's probably a lot of people who were
back there, but yeah, social media. Everyone knows that social
media makes a lot of money out of advertising. Everyone
in the media knows that. And you just can't see
the likes of Facebook or Twitter or TikTok Instagram demonetizing that.
(12:38):
It's you know, countless. What's the casion that they're making
from videos such like.
Speaker 2 (12:45):
In terms of the events themselves and people who sign
themselves up to this kind of thing. I immediately thought, well,
what's the difference between a run at straight event and
if we were to say, have that Warrior show. You
remember that show in the eighties nineties where normal people
would go on to this show and like hand gladiators gladiators.
Speaker 1 (13:06):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, what's the difference.
Speaker 2 (13:08):
Between I suppose those people were quite.
Speaker 1 (13:11):
Athletic gladia gladaders is probably nearly take on it, but
there wasn't really I think gladiators, you know that you
had helmets yet padding every shoulder, pads and pads arm pads,
and I don't think the hats were as brutal, whereas
with this you've got you know, people sort of running
twenty three meters full board each other. The objects not
(13:35):
to take someone down, it's to well around the ankles.
The object just to take someone down and knock them
down set involves you know, nine times out of ten,
the shoulder to the jaw or some sort of head blow.
I mean, people sign up for it and if they
get injured, unfortunately, that's on them. I think they could
(13:55):
well open up a bit of a legal mindfield down
the track about you know, whether someone's eligible for acc
if they're involved in run it. Especially if run it's
bann it's probably definitely a case of buyer beware.
Speaker 2 (14:07):
Can we ban a sport well, I mean.
Speaker 1 (14:10):
That's where it's going to have to come from, either
the Ministry Health or the Minister of Sport. It'd be
I mean, you're probably talking about big money too, that
that the organizers have running a straight They're not running
a charity, they're running a highly well it seems like
a fairly professional sporting league. You're talking about, you know,
big events in this in the Middle East where winners
from New Zelanic and government or potentially two hundred and
(14:32):
fifty thousand dollars. I think if the government did sort
of move towards banning that event, there'd be some some
lawyers that will probably line up to try and take
on an appeal.
Speaker 2 (14:44):
And lastly, I know the researchers talk about us having
an ethical duty, what do you think about that? Weigh
up with, well, people know what they're getting them elves into.
At what point do we intervene?
Speaker 1 (15:04):
Yeah, I mean it's a good argument, but if you
talk to more Jeff Old's wife, you know he was
not even sixty when he started showing early onset dementia
conditions from head blows in the nineteen eighties. You talk
to these researchers that are especially from the Orkan UniverCity
of Technology, that are already talking to players who are
(15:26):
in their late thirties early forties from rugby where thats
weren't as hard as what you see in this run
it and these guys are already showing early onset dementia
conditions potential CTE, various of called dilemmeras are in the
front line. They're dealing with people that are getting injured
in a boat of fire, traditional sporting environment that they
(15:46):
just don't want to stand by and watch more people.
And it's not just professional it's not professional athletes, it's
you know, Joe blogs on the street having potentially life
changing conditions while they chase twenty thousand dollars in the competition.
I totally keep where US group's coming from.
Speaker 2 (16:06):
Thanks for joining us, Neil see ChEls. That's it for
this episode of the Front Page. You can read more
about today's stories and extensive news coverage at enzdherld dot
co dot nz. The Front Page is produced by Jane
Yee and Richard Martin, who is also our editor. I'm
(16:28):
Chelsea Daniels. Subscribe to The Front Page on iHeartRadio or
wherever you get your podcasts, and tune in tomorrow for
another look behind the headlines.
Kielda.
Speaker 2 (00:05):
I'm Chelsea Daniels and This is the Front Page, a
daily podcast presented by the New Zealand Herald. A group
of concussion researchers have likened run It Straight events to
dwarf tossing, where organizers turn real human risk and harm
(00:27):
into a spectacle. There are growing calls to ban these events,
where two people run head to head at each other
before making body jarring contact. These sporting spectacles have gained
popularity in recent times, with competitors promised thousands of dollars
for winning. The social media driven craze made international headlines
(00:51):
earlier this year when nineteen year old Ryan Sattathwaite died
after suffering head injuries in an impromptu contest with friends.
Today on the Front Page ends at Harald, reporter Neil
readers with us to take us through the latest on
the world's newest full contact competition. First off, Neil, let's
(01:17):
start with an easy one. What is Run It Straight?
Speaker 1 (01:21):
Run It Straight? Head It's beginnings in America is a
practice move used by NFL teams, Basically running backs running
into defenders, improving both defensive skills and running skills, trying
to bust the tackle from there, and it ended up
actually being banned in America by the NFL basically for
(01:41):
safety concerns, and in the meantime it's become sort of
somewhat of a social media sensation on both sides of
the Tasman. The version of running straight that we have
in New Zealand and Australia is two people running for
about thirty meters away from each other. One person's got
a ball. The other person's job is to either smash
that the ball carrier as hard as they can.
Speaker 2 (02:03):
I wasn't even aware that there was a ball involved.
I mean, I've seen some of these videos. They're pretty
terrifying and people end up convulsing on the floor in
some instances.
Speaker 1 (02:13):
Yeah, during some of the organized events and Allkland earlier
this year that the hero went with a reporter and
a videographer and there were a couple of people that
were not cold. There was another person that was lying
on the ground convulsing. So that's quite a telltale sign
of a concussion impact, exceptely not for the faint heart.
And I think part of the issue with the health
(02:34):
bodies that have called for it to be banned is
it's okay for some of these big hits to be
had on a rugby field or a rugby league field,
but these are actually athletes that are trained to handle
those hits as safely as possible in the background as well,
both rugby and leap. In our part of the world
that the laws have changed where you know, you can't
(02:55):
hit someone above the shoulder line and people can still
get cancuss not just being in the head, but she
tackled around the chest or the shoulders. Concussions caused by
the size of impact, not necessarily where the impacts made.
Speaker 2 (03:11):
Tell me about this research paper.
Speaker 1 (03:13):
Yes, there's a group called the Repercussion Group. They're made
up of academics, concussion experts, concussion researchers and also people
who are living with the impacts of concussion. So among
this group there's quite a strong New Zealand presences. Petry
Hume and Alistairedom. They're both from the Auckland University of Technology,
professors and very skilled in the area. Doug King, who
(03:37):
is a very qualified nurse who's made a real passion
himself of research and concussion and trying to find answers
to concussion and thempacts to it. And also one lady
who's got to be coming from it from a different strand,
Irene Gottlieb. Her husband is Jeff Old. It used to
be in All Black Blues Forward of the late seventies
(03:58):
and early eighties a month or two. Legendo for the
past probably ten years has been living with early onset
dementia conditions. It's quite quite a sad story what's happened
to Jeff. So amongst that four is also experts from
the UK, from Australia and America, and they've been looking
over the last few years and ways to make sports safer,
waves to highlight the life changing impacts that concussion and
(04:23):
evil people.
Speaker 2 (04:24):
And they reference dwarf tossing. What do you think the
significance is of that comparison? What message are they trying
to send when they compare it to such a derogatory sport?
Inverted comments, because when was that a thing?
Speaker 1 (04:46):
Dwarf tossing, jeez, would have been the eighties, eighties and nineties.
Speaker 3 (04:51):
Year.
Speaker 1 (04:52):
Since they're probably the nineties, it's been very unpopular. I
mean there used to be in New Zealand sort of
organized dwarf tossing events at bars around the country. It
was sort of how it was it happened. In the
white paper that the Repercussion Group have published on run It,
they've described it as well, likened it to dwarf tossing
(05:12):
in the sense we organizers and their views turn real
human risk and harm into a spectacle. It's a pretty
hard hitting paper that put out, and I think they've
used that term ready to make a bit of a
stand saying look, you know, for a while, amongst some
people who went to a pub, they found dwarf tossing entertaining,
similar with running straight. Some people find it entertaining, other
(05:35):
people find it horrent, and they probably used the most
emotional language that they can think of to get their
point across.
Speaker 2 (05:42):
The researchers liken the collisions in these events to car
crashes without a seatbelt. What does that mean in terms
of that brain injury risk.
Speaker 1 (05:56):
In terms of the collision size. I think that's what
they say. It's been sort of long talked about, probably
the last maybe ten years, just talking about an impact
on a rugby league fields from guys that are actually
trained to take their bodies, a conditioned to take the headers.
It is like a thirty kilometer and out crash. I
(06:18):
think the rests are even more with running straight because
a lot of the people that are involved, they're not
professional sports people. They don't work out in the gym
eight and nine months a year to be conditioned to
take these hits. So when you've got two guys that
are all ladies, that are fairly well built running at
each other full tilt, there's no rules on where you
in rugby or league, you can't hit from above the shoulder.
(06:41):
It's the shoulders to the jaw. Yes, several Jesus of
force that are involved in the impact. So yeah, it's
pretty scary to think, you know, it's the equivalent head
or crash. Without a safety belt. The rest of your
body stops moving, but at the same time, your brain's
still moving in your head. Something's going to have to give.
Speaker 2 (07:02):
What is the incentive of signing yourself up to one
of these events?
Speaker 1 (07:08):
In New Zealand Australia this year with some of the
organizing organized events, there was a surprise of twenty k
which is quite interesting that the Ziller actually won the
twenty thousand dollars and went off to a World championship
in the Middle East. He actually apologized for being involved
in the sense that he could actually did portray a
(07:29):
bit of a bad look for people's safety.
Speaker 3 (07:34):
You heard about that one story about that kidding, Yeah, yeah,
that's pretty rough. Like I feel sorry for the families
that is enjoying their pain from something that's been something
that was safe, but like, yeah, that caused harm to somebody,
that's not what it's all about. It that's all about
(07:54):
just making sure that everyone's all safe, making sure that
they're all well trained. But I also know what they're
doing because that that helped me way more than anything else,
because Madam like losing your life. That helped me so
much because I was like, he could have been something great.
Speaker 1 (08:13):
So he's obviously twenty grand. There was several other events
and Auckland that we was supposed to be held that
were canceled due to the backlash, and counsel then pulled
out of allowing the organizers to use see venues in
the Middle East. There was a competition where two hundred
and fifty thousand dollars was up for grabs and you
know it's for a lot of people that's life changing.
(08:34):
That is incredible.
Speaker 2 (08:36):
Yeah, that's a quarter of a million.
Speaker 1 (08:37):
Dollars back yourself to put a big hits on it.
That's the money that's hard to turn down the score.
Speaker 2 (08:44):
Why do you think these events are so popular from
a spectator's standpoint? Is it kind of like driving past
a car crash scenario that old that old chestnut.
Speaker 1 (08:54):
I think definitely. I think that then they kind of
stuck out with Runner when it exploded in such a
sensational fashion earlier in New Zealand. It's it's very much
I liking it to motor racing and speedway. There's a
lot of people that might not be huge petrol heads
or like watching the cars go around the track, but
there's a lot of people that go to speedway and
motor sport in particular to watch the crashes. There'll be
(09:18):
people that go to football or rugby league that go
there to see the big hits. And I think those
big hits that used to see in the eighties and nineties,
especially in stat of Origin where you know it was
as she glorified someone smashing someone into smotherings, I mean
that those big hits are kind of vanished from the
game because the game has been made to be a
bit safer, where if you hit someone too high it's
(09:40):
at your legal now. So there's definitely an audience out
there that love love big, physical confrontation, love someone coming
off second best.
Speaker 2 (09:55):
This is the heart love of the hits.
Speaker 1 (09:57):
So the part is persons where we're very helpy.
Speaker 2 (10:06):
What role do you think masculinity or the societal perceptions
of being a big, tough guy play into it.
Speaker 1 (10:14):
I think huge Chelsea, yeah, and rugby league. It's not
just the professional level, but if you go into a
too addressing rooms at are even a club level, which
you've done many a year. I mean there are some
people that are really fire up seeing opponents and they
want to built them and smash them with run it
(10:36):
Straight to It's not just the organized events. If you
look on social media of people doing it in the
backyard and unfortunately where the tragedy and he's where someone
died doing run in the backyard. But you know these
videos of mates standing over other mates after the politics
and I think masculinity and being the tough guy that
that definitely plays a part.
Speaker 2 (10:56):
Unfortunately, So there's a call to ban these It Straight
events in New Zealand. Do you think the government has
to actually intervene at some point for that to happen.
Speaker 1 (11:07):
Yeah, most definitely. Obviously the Repercussion Group doesn't want this
event in New Zealand, it doesn't want this event anywhere.
Auckland Council were very proactively this year where they withheld
access to their venues where running Straight events were meant
to happen on These events are offering a lot of
cash for the winner. The only way that it can
be been formally is for the government to step in.
(11:30):
That's what the Repercussion Group's calling for, so that no
doubt would come down to the Minister of Sport or
the Minister of Health making a ruling. We're get to
hear from Mark Mature's the Minister of Sport on it.
He's previously been briefed as a government has been briefed
on Runner, especially after the tragedy where palmerslor team lost
his life.
Speaker 2 (11:49):
I mean, thinking of other ways to try and stop
this in its track. You've got to think about social
media platforms. Right, this is where we're seeing all of
the videos, and this is where you're seeing all the
traction for these events. Could we do something like, I
don't know, getting tech companies to stop monetizing these videos.
But then again, I'm thinking, well, how likely is that
(12:10):
going to happen? Because eyeballs mean money for these tech companies.
Speaker 1 (12:15):
The repercussion grows really hot on social media companies demonetizing
that content. There's probably a lot of people who were
back there, but yeah, social media. Everyone knows that social
media makes a lot of money out of advertising. Everyone
in the media knows that. And you just can't see
the likes of Facebook or Twitter or TikTok Instagram demonetizing that.
(12:38):
It's you know, countless. What's the casion that they're making
from videos such like.
Speaker 2 (12:45):
In terms of the events themselves and people who sign
themselves up to this kind of thing. I immediately thought, well,
what's the difference between a run at straight event and
if we were to say, have that Warrior show. You
remember that show in the eighties nineties where normal people
would go on to this show and like hand gladiators gladiators.
Speaker 1 (13:06):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, what's the difference.
Speaker 2 (13:08):
Between I suppose those people were quite.
Speaker 1 (13:11):
Athletic gladia gladaders is probably nearly take on it, but
there wasn't really I think gladiators, you know that you
had helmets yet padding every shoulder, pads and pads arm pads,
and I don't think the hats were as brutal, whereas
with this you've got you know, people sort of running
twenty three meters full board each other. The objects not
(13:35):
to take someone down, it's to well around the ankles.
The object just to take someone down and knock them
down set involves you know, nine times out of ten,
the shoulder to the jaw or some sort of head blow.
I mean, people sign up for it and if they
get injured, unfortunately, that's on them. I think they could
(13:55):
well open up a bit of a legal mindfield down
the track about you know, whether someone's eligible for acc
if they're involved in run it. Especially if run it's
bann it's probably definitely a case of buyer beware.
Speaker 2 (14:07):
Can we ban a sport well, I mean.
Speaker 1 (14:10):
That's where it's going to have to come from, either
the Ministry Health or the Minister of Sport. It'd be
I mean, you're probably talking about big money too, that
that the organizers have running a straight They're not running
a charity, they're running a highly well it seems like
a fairly professional sporting league. You're talking about, you know,
big events in this in the Middle East where winners
from New Zelanic and government or potentially two hundred and
(14:32):
fifty thousand dollars. I think if the government did sort
of move towards banning that event, there'd be some some
lawyers that will probably line up to try and take
on an appeal.
Speaker 2 (14:44):
And lastly, I know the researchers talk about us having
an ethical duty, what do you think about that? Weigh
up with, well, people know what they're getting them elves into.
At what point do we intervene?
Speaker 1 (15:04):
Yeah, I mean it's a good argument, but if you
talk to more Jeff Old's wife, you know he was
not even sixty when he started showing early onset dementia
conditions from head blows in the nineteen eighties. You talk
to these researchers that are especially from the Orkan UniverCity
of Technology, that are already talking to players who are
(15:26):
in their late thirties early forties from rugby where thats
weren't as hard as what you see in this run
it and these guys are already showing early onset dementia
conditions potential CTE, various of called dilemmeras are in the
front line. They're dealing with people that are getting injured
in a boat of fire, traditional sporting environment that they
(15:46):
just don't want to stand by and watch more people.
And it's not just professional it's not professional athletes, it's
you know, Joe blogs on the street having potentially life
changing conditions while they chase twenty thousand dollars in the competition.
I totally keep where US group's coming from.
Speaker 2 (16:06):
Thanks for joining us, Neil see ChEls. That's it for
this episode of the Front Page. You can read more
about today's stories and extensive news coverage at enzdherld dot
co dot nz. The Front Page is produced by Jane
Yee and Richard Martin, who is also our editor. I'm
(16:28):
Chelsea Daniels. Subscribe to The Front Page on iHeartRadio or
wherever you get your podcasts, and tune in tomorrow for
another look behind the headlines.
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