Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
On Canberras hit one or four point seven. It's Roden
Gabby draft old friend of the show.
Speaker 2 (00:06):
I don't want to use the word old because he
is one of the greatest athletes in the history of
this country. And we heard about this the other day.
A comeback twenty years after retirement. Six Winter Paralympics is
that right? And a parallel Let's go to him.
Speaker 1 (00:26):
Too many achievements. I don't know where to start with you.
Good to see you again, good morning.
Speaker 3 (00:32):
Tell us about these stats because we do need to
get them straight.
Speaker 1 (00:35):
Stats.
Speaker 3 (00:36):
How many Winter Olympics are?
Speaker 4 (00:39):
Five Winter Paralympic Games?
Speaker 3 (00:40):
How many Summer?
Speaker 1 (00:42):
One?
Speaker 4 (00:43):
So winter in tracks in alpine skiing, some are in
track cycling and twenty years off and now trying to
make a comeback to qualify for the Milanu Courtina Paralympic
Games in March.
Speaker 2 (00:55):
Six gold medals, three silver, two bronze. Regarded as one
of the greatest athletes in the history of sport in
the world. The awards you've received, they're not just in Australia.
For crying out load.
Speaker 1 (01:08):
You've beaten the best. Is that not enough?
Speaker 4 (01:11):
Well, I'm kind of lucky in some ways because there's
what is there eleven Paralympic medals and stuff, And because
I've only got one leg, I can't count past fifteen,
so we can't go too far.
Speaker 3 (01:23):
So if you go to the Winter Olympics this time around,
what are we thinking for summer?
Speaker 4 (01:28):
Oh no, no, no, everyone's very excited about Brisbane thirty two.
Speaker 2 (01:33):
One step at a time because comebacks they're called fairy tales.
Because fairy tales are very, very unlikely. We've seen amazing
attempts at comebacks, and we've seen amazing comebacks. But twenty
years after retirement you must be feeling fit as a
fiddle to even consider this.
Speaker 4 (01:51):
I don't know where this comeback fairy tale line came from.
I've never heard that in my life, and my experience
so far only not that long into this comeback hasn't
been quite a fairy tale. But Tadjacker, Oh absolutely, yeah,
of course, you know there's you know, the skiing side
is pretty good. I ski regularly, I work in treadbow.
(02:12):
That's all good. The physical side is hard, like my
body has been sore for the last six weeks or so,
and that hitting the gym hard.
Speaker 1 (02:19):
Come I ask a question.
Speaker 2 (02:21):
It's a funny thing you hear from athletes, the muscle
pain of being a professional athlete, and then once they
do retire, it's an odd feeling they miss in spite
of the fact that it hurts. Is there and maybe
I'm romanticizing it. Is it part of you that goes Gee,
it's nice to feel that again.
Speaker 4 (02:37):
Yeah, aha, Oh, you know. I like the feeling of
being sore. I like the feeling of working hard, and
I you know, for me, that's one of the easy
sides of things, particularly at the moment. There's sorts of
things that help motivate me. I'm training with my sixteen
year old son. He's a bit of a gym junkie,
so we're doing some stuff together there. I'm working on
my social media with my daughter, and some of these
(02:58):
sorts of things that make it even easier.
Speaker 2 (03:00):
And that is what makes me wonder about a thing
that you're born with.
Speaker 1 (03:05):
You can train, you can be coached, but a thing.
Speaker 2 (03:08):
That you're born with that it's just a level of competitiveness.
There's nothing like perhaps history's greatest competitor, Michael Jordan. They
would say it wouldn't matter if he was flipping a
coin or he was playing cards, or he's playing golf.
Speaker 1 (03:21):
He could not lose. He would need to win anything
at any cost. And I wonder for you.
Speaker 2 (03:28):
Yes, a lot of people have thought, yeah, I still
got it, and then we've woken up and gone, da,
that sounds hard. What sort of competitor are you like
when you're playing things other than you know, the things
that you've won gold medals representing your country.
Speaker 4 (03:42):
For Friday night board games with my family, I go
to bed grumpy.
Speaker 1 (03:46):
When I don't have.
Speaker 3 (03:48):
You haven't been banned yet, though, you.
Speaker 4 (03:51):
Know there was, particularly when they were young. You know,
there's no letting them win or anything like that.
Speaker 1 (03:55):
That's a really interesting thing. As a parent.
Speaker 2 (03:57):
We go right, we know the day will come when
our kids can outdo us. How are you going training
with a young fellow sixteen all of a sudden?
Speaker 1 (04:05):
That is competitive?
Speaker 4 (04:07):
It is you know, he thought he could get me.
And there's a few things he cheats on, you know,
all the leg all the leg stuff. He brings that
second leg in and just starts cheating. He thought he
could get me on a bench press, and he's been
working pretty hard at it.
Speaker 1 (04:22):
But wow, I think.
Speaker 4 (04:24):
It's one of the good things about being a former athlete.
Is that when you come back to training, that muscle memory,
even though it's such a long time ago, it comes
into place. So I've been I started off just ahead
of him, but now I'm kind of racing ahead.
Speaker 3 (04:35):
Incredible, incredible on your face, Stoked is still beating his son.
Speaker 1 (04:39):
It's on the Great Michael Miltan.
Speaker 4 (04:41):
Well, my dad is a skier. Thought when I lost
my leg that he'd stay ahead of me. That didn't
work out, too wealthy and.
Speaker 2 (04:49):
That competitiveness drove you to win gold for Australian. Michael
was going to stick around for a second because we
need a timeline here. We're all on board as one
of Canberra's one of Canberra's favorite son. We need to
see where this is going to go and what we
need to pay attention to, and we'll do that next
on hit one of four point seven.
Speaker 4 (05:06):
This is ro Gabby wrapped on camera four point seven.
Speaker 2 (05:09):
If you've just joined us, the Great Michael Milton with us,
one of the greatest athletes to walk the planet.
Speaker 4 (05:15):
Can't say walk the planet planet definitely who wants to walk?
Speaker 2 (05:19):
Everybody does a good point. This is an unbelievable story.
Twenty years after retirement, from representing your nation. You've gone,
We're making a comeback and you put the work in.
How long has this campaign to make the next Paralympics
go gone?
Speaker 4 (05:38):
We kind of started. I started in my own head
working towards this about ten weeks ago.
Speaker 3 (05:43):
Now, oh my god, that's it.
Speaker 1 (05:45):
Yeah, you were clearly keeping yourself in good Nick.
Speaker 4 (05:47):
You know, the big part about this that we haven't
spoken about yet is is cancer. As a three time
cancer survivor age nine, bone cancer, lost my leg age
thirty five, a sophagdual cancer, major treatment five debol cancer.
You know, one of the big things for me about
this is health and fitness and coming back. And although
I work hard at my health and fitness all the time,
(06:09):
this certainly adds to that motivation and time and commitment
level that I have to it. So trying to feel younger,
I think everybody wants to do that, and feeling younger
in your body just the way you move and the
way you get around every day, and you know, being
able to do stuff for longo with good friends and
all these sorts of things are a pretty big motivator
for me. So coming back from cancer and getting back
(06:33):
to a level that's as high as can be. It's
not the same level that it used to be twenty
years ago. There's lots of physical training going on and
I feel pretty good about it.
Speaker 3 (06:41):
So we're from here. What timeline are we trying to
chase to get to the Paralympics, which is next year?
Speaker 4 (06:47):
Milestone number one is a ninety percent leg press effort
of what I used to do, and so we get
starting to get pretty close to that. So it's a
strength goal.
Speaker 2 (06:55):
This is really interesting because a young athlete will be building,
building building. Fifty two year old athlete, you've got all
your previous.
Speaker 4 (07:02):
Benchmarks, yes, yes, but how realistic of that?
Speaker 2 (07:06):
Well, time's going to tell as far as you knowing
where you need to be.
Speaker 1 (07:11):
A young athlete doesn't have that.
Speaker 4 (07:12):
I think I'm going to get past that ninety percent
benchmark is going to be close to ninety five, So
that's going to happen very soon. Got one hundred k
rollerblade planned on Saturday this week, so that's another physical one.
Speaker 2 (07:24):
So the training is well and truly underway. You know
the targets you need to hit. What's the actual qualification deadline?
Speaker 4 (07:31):
So qualification deadline's the fifteenth of February, so I've got
quite a while. The plan is we're ten weeks in,
we've got another I don't know, fifteen or something.
Speaker 1 (07:44):
I believe this is just.
Speaker 3 (07:46):
A whirlwind, isn't it.
Speaker 2 (07:47):
Obviously there's there. We've got plenty of people who love
you and want to support you. Is there a way
to get in contact with you if a corporate.
Speaker 4 (07:54):
Sport Michael Milton dot com. Definitely we're doing. We're taking
bookings for next year for me come and speak at conferences, etcetera, etcetera.
Would love deposit this year to help fund the campaign,
et cetera, et cetera. So there's lots of info Michael
Milton dot com. And there's some options on donations, contacting
us for speaking gigs and even organizing a little wonder
(08:14):
around the lake.
Speaker 2 (08:15):
Well, whoever, whoever gets on board, make sure, and we're
going to speak in the countdown to this, we will
certainly be giving them all the support and shout outs.
We've known one another a long time and I've said
it to you many times and I'm glad we get
to say it again. You're an inspiration to Canberra and
to Australia, and I don't need to say we lose
a draw when you get over there for this next one.
(08:36):
This is going to be one of the great comebacks
of all time.
Speaker 1 (08:40):
It'll be a fairy tale.
Speaker 2 (08:41):
Well wait, I feel like after that's right, Michael, thank
you so much for the time.
Speaker 1 (08:48):
Mate. We're going to chat again. Good luck.
Speaker 2 (08:49):
Not that you need luck when you've got talent, but
we'll give you luck nevertheless, and we will see you
at the next Paralympic Games.
Speaker 4 (08:54):
We're going to say, break the leak next time, aren't.
Speaker 1 (08:56):
You no chance? Well, I may thank you the time.
Speaker 4 (09:01):
Thank you. This is wrong, Gabby rapped on camera four
point seven.
Speaker 2 (09:06):
I hope this goes well, But you, Gabrielle, have made
a decision about your marriage.
Speaker 3 (09:14):
Yeah, my husband and I still don't have to own
bank accounts, but I've decided we needed to create a
joint calendar.
Speaker 1 (09:22):
How have you got this far without a joint calendar.
Speaker 3 (09:25):
Well, we have a calendar on the fridge, but I
was like, okay, we need to digitalize this. It needs
to be in our phones. So so when you've got commitments,
it's just him asking me fifty times what's on today?
Speaker 1 (09:39):
Right?
Speaker 3 (09:39):
All this weekend?
Speaker 1 (09:40):
You write it on the calendar on the fridge. Calendar.
Speaker 3 (09:43):
Yeah, and he doesn't look at.
Speaker 1 (09:45):
It now looks a college calendar. When you change the month,
that's when you look at that picture. And that's the
end of it.
Speaker 3 (09:50):
That's it. So I said, all right, we're creating a
joint calendar on our phones so that we can both
see the same things. And he was like, yeah, sure.
So I invited him to the calendar I named the calendar.
He accepted it. I showed him how to make scheduled
appointments or whatever to make sure that we're both on
the same page and he can add things in there
as well as view it. And then I saw him
(10:10):
sitting there on his phone fiddling around making an appointment.
And as I saw him doing that, I'm like, do
not schedule you know what? And the look on his face, he's.
Speaker 1 (10:21):
Like, oh, you ruin all my fun.
Speaker 3 (10:24):
That's exactly what he was doing.
Speaker 1 (10:25):
You're the one who used to do it.
Speaker 3 (10:28):
Yeah, but that was because the doctor said so good.
Speaker 1 (10:31):
That's important context.
Speaker 2 (10:32):
I assume everyone listens all the time, and you're run
if you missed that story that.
Speaker 3 (10:37):
We were doing fertility treat and we were told we
had to schedule it and so I would schedule it.
Speaker 1 (10:41):
You're not doing it.
Speaker 3 (10:42):
He doesn't need to be scheduling it in our joint calendar,
although he thinks.
Speaker 1 (10:46):
He does well. I liked.
Speaker 3 (10:52):
Rapped on cameras four point seven Fair. The Golden Bachelor
was at the races yesterday in Melbourne and some super
slutes have decided that he has not in fact found
love on the show.
Speaker 1 (11:06):
So there's a lot of people there.
Speaker 2 (11:07):
They will have seen him, and because the series isn't over,
there have gone into yes detective mode.
Speaker 1 (11:16):
He's not there. He can't be there with the woman
he falls in love.
Speaker 3 (11:20):
With if he falls in love with someone, yes, right,
So there was at one point a moment where there
was ladies lined up to meet him. So everyone's very
excited to meet the Golden Bachelor and hope that he
I don't know Jersey's head for them.
Speaker 1 (11:36):
I'm impressed they formed an orderly cue.
Speaker 3 (11:39):
I know they did. They were well. It must have
been early in the day. I don't know what happened later,
but earlier in the day they were very polite. What
happened good curtiguers.
Speaker 1 (11:48):
Later will probably reveal yeah, whether or not well.
Speaker 3 (11:53):
Body language experts as saying that he doesn't look loved
up like because normally after the Bachelor, if there is
someone who's like just the glow and the demeanor and
the facial expressions like they no one thinks he's a happy,
coupled up man. By the way that he was looking
and behaving.
Speaker 1 (12:12):
You know he's a guy, right, Yeah, we are aware.
Do we get a glow?
Speaker 3 (12:17):
Yeah, sure of course you do. You just get that happiness,
that that vibe about you. Are you just content?
Speaker 1 (12:23):
Right?
Speaker 3 (12:23):
But didn't look a new Reporters also come out to
say that producers were scrambling on the show because when
he met all the ladies, he was like, they're not
my type. I normally go for a thirty something year
old and you've given me your fifty plus.
Speaker 1 (12:37):
He has to know.
Speaker 2 (12:40):
Conceptually, this isn't the Bachelor.
Speaker 3 (12:44):
He was hoping for Love Island.
Speaker 1 (12:48):
He's dead, said going, oh that's what golden mean. I
thought it was the best. No, no, golden Years.