August 26, 2024 • 41 mins
You've had the entree, now get ready for the main course. The Para Games are almost here! Georgie and Abbey have you covered with the key details you need to know about the Paralympics and the star Aussie athletes set to shine in Paris.
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 (00:01):
Here at two Good Sports.
Speaker 2 (00:02):
We would like to acknowledge the traditional owners of the
land on which we record this podcast. The were Inerie people.
This land was never seated, always was, always will be.
Speaker 1 (00:16):
Uncor dejavus are too good sports. It is so good
to be back in Paris. It's so good to be back.
Speaker 3 (00:26):
And this I'm gonna call it, this is going to
be my favorite episode that we've ever done because we
are talking about one of the great sporting events in
the world, one of our favorites, the Paralympics.
Speaker 1 (00:37):
Oh my, we've had the entree. That's what we call
the Olympics.
Speaker 3 (00:40):
Yes, the main is these absolute superheroes in the Green
and Gold Australia do so well. Bring on the Paris.
It starts on Wednesday. Yes, so we're going to preview
the athletes that you need to know. But I'm getting
ahead of myself.
Speaker 1 (00:54):
That's nonelike hu jure. No.
Speaker 2 (00:56):
We are usually we have tempered all expectations and excitement.
Speaker 1 (00:59):
We are professional till the end, but not professional at
the beginning. So George, good support, bad sport. What have
you got? I have a bad sport. Oh bad sport
this week?
Speaker 2 (01:09):
Yep, And it is actually a public service announcement and
that is that to the dickhead who threw the bottle
at the goal umpire over the weekend in that do
or dieash Carlton Saint Kilda.
Speaker 1 (01:24):
What in the actual hell?
Speaker 2 (01:28):
As at time of this recording, they still have not
been found this person. Apparently they were someone that just
wandered on down through the Carlton supporters section through this
bottle at the goal umpire.
Speaker 1 (01:39):
He needed stitches.
Speaker 2 (01:40):
He couldn't take part in the match anymore. There was
all blood down his cap and down the back of
his neck. I mean, was it a glass bottle?
Speaker 1 (01:47):
Is my next question?
Speaker 2 (01:47):
Like, no, it was just a water bottle. It was
just a plastic mount Frank and washed him and absolutely
he needed stitches. And I just think that there is
imagine being that person waking up today.
Speaker 1 (01:59):
What are you?
Speaker 3 (02:00):
And also just how pathetic and of course this person
when the AFL finds out who they are, and they
will because a lot of people had their phones out
and as you mentioned, it was right near the Carlton
supporter end of the ground, they have a lifetime ban.
Speaker 1 (02:14):
Yes, they'll never be able to go to a football
match again.
Speaker 3 (02:16):
But what Peanut thinks it's impressive to throw a bottle
at someone else.
Speaker 1 (02:21):
It is the ultimate bad sport. Yeah, ultimate bad sport.
Speaker 2 (02:24):
And if that person happened to be I mean one
they're not a fan of football, I would argue for
them to behave in this way.
Speaker 1 (02:30):
If they just don't see it, oh we never see it.
We never see it.
Speaker 2 (02:33):
And if they are alleged, if they comes out and
they say that they're a Carlton fan or they're a
same Kilder fan, then I think that a Patrick Crips
should come and actually shop up their membership card or
whatever it is and be like, veto you will never
you don't belong in this game.
Speaker 1 (02:46):
We don't want you.
Speaker 3 (02:47):
Patrick Crips is too busy crying after the result yesterday,
although they did eventually slide into the finals. So this
is my good sport. And I'm not saying that they're
good sports. I'm saying this was good sport to watch
because the fact that the AFL home and away season
that has been so close, and Georgie, you've already expressed
(03:07):
that you don't like close seasons.
Speaker 2 (03:09):
I know, which is crazy for me really, because did
I spend a million hours over the weekend watching all
of the games, which actually meant something I did, Yeah,
I did.
Speaker 1 (03:17):
And I did.
Speaker 3 (03:17):
That is the beauty of it, and it almost felt
like a wild card round in the fact that you
got to the final two games of the season and
you're like, right, Carlton just need to win this after
being top two for however many weeks throughout the season
to let these poor bagg of fans finally make the finals.
And then Jack Higgins just decides that he's going to
kick a miracle goal and Ross Lyon who said we're
(03:39):
gonna be the grinch and more the point Pauls and
killed a supporters that are like where is this all season?
But they lost by two points, so Carlton then had
to sit and watch. Never have Victorian fans been so
engaged in a match in the West between Fremantle and
Port to find out whether or not Carlton made the finals.
And there was only one point in it at halftime,
(04:01):
but as a reformed Freemantle supporter, Freeho did what Freeho
always do, loose, we just look like they should play
Vinyls and then just give it up.
Speaker 2 (04:12):
It was very very close and a shout out here
to Dan does footy who always loved it. We love
Dan Gorange. If you don't follow him, I don't know
who you are.
Speaker 1 (04:21):
I don't know how. She's the male version of Sports
News told differently.
Speaker 2 (04:25):
He is watching. His reaction was almost better than watching
the game. He's the stuff, honestly, honestly, and because we
do like to give ourselves pats on the back here
deal listener, you know I would like it knowing that
I said famously, they will lose it with three seconds
to go. I was out by nine seconds. They lost
it with twelve seconds to go. But I want it
written in stone. She's still psychic, Carlton.
Speaker 1 (04:46):
What on earth?
Speaker 3 (04:46):
Georgie also said Sin Kilda would make the finals or
was it the top four?
Speaker 1 (04:50):
It was the top four.
Speaker 3 (04:50):
It was almost the tall reference, but wonderful for sport.
It's the best part of footy when you're not even
loosely engaged in either team and you're on the edge
of your set.
Speaker 1 (05:02):
That's just good sports. Yep. So look, I'll take I'll
take back what I said about me not loving a
competition this close.
Speaker 2 (05:11):
But I'll choose to bring it back when it suits me.
Speaker 1 (05:15):
Right now. As tup predictions, who wins a flag. Oh, actually,
well I think Brisbane will win. So I think Brisbane Queensland.
Speaker 2 (05:21):
Ye I know, I know, but but this is very
unlike me because I've never believed in them before. So
when they've always had this hype in recent years, I'm like.
Speaker 1 (05:30):
That's they're not winning. That team's not winning. And now,
because I don't believe.
Speaker 2 (05:34):
In any other team, I look at all of the
others because the competition's so close, and I'm like, they're
not winning. I'm like, you know who's also never been winning, Lions,
They'll win, They'll win, right.
Speaker 3 (05:46):
Okay, so we're got to time code this and play
it back in case people look like geniuses.
Speaker 1 (05:49):
I'm going to go with the Giants.
Speaker 3 (05:51):
You said that at the start of the season, and
I just think they were They were so close to
making the Big Dance, and I just think that they
have game winners. I still believe in the Giants, even
though the Dogs decided to make a mockery of them. Okay,
let let us get to our main chat because I'm
excited coming up next.
Speaker 1 (06:22):
Jomie, are you feeling hungry always? I'm pregnant time.
Speaker 3 (06:28):
I'm literally never stated I will always be snacking, but
we are ready.
Speaker 1 (06:34):
That intro went far better than I can imagine.
Speaker 3 (06:37):
The Paralympics. We are so so excited. Georgie's remembered to
bring her jacket in for the Green and Gold. I
should have remembered, but I did not. That we are
heading back to Paris because between the twenty eighth of
August to the eighth of September, you see some of
the most inspirational athletes in the world are coming together
(06:57):
to compete for Glory Country and we are just so
so excited. And some of our favorite Australian athletes full stop, yeah,
are going to be part of this team.
Speaker 1 (07:06):
Well, this is the.
Speaker 2 (07:07):
Thing, Jemmy, and what I think is key to point
out is that you and I actually have quite a
history with the Paralympics.
Speaker 1 (07:12):
In this event.
Speaker 3 (07:13):
Your first podcast Paralympics, my.
Speaker 2 (07:16):
Very very first podcast, I had the honor of doing
a double handed podcast with Kurt Fernley, a bit of
a big name.
Speaker 1 (07:24):
Yeah, I just with the.
Speaker 2 (07:26):
Legendary Kurt firmly called you Little Ripper. He's still a
part of it. Check it out. And through that podcast
and getting to know him, I got to know some
of these incredible athletes and their journeys and their stories,
and honestly, you say that there's some of our favorite athletes,
they really really are. You've covered the Paralympics extensively over
your career, so you know these guys really really well too.
Speaker 3 (07:47):
And also just again through the virtue of what you
and I do, I've had speaking gigs where I've been
with Curtis McGrath and Cole Piers and to see how
you could hear a pin drop when they tell their
stories and just the charm and charisma they bring. These
are just some of the best personalities that we have
in sport. Let alone the fact that they're some of
the best in the world. Yeah, we still achieve.
Speaker 2 (08:09):
So I mean, dear listener, think about the enthusiasm and
the patriotism that you had on display during the Olympics.
Speaker 1 (08:16):
Those two weeks of the Olympic magnify.
Speaker 2 (08:17):
It magnifying, Oh my god, because it is going to
get serious and we're only days away.
Speaker 1 (08:23):
So let's give you some key facts.
Speaker 3 (08:25):
There are twenty two sports on the program, and again
they don't they're not the same program as what you
see at the Olympics. Like there's even some mixed events,
which is really interesting. There's more than four thousand athletes
from around the world competing in five hundred and forty
nine medal events to Australia is sending one hundred and
sixty athletes to Paris. And the Paralympic Games are governed
(08:45):
by the Paralympic Committee, so the IPC as opposed to
the IOC.
Speaker 2 (08:49):
Yes, the Paralympics first established in its current form in
nineteen sixty, but they've also been held at the same venues,
the same city as the Olympics since nineteen eighty eight,
which has always been I think such a wonderful, wonderful
tradition for it to keep.
Speaker 3 (09:06):
Going as absolutely and Australia has participated in every official
Paralympic since nineteen sixty.
Speaker 1 (09:11):
And we're bloody good. We are good. We are bloody good.
Speaker 3 (09:15):
We've always been competitive. In Sydney two thousand, we topped
the table.
Speaker 1 (09:18):
Of course we did. Of course we did well. I'm
not surprised. I'm sorry.
Speaker 3 (09:22):
We topped the table with one hundred and forty nine medals, sixty.
Speaker 1 (09:27):
Three gold oriel. Are you for real? No wonder because
good quantas bring those back.
Speaker 3 (09:33):
Luckily we were already in Sydney, so frames wouldn't be
so heavy.
Speaker 2 (09:37):
For you if you are the next high has finished
for us in terms of the overall metal tally, we
were second on the table in Atlanta in nineteen ninety six.
Speaker 1 (09:48):
I think Jelmy that we are set, we are.
Speaker 2 (09:51):
Poised for a bumper performance because last start in Tokyo,
we didn't have from our lofty standards, we didn't make
be achieved where we necessarily wanted to. We were eighth
on the medal tally. Eighty medals, twenty one gold, twenty
nine silver, thirty bronze. I mean that still sounds it's
still incredigeous, It is incredible, but I think that there's
(10:12):
improvement there and the team.
Speaker 1 (10:13):
Will know that.
Speaker 3 (10:14):
And you also imagine all the restrictions on these athletes
that would be unable to train in their usual facilities
because of what was going on with COVID. Yes, yes,
so we'll let them have it. Yes, but we are
primed well her Paris. We are absolutely primed. And something
that is important to understand and can be a little
bit confusing about the Paralympics is all the categories and
it is something where the letter denotes what's brought they're
(10:36):
part of and then the number with the highest number
being the highest level of disabilities, and then it sort
of ascends and there's again different categories within that. So
within swimming it would be s one to ten is
based on physical disability, and then I think it's from
eleven to twelve it's based on vision, and then thirteen
would indicate that there's a mental disability. But you don't
(10:57):
necessarily need to know all of that. You do need
to know and again this is our mate call Piers
describes it. Is it essentially like weight divisions in boxing.
Speaker 1 (11:05):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (11:06):
Yeah, to keep things fair, we make sure that you're
punching on with people that are just around your category
and you go from there.
Speaker 2 (11:12):
I think that that's so right And what I would
encourage everyone when you're watching the Paralympics, because you'll be
wanting to, like anyone who hasn't got around it before,
this is your year.
Speaker 1 (11:22):
It is the social Where have you been? Where? Let
it go?
Speaker 2 (11:25):
Where have you been? It is the social media games. Though,
so TikTok with these athletes. I'm on the record of
saying the Paralympic TikTok account is one of the greatest
social media accounts that you will ever be allowed or
able to follow, So make sure you're doing that. But
we are going to be seeing so many incredible performances
and it's just going to be fun. And what I
love about this event so much is that often you
(11:47):
won't even.
Speaker 1 (11:48):
See their disability.
Speaker 2 (11:49):
It will be so entrenched in the competition of their sport,
in the competition of the event that they're in, and
you will forget like you won't even notice it.
Speaker 1 (11:58):
And I think that that's wonderful. Want you to forget, well,
they do because they want to be known for their sport.
Speaker 3 (12:02):
They're competing for Australia. There's gold medal, there's a podium.
That's all you need to know.
Speaker 1 (12:07):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (12:07):
Yeah, The question is how do you think that? Their
first question that they're asked will be how do you
think you went? Not how did you lose your leg?
Speaker 1 (12:14):
Totally? And I think that that, Oh, I love that
it has got a bit of a chill. That's really cool.
That's what it is.
Speaker 2 (12:19):
That's that's and that I think is what sets these
athletes apart from everywhere else in the world is because
they're just as cutthroat as the next person.
Speaker 1 (12:28):
Oh that they want to win. They want to win.
Speaker 2 (12:31):
And on that note, we have selected some winners for
you to look out for during the Paralympics and show
me the last time we did this with the Olympians.
Speaker 1 (12:41):
Not to brag, but.
Speaker 2 (12:42):
We tail miss, not miss.
Speaker 3 (12:46):
So let's start with Angie Ballard because she is one
of the captains and that is a difference that you'll
notice between the Paralympics and the Olympics. We have team
captains as well as flag bearers.
Speaker 1 (12:56):
We double down.
Speaker 3 (12:57):
So these were announced over a year ago. She is
compete at her seventh Paralympics. Mentor, she made her debut
for Australia in two thousand. Dear listener, selback to how
old you were in two thousand and imagine still competing
at the elite level during that time. So she's a
wheelchair racer and she said that the progression that she's
seen in the sport in that time has been such
(13:19):
a special part of her journey and that she remembers
how much mentors helped her even understand the opportunities that
were available and now to be in this position as
a captain is so special for her. But also to
see that we're sending one hundred and sixty athletes. The
advertising around these games that are in mainstream supermarkets huge, huge.
Speaker 2 (13:40):
And I think for Angie, I mean she has been
such a mainstay of this team. I mean, if you
were to just randomly bump into a Paralympian, lucky you,
and you got to talk to them, like, she'll be
one of the first names that they would mention about
hotly you're most looking forward to rejoining in the camp
because one of the key roles as a captain or
co captain of this team is vibe.
Speaker 1 (14:00):
You have to.
Speaker 2 (14:00):
Bring the vibe, and so Angie she has all of
that experience her seventh Paralympics. I think this is a
wonderful it's wonderful recognition.
Speaker 1 (14:10):
For gold and for silver.
Speaker 2 (14:12):
She's incredible across multiple distances as well. That's what I
love about the Paralympics too. You will see these athletes
and you will see them compete across a vast array
of distances and across different events sometimes too, because what
they can do it's actually unbelievable. So she's bringing vibe,
but she'll also be looking to bring a medal home
(14:32):
because in Tokyo she did make it to the finals.
In her three events, that's the T fifty three hundred meters,
four hundred meters and eight hundred meters, So I know
she will just be so keen to get on that
podium and I'm so excited to see how she actually
moves through that field because in all of these events,
usually with the wheelchair racing, it comes down a lot
(14:54):
to strategy and you're positioning, especially on the track in
the shorter distances, and I think that she's going to
do very, very well.
Speaker 1 (15:01):
I hope she does.
Speaker 3 (15:02):
Her co Captain Georgie is one of the most well
known paralympians that we have in the country.
Speaker 1 (15:07):
Yes, in Curtis McGrath, Oh it helps it. He looks
like a ken doll. It does.
Speaker 3 (15:11):
It does like as in, he just looks like your
quintessential athlete. And his story is something that is remarkable,
and again I've been lucky enough to hear him tell
this story in person, and the fact that he firstly
he was serving his country. So he joined the army
at eighteen years old and he was sent to Afghanistan
and part of his job there as an engineer was
(15:34):
basically they were finding these improvised explosive devices or IEDs,
and making sure they were detonated so that they could move. Basically,
people could move safely from one spot to another. And
he describes the day that he stood on an ied
that he describes would have been only the size of
one of those Shabani yogurts, essentially, and because it wasn't
(15:54):
made of metal, their devices didn't pick it up. His
legs disappeared out from under him, and he says that,
you know, some people recount that when you're going through
that much trauma, you don't feel anything. He's like, that's
a lie. I felt everything. I just can't describe to
you the pain that I was in. But meanwhile, his
platoon and the fellow soldiers around him are having to
tornicae him to try to save his legs. He's bleeding out.
(16:18):
He's the one giving them instructions on what to do.
They're hoping that a helicopter gets to him, so by
the time they tornicate him, he's waiting for this chopper
to come. And he knew he only had an hour
they called the golden hour, in which if you do
receive care, you're more likely to survive. And he really
genuinely had to think about what life would be like
if he didn't make it. He told them where on
(16:38):
his laptop to find letters to print for his loved ones,
including his then girlfriend who's now his wife, and all
of this sort of stuff ran through his head. But
in that moment, he sensed just how upset everyone else
was around him, so he said, don't worry, guys, you'll
see me at the Paralympics. So while he's on the
(16:58):
dirt Afghanistan waiting for a chopper, he has gone, don't worry, guys,
you'll see me at the Paralympics. But then there's a
follow up to this which I didn't hear, and I
was like, do we omit this for the Green and
Gold Games, at which he said I'll be in the
black and white, though not for Australia as a joke,
as a dark humor, because one of his like again
(17:21):
one of the other Assie soldiers, was like, mate, do
you want to walk yourself to this chopper? Because he
said that's what Australians do in times of distress, they
make light of things.
Speaker 1 (17:31):
Yeah, and he could very well have represented New Zealand,
oh very very much. So when everyone's upset about Matthew Richardson.
Speaker 3 (17:37):
With a cycling you win some, you lose some, and
gratefully we won Curtis McGrath because he then went on
to be a three time gold medalist in the canoe.
Speaker 2 (17:46):
Yeah, the para canoe and four it only took four
years as well, like it was four so he was
in this god awful accident lost his legs. It was
four years before he was competing in the para canoe.
And in the para canoe. Like the level of discipline
in like his personality. He's very, very funny. He has
(18:07):
a dry sense of humor.
Speaker 1 (18:09):
But he's disciplined.
Speaker 2 (18:10):
Discipline comes through and he's so clinical and everything that
he does, he even and when I say he's got
me a little bit of a dark sense of humor.
His social media game is really strong and he actually
has posted recently about the anniversary of when he lost
his legs and he was saying exactly that story tell
me about you know, he was sent out to try
and locate these IEDs and technically he did that very well.
Speaker 1 (18:35):
In his words, and.
Speaker 2 (18:38):
This is what I love about This is what I
love about the Paralympics, right because people who have disabilities
are often treated and looked at with pity, and they're like, oh,
you don't have a p you can't joke about it.
And this is when you get to learn that they're
just people.
Speaker 1 (18:53):
They're just people who are Faye, that's so good.
Speaker 2 (18:58):
And also shout out to him because he is in
for a bumper event because yes, he's the reigning champion.
Speaker 1 (19:04):
In two events I think from Tokyo.
Speaker 2 (19:06):
But also he is celebrating the birth of his first baby,
a baby boy named Monty, who is already a fighter
because he had to have open heart surgery.
Speaker 1 (19:15):
And we're talking with in the last couple of weeks.
Speaker 2 (19:17):
The last couple of weeks in the game, surgery just
hours after he was born.
Speaker 1 (19:22):
He's doing well now and Curtis and his wife are
coping very very well.
Speaker 2 (19:27):
But I mean, what like, luckily he doesn't have the
discipline and the compartmentalization to be able to deal with that.
Speaker 1 (19:33):
It's incredible. He is a movie. He is Captain America,
Captain Australia in Australia.
Speaker 3 (19:39):
And also please and when you do hear Curtisy, he
does have a bit of a Kiwi accent.
Speaker 1 (19:43):
Yes, so ignore that he's a member. We are claiming him.
Ala Russell Crow, thank you for your time.
Speaker 3 (19:50):
But I think the thing to note about Curtis two
is that he did very much remember life as an
able body person in his legs and all that sort
of stuf. Whereas a lot of the paralympians go, you
know what, we don't actually want our disability to be
highlighted any differently than that person has blue eyes or
grows us. It's just part of who I am, and
I don't need it to be a positive spin to
(20:11):
be put on it, because that infers that it's negative,
whereas this is just this is just me. And one
of the people that speaks like that is our flag bearer,
Madison de Versario. You may recognize her from a barbie
that was released in twenty twenty, and she is like
the package.
Speaker 1 (20:28):
Oh she's one of the hottest.
Speaker 2 (20:29):
She's usc Oh my god, she is gorgeous, gorgeous.
Speaker 1 (20:35):
She also happens to be very talented. Sad note s note.
Speaker 3 (20:40):
She is the defending gold medalist in two events coming
out of Tokyo, the eight hundred meters and the marathon.
She's actually won both in New York and the London
Marathon if you don't mind, But she just is someone
that if you were a brand, you'd be doing anything
to get your logo anywhere near this person. She is
just phenomenal and to have her as a flagbary is
(21:02):
just so fitting.
Speaker 2 (21:03):
Oh my goodness, what this woman has achieved and what
I love about her is because Jelmy, she is finding
that voice, and I would say especially over the last
definitely over the last Paralympic campaign, but arguably even before that,
she's started to find her voice and speak up for
all of the issues that she is that are really
(21:23):
important to her, and she's definitely sees her future away
from sport in that advocacy space.
Speaker 1 (21:30):
What I love about her is that she.
Speaker 2 (21:32):
Began her career as a teenager, like she was a
baby as well, and she really had that mentality as
most athletes do, of you know that killer instinct and
I'm gonna get you and all this da da da da,
But it led her to be quite burnt out. Yes,
so then she had to take a step back and
be like, hang on a second, this isn't really working
for me. The sport's not working for me, Like maybe
(21:52):
I just have to give it away. She reassessed everything,
and she figured out that, hang on a second, I'm
really not that competitive in my everyday life. In her
own words, if her family was having a board game,
they wouldn't pick her to be on their team because
she's always the timekeeper, because she just doesn't really care.
Speaker 3 (22:10):
I'll see, my family don't pick me to be on
their team because I'll stab you in the eye if
you don't guess my pictionary drawing and we lose. So
perhaps perhaps some very different people Madison, but that's okay.
Speaker 1 (22:23):
I love it. I love it, and she's I mean
one hundred percent. You know, you and I we'd have
to like tie our hands behind our backs so we
can injure call mame our family members.
Speaker 2 (22:32):
But also just to put it like a finer point
on that she's taken that into her racing in that
you know, we might see remember when Michael Phelps would
come out, he'd have.
Speaker 1 (22:41):
Like the big headphones on.
Speaker 2 (22:42):
It's like listening to before eraces. You know, he's got
that pump up mix. Maddie de Rosario listens to, in
her words, a sad girl playlist which is headlined by Hosier.
She's listening to hosey on the start line just to
chill because she's like, yeah, this is what this works.
Speaker 1 (22:59):
For me, and doesn't it just doesn't it? Just with
that approach she led to gold Gold Gold, Gold Gold
in Tokyo.
Speaker 3 (23:06):
So Maddie's story as to how she became a paralympian
is that she is in a wheelchair. At age four,
she caught the flu, but she said she didn't have
any symptoms, and there was a rare autoimmune disease that
then developed and it basically started attacking the flu, but
then also her body itself and the spinal cord. So
while she says, I don't actually have any memories of
(23:27):
being able bodied, I can like sort of kind of
remember dancing, but really this has just been me and
my life. And she credits her parents and so such
a common thread with a lot of these paralympians is
just how incredible their parents were with giving them every
opportunity and just treating them like every other kid, which,
of course they are.
Speaker 1 (23:46):
The village that it takes.
Speaker 2 (23:47):
Yes, right, we often talk about the village that it
takes to raise an athlete. That village is amplified when
it comes to para athletes, Yes, for sure, for sure. Yeah,
And I think that one thing, one other thing. I've
got so many fun facts about Maddie because I just
love this much, but I love her coach. And I
think that for people who have just you know, have
seen the Paralympics in their periphery, they're not really too
(24:09):
much across it. I guarantee you know the name Louise Savage, yes,
because she was the in credible Paralympian for Australia and
I remember watching her at the two thousand Sydney Paralympics
and I would remember her and I remember Kurt Fernley,
and those are the names that really did hold up
the entire event, let alone just parasport as a genre,
(24:31):
I think, for quite some time. And so she now
is the one that is mentoring training and really you know,
kind of building these sort of foundations and that advocacy
into Maddie. And I don't think that that is a coincidence.
Speaker 3 (24:46):
Louise needs to be in the discussion of one of
our greatest athletes of all time, all.
Speaker 2 (24:50):
Time, and she's just damn lovely as well, ya so
lovely that which brings us too.
Speaker 1 (24:56):
So Maddie's going to be a flag bearer, you need
to flat. So we've gone.
Speaker 3 (25:00):
Captain captain flag bearer now into flag bearer.
Speaker 1 (25:03):
Was a lot of leadership.
Speaker 2 (25:04):
Roles and we are heading back to the pool because
one of our most incredible athletes is Brendan Hall, who
was going to be competing at his fifth Paralympic Games
and that he is going to have the honor of
being a flag bearer as well. He's a three time
Paralympic gold medalist. As you do, as you do again.
(25:25):
I think growing up it was like I was such
a big fan of Matt Cowdrey in the pool, Like
remember him with his little frosted tips and he was
so gorgeous and he was like he was the para
swimmer that I was like, obsessed with everything that you're doing.
Speaker 1 (25:37):
The one who was next to him in all of
those places was Brendan Hall. Was Brendan Hall.
Speaker 3 (25:42):
And his events are one hundred meters backstro s nine,
the one hundred meters butterfly s nine, and also the
four hundred meter freestyle S nine.
Speaker 2 (25:50):
Too many events, I mean, and too many specialties.
Speaker 3 (25:53):
He's the reigning world record holder in the four hundred
the eight hundred and the fifteen hundred.
Speaker 2 (25:58):
What I love with overa overachiever is that when you
do get slightly older and you get more mature, and
you have that experience and you really back what you
know works for you, it opens up a lot more
doors and you get the freedom to do a lot
of different things, try some different training techniques. For Brendan,
that has really transpired in the love that he's developed
for open water swimming. Oh and so he loves doing
(26:20):
it because he says, it's pretty much a level playing
field really when you're out there in the open water,
so he is everyone everyone's getting smashed, right, And so
I think that that him that's allowed him to get
a little bit more fun in what we know can
be a very very grueling regime. He's also faud he's
done avoid, he's done a can macka voice.
Speaker 1 (26:40):
Let me see later in my career if I can
check this up and make it interesting. Yeah, And I
think it's cool.
Speaker 2 (26:44):
This is going to be his farewell games. But he
has also found a new sense of purpose out of
the pool too. He's got a two year old named
Body who is just.
Speaker 3 (26:53):
So slashed across the Classic. He's there carrying him with
his ticket to Paris.
Speaker 2 (27:00):
He's just started swimming lessons like he's so gorgeous and
he's got one on the way. So actually he really
doesn't have time when you think about it, to go
from another Paralympic campaign, because he's gonna be busy.
Speaker 3 (27:10):
If you to have one child another on the way,
no one you want to swim into open water, just
keep going and give yourself a break so that no
one can reach you from personal experience.
Speaker 1 (27:23):
But someone who we love here to you. We have
to mention col Piers.
Speaker 3 (27:29):
You may know him from a certain wulworsad where there
is a jam in a small dairy town and you
can tell they've created a lane by using milk cuttons.
This is a story of Coal Piers and that town.
He says there's more cows than people. It is on
the border of New South Wales and Victoria. And you
just cannot hear this person speak and k not go oh.
Speaker 1 (27:51):
I love him.
Speaker 3 (27:52):
He's your classic Aussie Alarican and his attitude is incredible,
so much so that he lost part of his foot
when he was two years old with a right on
lawnmower accident, which he goes yeah, it sounds bad, but
it wasn't a big deal, like I don't remember it,
like whatever, like whatever, I don't really remember it. And
he was like all through school like I competed with
(28:12):
all my mates. And by that, I'm sure you want
me to say able bodied people, but sure like he
just was never treated any differently and that's.
Speaker 1 (28:19):
The key, right totally.
Speaker 2 (28:20):
He even credits like the doctor who treated him at
the Royal Children's Hospital way back when for telling his
parents to let Cole.
Speaker 1 (28:28):
Do whatever he wants.
Speaker 2 (28:30):
We'll put him back together if he hurts himself again,
you know, let him be a kid. And I think
that that is so key for people who have a
disability if they get one and later in life, if
they get one when they are this young, because there
is that sense of agency that's often taken away from
them in so many different areas to life, but sport
gives it back to.
Speaker 3 (28:48):
Them absolutely, and that this I absolutely love because it
is at the core of why the Paralympics are so important.
At nine years old, after London, he met Ellie cole
No and saw her medals and was saying, just saw
her gold and he was like, as a nine year
old I just went that's it, like this, this is.
Speaker 1 (29:10):
What I'm doing.
Speaker 3 (29:10):
And he also he said he'd found swimming in that time,
but it was the first time that he was like, well,
she doesn't have a leg. Yeah, I mean I don't
have a foot, so if she can do it, I
can do it. Like I'm like, I'm going gun ho
for this, and he went so gun ho that at
fourteen years old it was a massive decision for his family.
He moved to Melbourne to allow himself to train and
moved in with his sister, who was twenty five at
the time. This is he said that the town that
(29:33):
he grew up and had more cows than people. So
that's a massive jump, huge culture to then be in
moni ponds and trying to have a crack at something.
But you remember, and this is why the Wooly story
is so fantastic because during COVID he went back to
the farm ye and there was nowhere for him to train,
So he created a lane in a family damn at
(29:55):
the farm that he went. If you duck dived down,
you ain't coming back up. No one knows what's in
this damn. And he said it got so cold like
we're talking to zero zero degrees, that he had to
swim in a wetsuit until his body actually warmed up
enough that he could do.
Speaker 1 (30:11):
But such was his dedication and want to do it.
Speaker 3 (30:14):
And I just love that this ad campaign hasn't been
running just in the lead up to the Power Games.
It was arguably the hero campaign of the Olympics. He's
on billboards around Australia and I just think again, the
more that you get to know Cole and his story
and also his personality, the fact that he's like, how
am I on billboard?
Speaker 1 (30:34):
Like that? That's the worst accent ever And that's not
how he talked. Sorry, Cole listens to.
Speaker 3 (30:40):
That, But it's more like he's just your classic Aussie
Alaric and that you can't help but love. And on
top of that, he's actually ranked number one in the
world in the men's individual medley.
Speaker 2 (30:51):
Yes, I'm expecting huge things, huge things about him in
the two hundred meters, so he's like his peedivent was
always a one hundred meter fly.
Speaker 3 (30:59):
He wasn't happy about how he performed at the trials,
but in the medley, which is only recently found, he's like,
I'm going in the hunted, which I don't mind, like
I like, I'll take that on. But the thought of
him winning gold just or just like just cold.
Speaker 2 (31:12):
He's got to touch to the Molo Callahan's about him
that in that have both red hair, both nervous athletes,
like really because he does kind of I think he
would run the race before like he's even in the water,
if that makes sense.
Speaker 1 (31:26):
He's going through absolutely everything.
Speaker 2 (31:27):
So if he can handle those nerves wrangle them into energy,
that's going to help him be able to perform the
best that he can. I'm expecting podium one thousand percent.
Does he have the MO.
Speaker 1 (31:38):
I'm not sure.
Speaker 2 (31:39):
We'll see he's going to swim with the mo because
sometimes he doesn't do well with the MO and he's
like the mos gone and he.
Speaker 1 (31:43):
Shaves it off. I love him. I love him.
Speaker 2 (31:47):
Go col Go, col Go col Oh my goodness, jellmy,
do we have time for one more?
Speaker 3 (31:51):
We do because we can't not mention it Alexilary. We've
already spoken about Alexilary on this podcast, and again honorable
mentions to Vanessa Lo, who it can only be described
as a superhero.
Speaker 1 (32:04):
We need to jump up.
Speaker 3 (32:07):
I think we'll goss her next week, we'll give her
an airtime. But Alexa Leary just stole the hearts of
the entire country with one of the most heartfelt and
beautiful post race interviews that you'll ever see. Dad crying,
Mum crying because Georgie, I mean, in her own words,
she's not meant to be here. She had a terrible
cycling accident. She was a very promising and by promising,
(32:29):
I mean winning national titles as a triathlete growing up.
Had an accident on her bike and the damage that
she caused to her brain her neck. She also had
several bones broken and punctured her lung.
Speaker 1 (32:40):
That was only in twenty twenty one.
Speaker 3 (32:42):
One hundred and eleven days in hospital with a mum
and dad by her side, and they were told several
times to say goodbye. They turned off the machine and
it became clear that Alexa wasn't breathing for herself, so
they turned it back on and basically brought her family
in and said you need to say goodbye.
Speaker 2 (32:56):
Yeah, multiple times, multiple times. I've been fortunate enough to
interview her family, her gorgeous parents and Alexa and the
love that they have for each other, but also you
can see it in her parents' faces.
Speaker 1 (33:08):
There's almost like they're kind of haunted.
Speaker 2 (33:12):
It's like they always look at her because they can't
believe that she's there because they were told so directly,
make peace with it. Right now, she's not going to
come back. And then at every single step that was
the choice was there for her, she took the other one.
And she's lived, lived, lived, She's always chosen life. She
gets out of hospital, she starts her training because she's like, well,
(33:33):
I can be an athlete again. I was an athlete before,
I'll be an athlete now. And some athlete that she
has become because at those national swimming trials I think
it was in June or July of this year where
she qualified for the Paralympic team. It's her smiling face
that everyone remembers, and it is this post race interview
where she's secured her spot on the plane to Paris
(33:55):
that lives rent free in our mind.
Speaker 1 (33:57):
I'm so proud of myself. I'll really that. Okay, I'm
so proud of myself. What about Dad and Mum? Those messages?
Speaker 2 (34:05):
What did that mean a lot?
Speaker 3 (34:06):
Because they're like, honestly, but I'm gonna be honest, there
the reason why I'm here.
Speaker 1 (34:09):
They've never left my side. That six months in that
hospital never left me.
Speaker 3 (34:13):
They're gonna do all the way through to Paris.
Speaker 2 (34:15):
As well, and my siblings they're coming too, on one
of seven and we're all common. I remember when we
played that when it happened, Jelly, and you were a
puddle of tears.
Speaker 1 (34:29):
And I can see.
Speaker 3 (34:30):
It right now, you're trying not to cry one day.
Oh here alexis story and it won't make me emotional today.
Speaker 1 (34:37):
It's not that day. And it doesn't matter how many
times I hear it.
Speaker 3 (34:40):
I just think what her parents have been through, what
she's been through, her amazing disposition. In a world where
there are some headlines that are just rubbish, she's just
this shining beacon of joy and Australia has wrapped her
arms around her.
Speaker 1 (34:56):
She's been in the feature cover of magazines.
Speaker 2 (34:58):
Oh yeah, she's been on the front cover of Della. Yeah,
don't mind if you do.
Speaker 1 (35:01):
Look like an amaze glamour.
Speaker 3 (35:04):
So she's in the fifty meter freestyle in the S
nine classification.
Speaker 1 (35:07):
That's what she wanted.
Speaker 3 (35:08):
The Australian Swimming Trials, you'll remember, but just a start
to watch someone we've fallen in love with. And again,
I hate to say it because people used to say
it before I became a parent and shut up.
Speaker 1 (35:21):
But when you.
Speaker 3 (35:21):
Become a parent, the thought of sitting at your kid's
bedside and thinking they're not going to be there, and
then the journey to then watch her at trials as
Australia cheered her home and her dad being hysterically, Oh
I can't.
Speaker 2 (35:35):
Her dad just makes me cry. I look at his face.
I cry if.
Speaker 3 (35:38):
He doesn't get the same coverage as Steve Tipmas at
these games.
Speaker 1 (35:42):
I'm going to write, I'm actually going to write, I
want he will locked off camera? He will, he will
locked off camera.
Speaker 2 (35:49):
And we talked about how Maddie de Rosario uses Hosier
to chill out before her races. DJ slightly different, slightly
different for Alexa, she's a DJ, and what I loved
when I to talk to her I asked her about
her love for music, and she's always liked it, but
since her brain injury, music has taken on a whole
different meaning because there's a part of her brain now
(36:11):
that really is just so in touch with music and
it's the beat of it and it's how it makes
her feel.
Speaker 1 (36:15):
So yes, she's.
Speaker 2 (36:16):
DJing when she's out of the pool, and she's always dancing,
she's always singing, and she is just joy personified.
Speaker 1 (36:23):
We wish her well.
Speaker 3 (36:24):
It is almost uncomfortable how many stories we have to
leave out.
Speaker 1 (36:28):
I know, but I refuse to leave this one out.
Speaker 2 (36:30):
Sorry, okay, just really quickly, just really quickly, I'm like, oh,
I just want to give a really quick shout out
to Dan Michelle, who is our leading botcher player. He
won bronze in Tokyo, and really, this is just a
PSA for you all to think about the sport botcher.
Speaker 1 (36:43):
Try and find it. It is one.
Speaker 2 (36:45):
It's a sport along with goldball at the Paralympics that
does not have an Olympic counterpart. It's essentially the best
way that I can describe it. It's like lawn bowls,
but times by a thousand, and it's for people who
have very severe physical disability. They'll be in their mobility
chairs and often with Dan at least Dan can't use
his arms, so when he's playing botcher, which is essentially
(37:08):
getting one ball as close to the jack as possible,
he needs his ramp assistant who's a lovely, gorgeous girl
named Ash Madden who can kind of she's not allowed
to see anything happening. She can't know where the ball is.
You can't see that. She just has to look at Dan.
He'll tell her where he wants the ramp to go.
She'll position it, and then Dan will actually use a
device in his mouth that then sends the ball down
(37:30):
this ramp and it goes and it's like that's his
perfect throat essentially. And so for me, it's one of
those sports that you just don't usually get to see
every day, and it's one that you go wow wow.
And for someone like Dan who grew up loving sport,
he's a mad Roosters fan, you can't have it all.
Speaker 1 (37:48):
We don't like the Roosters. Dan, I'm so sorry. Sounds
like a good bloke up until until that point.
Speaker 2 (37:53):
Until that point, but he grew up with Cronulla with
his younger brother and his younger brother mad sports. Family
could play all of the sport that Dan couldn't. He
always wanted to and then he found Botcher and it
just opened up so much life for him. And I
encourage everyone.
Speaker 1 (38:07):
To watch the stories.
Speaker 3 (38:09):
Oh that we're going to get to hear yes about
these one hundred and sixty odd athletes that we are
sending to Paris, and I just think, engage in it.
Talk to your family about it, talk to your.
Speaker 1 (38:20):
Mate about the video, share.
Speaker 3 (38:22):
All of the engage in it, because like even they're
just the most this is what sport's about. This is
what sport is about. And we couldn't be more pumped.
And it's again upsetting that we can't run for four
hundred hours here because I could, because we could go
through every single athlete and champion then. But we are
already so bloody proud. Go Australia, Georgie. Yes, I've got
(38:51):
a fun fact that wasn't a fun fact until a couple.
Speaker 1 (38:54):
Of days ago. Have I got you hooked? Oh my god,
you got me hooked? Thank you hooked?
Speaker 3 (38:57):
A bizarre tattoo band has been lifted days outed from
the Paris Games for the Paralympics, because in the lead
up to this episode, I was like, well, do we
need to discuss to sist because Paralympians aren't able to
have tattoos that are branded, i e. If they were
to have the Olympic rings, which we know some para
athletes do because they were previously Olympians and now competing
(39:21):
in the Para Games, they faced disqualification because those rings
are technically a brand again something else that you're like, Oh, cool,
para athletes being subject to rules that able body athletes.
Speaker 1 (39:33):
Yeah, what a load of rubbish. Yes, anyway, where's the
common sense?
Speaker 3 (39:37):
Mere days ago and we're talking the twenty fifth of August.
Speaker 1 (39:41):
Because of the.
Speaker 3 (39:42):
Outcry nationally about how terrible a rule that was, they've
lifted it.
Speaker 1 (39:47):
So now Paralympians can have the Olympic rings.
Speaker 3 (39:50):
That is a fun fact because it was a very
You might have seen their headlines because I know that
we ran it in news as well.
Speaker 2 (39:56):
Yeah, they ran whole stories on it, being like isn't
this crazy?
Speaker 1 (40:00):
You could see Paralympians discuss the projects if they.
Speaker 2 (40:03):
Were showing that branding, branding being the Olympic rings. Now,
do all Paralympians want a tattoo of the Olympic rings? No,
the Paralympics do have their own different logo, different logo.
But for those athletes who it does affect, this is
huge that they are now able to just like carry
on with their life.
Speaker 1 (40:18):
What a stupid rule. And also do you know what.
Speaker 3 (40:21):
I will give it credit for so much of the
stories that we saw during the Olympics. Hello a monk
lyf showed the worst side of social media where people
just jumped on the back of something and things escalated
and it wasn't great. People jumped on the back of this,
It escalated and it got resolved.
Speaker 1 (40:37):
Hey, power to the people. Power to the people.
Speaker 3 (40:41):
Go and get whatever tattoos you want, get the golden
arches on your chest for all we care.
Speaker 2 (40:46):
Brand up two Good Sports great brand great you want
to copy. I'm looking at you.
Speaker 1 (40:52):
I know you listen to this podcast, sir, I.
Speaker 2 (40:54):
Know you do.
Speaker 3 (40:56):
That is two Good Sports Sports News definitely told differently.
Please do subscribe at two Good Sports Podcasts and slide
into our dms with any sort of fun facts, because
that is a particularly fun fact for us. And subscribe
to all of the nice things lovely Reviews George.
Speaker 1 (41:12):
Only lovely reviews, only lovely reviews five stars. Please and
we will see you next week. Until then, though, watch
the Paralympics.
Here at two Good Sports.
Speaker 2 (00:02):
We would like to acknowledge the traditional owners of the
land on which we record this podcast. The were Inerie people.
This land was never seated, always was, always will be.
Speaker 1 (00:16):
Uncor dejavus are too good sports. It is so good
to be back in Paris. It's so good to be back.
Speaker 3 (00:26):
And this I'm gonna call it, this is going to
be my favorite episode that we've ever done because we
are talking about one of the great sporting events in
the world, one of our favorites, the Paralympics.
Speaker 1 (00:37):
Oh my, we've had the entree. That's what we call
the Olympics.
Speaker 3 (00:40):
Yes, the main is these absolute superheroes in the Green
and Gold Australia do so well. Bring on the Paris.
It starts on Wednesday. Yes, so we're going to preview
the athletes that you need to know. But I'm getting
ahead of myself.
Speaker 1 (00:54):
That's nonelike hu jure. No.
Speaker 2 (00:56):
We are usually we have tempered all expectations and excitement.
Speaker 1 (00:59):
We are professional till the end, but not professional at
the beginning. So George, good support, bad sport. What have
you got? I have a bad sport. Oh bad sport
this week?
Speaker 2 (01:09):
Yep, And it is actually a public service announcement and
that is that to the dickhead who threw the bottle
at the goal umpire over the weekend in that do
or dieash Carlton Saint Kilda.
Speaker 1 (01:24):
What in the actual hell?
Speaker 2 (01:28):
As at time of this recording, they still have not
been found this person. Apparently they were someone that just
wandered on down through the Carlton supporters section through this
bottle at the goal umpire.
Speaker 1 (01:39):
He needed stitches.
Speaker 2 (01:40):
He couldn't take part in the match anymore. There was
all blood down his cap and down the back of
his neck. I mean, was it a glass bottle?
Speaker 1 (01:47):
Is my next question?
Speaker 2 (01:47):
Like, no, it was just a water bottle. It was
just a plastic mount Frank and washed him and absolutely
he needed stitches. And I just think that there is
imagine being that person waking up today.
Speaker 1 (01:59):
What are you?
Speaker 3 (02:00):
And also just how pathetic and of course this person
when the AFL finds out who they are, and they
will because a lot of people had their phones out
and as you mentioned, it was right near the Carlton
supporter end of the ground, they have a lifetime ban.
Speaker 1 (02:14):
Yes, they'll never be able to go to a football
match again.
Speaker 3 (02:16):
But what Peanut thinks it's impressive to throw a bottle
at someone else.
Speaker 1 (02:21):
It is the ultimate bad sport. Yeah, ultimate bad sport.
Speaker 2 (02:24):
And if that person happened to be I mean one
they're not a fan of football, I would argue for
them to behave in this way.
Speaker 1 (02:30):
If they just don't see it, oh we never see it.
We never see it.
Speaker 2 (02:33):
And if they are alleged, if they comes out and
they say that they're a Carlton fan or they're a
same Kilder fan, then I think that a Patrick Crips
should come and actually shop up their membership card or
whatever it is and be like, veto you will never
you don't belong in this game.
Speaker 1 (02:46):
We don't want you.
Speaker 3 (02:47):
Patrick Crips is too busy crying after the result yesterday,
although they did eventually slide into the finals. So this
is my good sport. And I'm not saying that they're
good sports. I'm saying this was good sport to watch
because the fact that the AFL home and away season
that has been so close, and Georgie, you've already expressed
(03:07):
that you don't like close seasons.
Speaker 2 (03:09):
I know, which is crazy for me really, because did
I spend a million hours over the weekend watching all
of the games, which actually meant something I did, Yeah,
I did.
Speaker 1 (03:17):
And I did.
Speaker 3 (03:17):
That is the beauty of it, and it almost felt
like a wild card round in the fact that you
got to the final two games of the season and
you're like, right, Carlton just need to win this after
being top two for however many weeks throughout the season
to let these poor bagg of fans finally make the finals.
And then Jack Higgins just decides that he's going to
kick a miracle goal and Ross Lyon who said we're
(03:39):
gonna be the grinch and more the point Pauls and
killed a supporters that are like where is this all season?
But they lost by two points, so Carlton then had
to sit and watch. Never have Victorian fans been so
engaged in a match in the West between Fremantle and
Port to find out whether or not Carlton made the finals.
And there was only one point in it at halftime,
(04:01):
but as a reformed Freemantle supporter, Freeho did what Freeho
always do, loose, we just look like they should play
Vinyls and then just give it up.
Speaker 2 (04:12):
It was very very close and a shout out here
to Dan does footy who always loved it. We love
Dan Gorange. If you don't follow him, I don't know
who you are.
Speaker 1 (04:21):
I don't know how. She's the male version of Sports
News told differently.
Speaker 2 (04:25):
He is watching. His reaction was almost better than watching
the game. He's the stuff, honestly, honestly, and because we
do like to give ourselves pats on the back here
deal listener, you know I would like it knowing that
I said famously, they will lose it with three seconds
to go. I was out by nine seconds. They lost
it with twelve seconds to go. But I want it
written in stone. She's still psychic, Carlton.
Speaker 1 (04:46):
What on earth?
Speaker 3 (04:46):
Georgie also said Sin Kilda would make the finals or
was it the top four?
Speaker 1 (04:50):
It was the top four.
Speaker 3 (04:50):
It was almost the tall reference, but wonderful for sport.
It's the best part of footy when you're not even
loosely engaged in either team and you're on the edge
of your set.
Speaker 1 (05:02):
That's just good sports. Yep. So look, I'll take I'll
take back what I said about me not loving a
competition this close.
Speaker 2 (05:11):
But I'll choose to bring it back when it suits me.
Speaker 1 (05:15):
Right now. As tup predictions, who wins a flag. Oh, actually,
well I think Brisbane will win. So I think Brisbane Queensland.
Speaker 2 (05:21):
Ye I know, I know, but but this is very
unlike me because I've never believed in them before. So
when they've always had this hype in recent years, I'm like.
Speaker 1 (05:30):
That's they're not winning. That team's not winning. And now,
because I don't believe.
Speaker 2 (05:34):
In any other team, I look at all of the
others because the competition's so close, and I'm like, they're
not winning. I'm like, you know who's also never been winning, Lions,
They'll win, They'll win, right.
Speaker 3 (05:46):
Okay, so we're got to time code this and play
it back in case people look like geniuses.
Speaker 1 (05:49):
I'm going to go with the Giants.
Speaker 3 (05:51):
You said that at the start of the season, and
I just think they were They were so close to
making the Big Dance, and I just think that they
have game winners. I still believe in the Giants, even
though the Dogs decided to make a mockery of them. Okay,
let let us get to our main chat because I'm
excited coming up next.
Speaker 1 (06:22):
Jomie, are you feeling hungry always? I'm pregnant time.
Speaker 3 (06:28):
I'm literally never stated I will always be snacking, but
we are ready.
Speaker 1 (06:34):
That intro went far better than I can imagine.
Speaker 3 (06:37):
The Paralympics. We are so so excited. Georgie's remembered to
bring her jacket in for the Green and Gold. I
should have remembered, but I did not. That we are
heading back to Paris because between the twenty eighth of
August to the eighth of September, you see some of
the most inspirational athletes in the world are coming together
(06:57):
to compete for Glory Country and we are just so
so excited. And some of our favorite Australian athletes full stop, yeah,
are going to be part of this team.
Speaker 1 (07:06):
Well, this is the.
Speaker 2 (07:07):
Thing, Jemmy, and what I think is key to point
out is that you and I actually have quite a
history with the Paralympics.
Speaker 1 (07:12):
In this event.
Speaker 3 (07:13):
Your first podcast Paralympics, my.
Speaker 2 (07:16):
Very very first podcast, I had the honor of doing
a double handed podcast with Kurt Fernley, a bit of
a big name.
Speaker 1 (07:24):
Yeah, I just with the.
Speaker 2 (07:26):
Legendary Kurt firmly called you Little Ripper. He's still a
part of it. Check it out. And through that podcast
and getting to know him, I got to know some
of these incredible athletes and their journeys and their stories,
and honestly, you say that there's some of our favorite athletes,
they really really are. You've covered the Paralympics extensively over
your career, so you know these guys really really well too.
Speaker 3 (07:47):
And also just again through the virtue of what you
and I do, I've had speaking gigs where I've been
with Curtis McGrath and Cole Piers and to see how
you could hear a pin drop when they tell their
stories and just the charm and charisma they bring. These
are just some of the best personalities that we have
in sport. Let alone the fact that they're some of
the best in the world. Yeah, we still achieve.
Speaker 2 (08:09):
So I mean, dear listener, think about the enthusiasm and
the patriotism that you had on display during the Olympics.
Speaker 1 (08:16):
Those two weeks of the Olympic magnify.
Speaker 2 (08:17):
It magnifying, Oh my god, because it is going to
get serious and we're only days away.
Speaker 1 (08:23):
So let's give you some key facts.
Speaker 3 (08:25):
There are twenty two sports on the program, and again
they don't they're not the same program as what you
see at the Olympics. Like there's even some mixed events,
which is really interesting. There's more than four thousand athletes
from around the world competing in five hundred and forty
nine medal events to Australia is sending one hundred and
sixty athletes to Paris. And the Paralympic Games are governed
(08:45):
by the Paralympic Committee, so the IPC as opposed to
the IOC.
Speaker 2 (08:49):
Yes, the Paralympics first established in its current form in
nineteen sixty, but they've also been held at the same venues,
the same city as the Olympics since nineteen eighty eight,
which has always been I think such a wonderful, wonderful
tradition for it to keep.
Speaker 3 (09:06):
Going as absolutely and Australia has participated in every official
Paralympic since nineteen sixty.
Speaker 1 (09:11):
And we're bloody good. We are good. We are bloody good.
Speaker 3 (09:15):
We've always been competitive. In Sydney two thousand, we topped
the table.
Speaker 1 (09:18):
Of course we did. Of course we did well. I'm
not surprised. I'm sorry.
Speaker 3 (09:22):
We topped the table with one hundred and forty nine medals, sixty.
Speaker 1 (09:27):
Three gold oriel. Are you for real? No wonder because
good quantas bring those back.
Speaker 3 (09:33):
Luckily we were already in Sydney, so frames wouldn't be
so heavy.
Speaker 2 (09:37):
For you if you are the next high has finished
for us in terms of the overall metal tally, we
were second on the table in Atlanta in nineteen ninety six.
Speaker 1 (09:48):
I think Jelmy that we are set, we are.
Speaker 2 (09:51):
Poised for a bumper performance because last start in Tokyo,
we didn't have from our lofty standards, we didn't make
be achieved where we necessarily wanted to. We were eighth
on the medal tally. Eighty medals, twenty one gold, twenty
nine silver, thirty bronze. I mean that still sounds it's
still incredigeous, It is incredible, but I think that there's
(10:12):
improvement there and the team.
Speaker 1 (10:13):
Will know that.
Speaker 3 (10:14):
And you also imagine all the restrictions on these athletes
that would be unable to train in their usual facilities
because of what was going on with COVID. Yes, yes,
so we'll let them have it. Yes, but we are
primed well her Paris. We are absolutely primed. And something
that is important to understand and can be a little
bit confusing about the Paralympics is all the categories and
it is something where the letter denotes what's brought they're
(10:36):
part of and then the number with the highest number
being the highest level of disabilities, and then it sort
of ascends and there's again different categories within that. So
within swimming it would be s one to ten is
based on physical disability, and then I think it's from
eleven to twelve it's based on vision, and then thirteen
would indicate that there's a mental disability. But you don't
(10:57):
necessarily need to know all of that. You do need
to know and again this is our mate call Piers
describes it. Is it essentially like weight divisions in boxing.
Speaker 1 (11:05):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (11:06):
Yeah, to keep things fair, we make sure that you're
punching on with people that are just around your category
and you go from there.
Speaker 2 (11:12):
I think that that's so right And what I would
encourage everyone when you're watching the Paralympics, because you'll be
wanting to, like anyone who hasn't got around it before,
this is your year.
Speaker 1 (11:22):
It is the social Where have you been? Where? Let
it go?
Speaker 2 (11:25):
Where have you been? It is the social media games. Though,
so TikTok with these athletes. I'm on the record of
saying the Paralympic TikTok account is one of the greatest
social media accounts that you will ever be allowed or
able to follow, So make sure you're doing that. But
we are going to be seeing so many incredible performances
and it's just going to be fun. And what I
love about this event so much is that often you
(11:47):
won't even.
Speaker 1 (11:48):
See their disability.
Speaker 2 (11:49):
It will be so entrenched in the competition of their sport,
in the competition of the event that they're in, and
you will forget like you won't even notice it.
Speaker 1 (11:58):
And I think that that's wonderful. Want you to forget, well,
they do because they want to be known for their sport.
Speaker 3 (12:02):
They're competing for Australia. There's gold medal, there's a podium.
That's all you need to know.
Speaker 1 (12:07):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (12:07):
Yeah, The question is how do you think that? Their
first question that they're asked will be how do you
think you went? Not how did you lose your leg?
Speaker 1 (12:14):
Totally? And I think that that, Oh, I love that
it has got a bit of a chill. That's really cool.
That's what it is.
Speaker 2 (12:19):
That's that's and that I think is what sets these
athletes apart from everywhere else in the world is because
they're just as cutthroat as the next person.
Speaker 1 (12:28):
Oh that they want to win. They want to win.
Speaker 2 (12:31):
And on that note, we have selected some winners for
you to look out for during the Paralympics and show
me the last time we did this with the Olympians.
Speaker 1 (12:41):
Not to brag, but.
Speaker 2 (12:42):
We tail miss, not miss.
Speaker 3 (12:46):
So let's start with Angie Ballard because she is one
of the captains and that is a difference that you'll
notice between the Paralympics and the Olympics. We have team
captains as well as flag bearers.
Speaker 1 (12:56):
We double down.
Speaker 3 (12:57):
So these were announced over a year ago. She is
compete at her seventh Paralympics. Mentor, she made her debut
for Australia in two thousand. Dear listener, selback to how
old you were in two thousand and imagine still competing
at the elite level during that time. So she's a
wheelchair racer and she said that the progression that she's
seen in the sport in that time has been such
(13:19):
a special part of her journey and that she remembers
how much mentors helped her even understand the opportunities that
were available and now to be in this position as
a captain is so special for her. But also to
see that we're sending one hundred and sixty athletes. The
advertising around these games that are in mainstream supermarkets huge, huge.
Speaker 2 (13:40):
And I think for Angie, I mean she has been
such a mainstay of this team. I mean, if you
were to just randomly bump into a Paralympian, lucky you,
and you got to talk to them, like, she'll be
one of the first names that they would mention about
hotly you're most looking forward to rejoining in the camp
because one of the key roles as a captain or
co captain of this team is vibe.
Speaker 1 (14:00):
You have to.
Speaker 2 (14:00):
Bring the vibe, and so Angie she has all of
that experience her seventh Paralympics. I think this is a
wonderful it's wonderful recognition.
Speaker 1 (14:10):
For gold and for silver.
Speaker 2 (14:12):
She's incredible across multiple distances as well. That's what I
love about the Paralympics too. You will see these athletes
and you will see them compete across a vast array
of distances and across different events sometimes too, because what
they can do it's actually unbelievable. So she's bringing vibe,
but she'll also be looking to bring a medal home
(14:32):
because in Tokyo she did make it to the finals.
In her three events, that's the T fifty three hundred meters,
four hundred meters and eight hundred meters, So I know
she will just be so keen to get on that
podium and I'm so excited to see how she actually
moves through that field because in all of these events,
usually with the wheelchair racing, it comes down a lot
(14:54):
to strategy and you're positioning, especially on the track in
the shorter distances, and I think that she's going to
do very, very well.
Speaker 1 (15:01):
I hope she does.
Speaker 3 (15:02):
Her co Captain Georgie is one of the most well
known paralympians that we have in the country.
Speaker 1 (15:07):
Yes, in Curtis McGrath, Oh it helps it. He looks
like a ken doll. It does.
Speaker 3 (15:11):
It does like as in, he just looks like your
quintessential athlete. And his story is something that is remarkable,
and again I've been lucky enough to hear him tell
this story in person, and the fact that he firstly
he was serving his country. So he joined the army
at eighteen years old and he was sent to Afghanistan
and part of his job there as an engineer was
(15:34):
basically they were finding these improvised explosive devices or IEDs,
and making sure they were detonated so that they could move. Basically,
people could move safely from one spot to another. And
he describes the day that he stood on an ied
that he describes would have been only the size of
one of those Shabani yogurts, essentially, and because it wasn't
(15:54):
made of metal, their devices didn't pick it up. His
legs disappeared out from under him, and he says that,
you know, some people recount that when you're going through
that much trauma, you don't feel anything. He's like, that's
a lie. I felt everything. I just can't describe to
you the pain that I was in. But meanwhile, his
platoon and the fellow soldiers around him are having to
tornicae him to try to save his legs. He's bleeding out.
(16:18):
He's the one giving them instructions on what to do.
They're hoping that a helicopter gets to him, so by
the time they tornicate him, he's waiting for this chopper
to come. And he knew he only had an hour
they called the golden hour, in which if you do
receive care, you're more likely to survive. And he really
genuinely had to think about what life would be like
if he didn't make it. He told them where on
(16:38):
his laptop to find letters to print for his loved ones,
including his then girlfriend who's now his wife, and all
of this sort of stuff ran through his head. But
in that moment, he sensed just how upset everyone else
was around him, so he said, don't worry, guys, you'll
see me at the Paralympics. So while he's on the
(16:58):
dirt Afghanistan waiting for a chopper, he has gone, don't worry, guys,
you'll see me at the Paralympics. But then there's a
follow up to this which I didn't hear, and I
was like, do we omit this for the Green and
Gold Games, at which he said I'll be in the
black and white, though not for Australia as a joke,
as a dark humor, because one of his like again
(17:21):
one of the other Assie soldiers, was like, mate, do
you want to walk yourself to this chopper? Because he
said that's what Australians do in times of distress, they
make light of things.
Speaker 1 (17:31):
Yeah, and he could very well have represented New Zealand,
oh very very much. So when everyone's upset about Matthew Richardson.
Speaker 3 (17:37):
With a cycling you win some, you lose some, and
gratefully we won Curtis McGrath because he then went on
to be a three time gold medalist in the canoe.
Speaker 2 (17:46):
Yeah, the para canoe and four it only took four
years as well, like it was four so he was
in this god awful accident lost his legs. It was
four years before he was competing in the para canoe.
And in the para canoe. Like the level of discipline
in like his personality. He's very, very funny. He has
(18:07):
a dry sense of humor.
Speaker 1 (18:09):
But he's disciplined.
Speaker 2 (18:10):
Discipline comes through and he's so clinical and everything that
he does, he even and when I say he's got
me a little bit of a dark sense of humor.
His social media game is really strong and he actually
has posted recently about the anniversary of when he lost
his legs and he was saying exactly that story tell
me about you know, he was sent out to try
and locate these IEDs and technically he did that very well.
Speaker 1 (18:35):
In his words, and.
Speaker 2 (18:38):
This is what I love about This is what I
love about the Paralympics, right because people who have disabilities
are often treated and looked at with pity, and they're like, oh,
you don't have a p you can't joke about it.
And this is when you get to learn that they're
just people.
Speaker 1 (18:53):
They're just people who are Faye, that's so good.
Speaker 2 (18:58):
And also shout out to him because he is in
for a bumper event because yes, he's the reigning champion.
Speaker 1 (19:04):
In two events I think from Tokyo.
Speaker 2 (19:06):
But also he is celebrating the birth of his first baby,
a baby boy named Monty, who is already a fighter
because he had to have open heart surgery.
Speaker 1 (19:15):
And we're talking with in the last couple of weeks.
Speaker 2 (19:17):
The last couple of weeks in the game, surgery just
hours after he was born.
Speaker 1 (19:22):
He's doing well now and Curtis and his wife are
coping very very well.
Speaker 2 (19:27):
But I mean, what like, luckily he doesn't have the
discipline and the compartmentalization to be able to deal with that.
Speaker 1 (19:33):
It's incredible. He is a movie. He is Captain America,
Captain Australia in Australia.
Speaker 3 (19:39):
And also please and when you do hear Curtisy, he
does have a bit of a Kiwi accent.
Speaker 1 (19:43):
Yes, so ignore that he's a member. We are claiming him.
Ala Russell Crow, thank you for your time.
Speaker 3 (19:50):
But I think the thing to note about Curtis two
is that he did very much remember life as an
able body person in his legs and all that sort
of stuf. Whereas a lot of the paralympians go, you
know what, we don't actually want our disability to be
highlighted any differently than that person has blue eyes or
grows us. It's just part of who I am, and
I don't need it to be a positive spin to
(20:11):
be put on it, because that infers that it's negative,
whereas this is just this is just me. And one
of the people that speaks like that is our flag bearer,
Madison de Versario. You may recognize her from a barbie
that was released in twenty twenty, and she is like
the package.
Speaker 1 (20:28):
Oh she's one of the hottest.
Speaker 2 (20:29):
She's usc Oh my god, she is gorgeous, gorgeous.
Speaker 1 (20:35):
She also happens to be very talented. Sad note s note.
Speaker 3 (20:40):
She is the defending gold medalist in two events coming
out of Tokyo, the eight hundred meters and the marathon.
She's actually won both in New York and the London
Marathon if you don't mind, But she just is someone
that if you were a brand, you'd be doing anything
to get your logo anywhere near this person. She is
just phenomenal and to have her as a flagbary is
(21:02):
just so fitting.
Speaker 2 (21:03):
Oh my goodness, what this woman has achieved and what
I love about her is because Jelmy, she is finding
that voice, and I would say especially over the last
definitely over the last Paralympic campaign, but arguably even before that,
she's started to find her voice and speak up for
all of the issues that she is that are really
(21:23):
important to her, and she's definitely sees her future away
from sport in that advocacy space.
Speaker 1 (21:30):
What I love about her is that she.
Speaker 2 (21:32):
Began her career as a teenager, like she was a
baby as well, and she really had that mentality as
most athletes do, of you know that killer instinct and
I'm gonna get you and all this da da da da,
But it led her to be quite burnt out. Yes,
so then she had to take a step back and
be like, hang on a second, this isn't really working
for me. The sport's not working for me, Like maybe
(21:52):
I just have to give it away. She reassessed everything,
and she figured out that, hang on a second, I'm
really not that competitive in my everyday life. In her
own words, if her family was having a board game,
they wouldn't pick her to be on their team because
she's always the timekeeper, because she just doesn't really care.
Speaker 3 (22:10):
I'll see, my family don't pick me to be on
their team because I'll stab you in the eye if
you don't guess my pictionary drawing and we lose. So
perhaps perhaps some very different people Madison, but that's okay.
Speaker 1 (22:23):
I love it. I love it, and she's I mean
one hundred percent. You know, you and I we'd have
to like tie our hands behind our backs so we
can injure call mame our family members.
Speaker 2 (22:32):
But also just to put it like a finer point
on that she's taken that into her racing in that
you know, we might see remember when Michael Phelps would
come out, he'd have.
Speaker 1 (22:41):
Like the big headphones on.
Speaker 2 (22:42):
It's like listening to before eraces. You know, he's got
that pump up mix. Maddie de Rosario listens to, in
her words, a sad girl playlist which is headlined by Hosier.
She's listening to hosey on the start line just to
chill because she's like, yeah, this is what this works.
Speaker 1 (22:59):
For me, and doesn't it just doesn't it? Just with
that approach she led to gold Gold Gold, Gold Gold
in Tokyo.
Speaker 3 (23:06):
So Maddie's story as to how she became a paralympian
is that she is in a wheelchair. At age four,
she caught the flu, but she said she didn't have
any symptoms, and there was a rare autoimmune disease that
then developed and it basically started attacking the flu, but
then also her body itself and the spinal cord. So
while she says, I don't actually have any memories of
(23:27):
being able bodied, I can like sort of kind of
remember dancing, but really this has just been me and
my life. And she credits her parents and so such
a common thread with a lot of these paralympians is
just how incredible their parents were with giving them every
opportunity and just treating them like every other kid, which,
of course they are.
Speaker 1 (23:46):
The village that it takes.
Speaker 2 (23:47):
Yes, right, we often talk about the village that it
takes to raise an athlete. That village is amplified when
it comes to para athletes, Yes, for sure, for sure. Yeah,
And I think that one thing, one other thing. I've
got so many fun facts about Maddie because I just
love this much, but I love her coach. And I
think that for people who have just you know, have
seen the Paralympics in their periphery, they're not really too
(24:09):
much across it. I guarantee you know the name Louise Savage, yes,
because she was the in credible Paralympian for Australia and
I remember watching her at the two thousand Sydney Paralympics
and I would remember her and I remember Kurt Fernley,
and those are the names that really did hold up
the entire event, let alone just parasport as a genre,
(24:31):
I think, for quite some time. And so she now
is the one that is mentoring training and really you know,
kind of building these sort of foundations and that advocacy
into Maddie. And I don't think that that is a coincidence.
Speaker 3 (24:46):
Louise needs to be in the discussion of one of
our greatest athletes of all time, all.
Speaker 2 (24:50):
Time, and she's just damn lovely as well, ya so
lovely that which brings us too.
Speaker 1 (24:56):
So Maddie's going to be a flag bearer, you need
to flat. So we've gone.
Speaker 3 (25:00):
Captain captain flag bearer now into flag bearer.
Speaker 1 (25:03):
Was a lot of leadership.
Speaker 2 (25:04):
Roles and we are heading back to the pool because
one of our most incredible athletes is Brendan Hall, who
was going to be competing at his fifth Paralympic Games
and that he is going to have the honor of
being a flag bearer as well. He's a three time
Paralympic gold medalist. As you do, as you do again.
(25:25):
I think growing up it was like I was such
a big fan of Matt Cowdrey in the pool, Like
remember him with his little frosted tips and he was
so gorgeous and he was like he was the para
swimmer that I was like, obsessed with everything that you're doing.
Speaker 1 (25:37):
The one who was next to him in all of
those places was Brendan Hall. Was Brendan Hall.
Speaker 3 (25:42):
And his events are one hundred meters backstro s nine,
the one hundred meters butterfly s nine, and also the
four hundred meter freestyle S nine.
Speaker 2 (25:50):
Too many events, I mean, and too many specialties.
Speaker 3 (25:53):
He's the reigning world record holder in the four hundred
the eight hundred and the fifteen hundred.
Speaker 2 (25:58):
What I love with overa overachiever is that when you
do get slightly older and you get more mature, and
you have that experience and you really back what you
know works for you, it opens up a lot more
doors and you get the freedom to do a lot
of different things, try some different training techniques. For Brendan,
that has really transpired in the love that he's developed
for open water swimming. Oh and so he loves doing
(26:20):
it because he says, it's pretty much a level playing
field really when you're out there in the open water,
so he is everyone everyone's getting smashed, right, And so
I think that that him that's allowed him to get
a little bit more fun in what we know can
be a very very grueling regime. He's also faud he's
done avoid, he's done a can macka voice.
Speaker 1 (26:40):
Let me see later in my career if I can
check this up and make it interesting. Yeah, And I
think it's cool.
Speaker 2 (26:44):
This is going to be his farewell games. But he
has also found a new sense of purpose out of
the pool too. He's got a two year old named
Body who is just.
Speaker 3 (26:53):
So slashed across the Classic. He's there carrying him with
his ticket to Paris.
Speaker 2 (27:00):
He's just started swimming lessons like he's so gorgeous and
he's got one on the way. So actually he really
doesn't have time when you think about it, to go
from another Paralympic campaign, because he's gonna be busy.
Speaker 3 (27:10):
If you to have one child another on the way,
no one you want to swim into open water, just
keep going and give yourself a break so that no
one can reach you from personal experience.
Speaker 1 (27:23):
But someone who we love here to you. We have
to mention col Piers.
Speaker 3 (27:29):
You may know him from a certain wulworsad where there
is a jam in a small dairy town and you
can tell they've created a lane by using milk cuttons.
This is a story of Coal Piers and that town.
He says there's more cows than people. It is on
the border of New South Wales and Victoria. And you
just cannot hear this person speak and k not go oh.
Speaker 1 (27:51):
I love him.
Speaker 3 (27:52):
He's your classic Aussie Alarican and his attitude is incredible,
so much so that he lost part of his foot
when he was two years old with a right on
lawnmower accident, which he goes yeah, it sounds bad, but
it wasn't a big deal, like I don't remember it,
like whatever, like whatever, I don't really remember it. And
he was like all through school like I competed with
(28:12):
all my mates. And by that, I'm sure you want
me to say able bodied people, but sure like he
just was never treated any differently and that's.
Speaker 1 (28:19):
The key, right totally.
Speaker 2 (28:20):
He even credits like the doctor who treated him at
the Royal Children's Hospital way back when for telling his
parents to let Cole.
Speaker 1 (28:28):
Do whatever he wants.
Speaker 2 (28:30):
We'll put him back together if he hurts himself again,
you know, let him be a kid. And I think
that that is so key for people who have a
disability if they get one and later in life, if
they get one when they are this young, because there
is that sense of agency that's often taken away from
them in so many different areas to life, but sport
gives it back to.
Speaker 3 (28:48):
Them absolutely, and that this I absolutely love because it
is at the core of why the Paralympics are so important.
At nine years old, after London, he met Ellie cole
No and saw her medals and was saying, just saw
her gold and he was like, as a nine year
old I just went that's it, like this, this is.
Speaker 1 (29:10):
What I'm doing.
Speaker 3 (29:10):
And he also he said he'd found swimming in that time,
but it was the first time that he was like, well,
she doesn't have a leg. Yeah, I mean I don't
have a foot, so if she can do it, I
can do it. Like I'm like, I'm going gun ho
for this, and he went so gun ho that at
fourteen years old it was a massive decision for his family.
He moved to Melbourne to allow himself to train and
moved in with his sister, who was twenty five at
the time. This is he said that the town that
(29:33):
he grew up and had more cows than people. So
that's a massive jump, huge culture to then be in
moni ponds and trying to have a crack at something.
But you remember, and this is why the Wooly story
is so fantastic because during COVID he went back to
the farm ye and there was nowhere for him to train,
So he created a lane in a family damn at
(29:55):
the farm that he went. If you duck dived down,
you ain't coming back up. No one knows what's in
this damn. And he said it got so cold like
we're talking to zero zero degrees, that he had to
swim in a wetsuit until his body actually warmed up
enough that he could do.
Speaker 1 (30:11):
But such was his dedication and want to do it.
Speaker 3 (30:14):
And I just love that this ad campaign hasn't been
running just in the lead up to the Power Games.
It was arguably the hero campaign of the Olympics. He's
on billboards around Australia and I just think again, the
more that you get to know Cole and his story
and also his personality, the fact that he's like, how
am I on billboard?
Speaker 1 (30:34):
Like that? That's the worst accent ever And that's not
how he talked. Sorry, Cole listens to.
Speaker 3 (30:40):
That, But it's more like he's just your classic Aussie
Alaric and that you can't help but love. And on
top of that, he's actually ranked number one in the
world in the men's individual medley.
Speaker 2 (30:51):
Yes, I'm expecting huge things, huge things about him in
the two hundred meters, so he's like his peedivent was
always a one hundred meter fly.
Speaker 3 (30:59):
He wasn't happy about how he performed at the trials,
but in the medley, which is only recently found, he's like,
I'm going in the hunted, which I don't mind, like
I like, I'll take that on. But the thought of
him winning gold just or just like just cold.
Speaker 2 (31:12):
He's got to touch to the Molo Callahan's about him
that in that have both red hair, both nervous athletes,
like really because he does kind of I think he
would run the race before like he's even in the water,
if that makes sense.
Speaker 1 (31:26):
He's going through absolutely everything.
Speaker 2 (31:27):
So if he can handle those nerves wrangle them into energy,
that's going to help him be able to perform the
best that he can. I'm expecting podium one thousand percent.
Does he have the MO.
Speaker 1 (31:38):
I'm not sure.
Speaker 2 (31:39):
We'll see he's going to swim with the mo because
sometimes he doesn't do well with the MO and he's
like the mos gone and he.
Speaker 1 (31:43):
Shaves it off. I love him. I love him.
Speaker 2 (31:47):
Go col Go, col Go col Oh my goodness, jellmy,
do we have time for one more?
Speaker 3 (31:51):
We do because we can't not mention it Alexilary. We've
already spoken about Alexilary on this podcast, and again honorable
mentions to Vanessa Lo, who it can only be described
as a superhero.
Speaker 1 (32:04):
We need to jump up.
Speaker 3 (32:07):
I think we'll goss her next week, we'll give her
an airtime. But Alexa Leary just stole the hearts of
the entire country with one of the most heartfelt and
beautiful post race interviews that you'll ever see. Dad crying,
Mum crying because Georgie, I mean, in her own words,
she's not meant to be here. She had a terrible
cycling accident. She was a very promising and by promising,
(32:29):
I mean winning national titles as a triathlete growing up.
Had an accident on her bike and the damage that
she caused to her brain her neck. She also had
several bones broken and punctured her lung.
Speaker 1 (32:40):
That was only in twenty twenty one.
Speaker 3 (32:42):
One hundred and eleven days in hospital with a mum
and dad by her side, and they were told several
times to say goodbye. They turned off the machine and
it became clear that Alexa wasn't breathing for herself, so
they turned it back on and basically brought her family
in and said you need to say goodbye.
Speaker 2 (32:56):
Yeah, multiple times, multiple times. I've been fortunate enough to
interview her family, her gorgeous parents and Alexa and the
love that they have for each other, but also you
can see it in her parents' faces.
Speaker 1 (33:08):
There's almost like they're kind of haunted.
Speaker 2 (33:12):
It's like they always look at her because they can't
believe that she's there because they were told so directly,
make peace with it. Right now, she's not going to
come back. And then at every single step that was
the choice was there for her, she took the other one.
And she's lived, lived, lived, She's always chosen life. She
gets out of hospital, she starts her training because she's like, well,
(33:33):
I can be an athlete again. I was an athlete before,
I'll be an athlete now. And some athlete that she
has become because at those national swimming trials I think
it was in June or July of this year where
she qualified for the Paralympic team. It's her smiling face
that everyone remembers, and it is this post race interview
where she's secured her spot on the plane to Paris
(33:55):
that lives rent free in our mind.
Speaker 1 (33:57):
I'm so proud of myself. I'll really that. Okay, I'm
so proud of myself. What about Dad and Mum? Those messages?
Speaker 2 (34:05):
What did that mean a lot?
Speaker 3 (34:06):
Because they're like, honestly, but I'm gonna be honest, there
the reason why I'm here.
Speaker 1 (34:09):
They've never left my side. That six months in that
hospital never left me.
Speaker 3 (34:13):
They're gonna do all the way through to Paris.
Speaker 2 (34:15):
As well, and my siblings they're coming too, on one
of seven and we're all common. I remember when we
played that when it happened, Jelly, and you were a
puddle of tears.
Speaker 1 (34:29):
And I can see.
Speaker 3 (34:30):
It right now, you're trying not to cry one day.
Oh here alexis story and it won't make me emotional today.
Speaker 1 (34:37):
It's not that day. And it doesn't matter how many
times I hear it.
Speaker 3 (34:40):
I just think what her parents have been through, what
she's been through, her amazing disposition. In a world where
there are some headlines that are just rubbish, she's just
this shining beacon of joy and Australia has wrapped her
arms around her.
Speaker 1 (34:56):
She's been in the feature cover of magazines.
Speaker 2 (34:58):
Oh yeah, she's been on the front cover of Della. Yeah,
don't mind if you do.
Speaker 1 (35:01):
Look like an amaze glamour.
Speaker 3 (35:04):
So she's in the fifty meter freestyle in the S
nine classification.
Speaker 1 (35:07):
That's what she wanted.
Speaker 3 (35:08):
The Australian Swimming Trials, you'll remember, but just a start
to watch someone we've fallen in love with. And again,
I hate to say it because people used to say
it before I became a parent and shut up.
Speaker 1 (35:21):
But when you.
Speaker 3 (35:21):
Become a parent, the thought of sitting at your kid's
bedside and thinking they're not going to be there, and
then the journey to then watch her at trials as
Australia cheered her home and her dad being hysterically, Oh
I can't.
Speaker 2 (35:35):
Her dad just makes me cry. I look at his face.
I cry if.
Speaker 3 (35:38):
He doesn't get the same coverage as Steve Tipmas at
these games.
Speaker 1 (35:42):
I'm going to write, I'm actually going to write, I
want he will locked off camera? He will, he will
locked off camera.
Speaker 2 (35:49):
And we talked about how Maddie de Rosario uses Hosier
to chill out before her races. DJ slightly different, slightly
different for Alexa, she's a DJ, and what I loved
when I to talk to her I asked her about
her love for music, and she's always liked it, but
since her brain injury, music has taken on a whole
different meaning because there's a part of her brain now
(36:11):
that really is just so in touch with music and
it's the beat of it and it's how it makes
her feel.
Speaker 1 (36:15):
So yes, she's.
Speaker 2 (36:16):
DJing when she's out of the pool, and she's always dancing,
she's always singing, and she is just joy personified.
Speaker 1 (36:23):
We wish her well.
Speaker 3 (36:24):
It is almost uncomfortable how many stories we have to
leave out.
Speaker 1 (36:28):
I know, but I refuse to leave this one out.
Speaker 2 (36:30):
Sorry, okay, just really quickly, just really quickly, I'm like, oh,
I just want to give a really quick shout out
to Dan Michelle, who is our leading botcher player. He
won bronze in Tokyo, and really, this is just a
PSA for you all to think about the sport botcher.
Speaker 1 (36:43):
Try and find it. It is one.
Speaker 2 (36:45):
It's a sport along with goldball at the Paralympics that
does not have an Olympic counterpart. It's essentially the best
way that I can describe it. It's like lawn bowls,
but times by a thousand, and it's for people who
have very severe physical disability. They'll be in their mobility
chairs and often with Dan at least Dan can't use
his arms, so when he's playing botcher, which is essentially
(37:08):
getting one ball as close to the jack as possible,
he needs his ramp assistant who's a lovely, gorgeous girl
named Ash Madden who can kind of she's not allowed
to see anything happening. She can't know where the ball is.
You can't see that. She just has to look at Dan.
He'll tell her where he wants the ramp to go.
She'll position it, and then Dan will actually use a
device in his mouth that then sends the ball down
(37:30):
this ramp and it goes and it's like that's his
perfect throat essentially. And so for me, it's one of
those sports that you just don't usually get to see
every day, and it's one that you go wow wow.
And for someone like Dan who grew up loving sport,
he's a mad Roosters fan, you can't have it all.
Speaker 1 (37:48):
We don't like the Roosters. Dan, I'm so sorry. Sounds
like a good bloke up until until that point.
Speaker 2 (37:53):
Until that point, but he grew up with Cronulla with
his younger brother and his younger brother mad sports. Family
could play all of the sport that Dan couldn't. He
always wanted to and then he found Botcher and it
just opened up so much life for him. And I
encourage everyone.
Speaker 1 (38:07):
To watch the stories.
Speaker 3 (38:09):
Oh that we're going to get to hear yes about
these one hundred and sixty odd athletes that we are
sending to Paris, and I just think, engage in it.
Talk to your family about it, talk to your.
Speaker 1 (38:20):
Mate about the video, share.
Speaker 3 (38:22):
All of the engage in it, because like even they're
just the most this is what sport's about. This is
what sport is about. And we couldn't be more pumped.
And it's again upsetting that we can't run for four
hundred hours here because I could, because we could go
through every single athlete and champion then. But we are
already so bloody proud. Go Australia, Georgie. Yes, I've got
(38:51):
a fun fact that wasn't a fun fact until a couple.
Speaker 1 (38:54):
Of days ago. Have I got you hooked? Oh my god,
you got me hooked? Thank you hooked?
Speaker 3 (38:57):
A bizarre tattoo band has been lifted days outed from
the Paris Games for the Paralympics, because in the lead
up to this episode, I was like, well, do we
need to discuss to sist because Paralympians aren't able to
have tattoos that are branded, i e. If they were
to have the Olympic rings, which we know some para
athletes do because they were previously Olympians and now competing
(39:21):
in the Para Games, they faced disqualification because those rings
are technically a brand again something else that you're like, Oh, cool,
para athletes being subject to rules that able body athletes.
Speaker 1 (39:33):
Yeah, what a load of rubbish. Yes, anyway, where's the
common sense?
Speaker 3 (39:37):
Mere days ago and we're talking the twenty fifth of August.
Speaker 1 (39:41):
Because of the.
Speaker 3 (39:42):
Outcry nationally about how terrible a rule that was, they've
lifted it.
Speaker 1 (39:47):
So now Paralympians can have the Olympic rings.
Speaker 3 (39:50):
That is a fun fact because it was a very
You might have seen their headlines because I know that
we ran it in news as well.
Speaker 2 (39:56):
Yeah, they ran whole stories on it, being like isn't
this crazy?
Speaker 1 (40:00):
You could see Paralympians discuss the projects if they.
Speaker 2 (40:03):
Were showing that branding, branding being the Olympic rings. Now,
do all Paralympians want a tattoo of the Olympic rings? No,
the Paralympics do have their own different logo, different logo.
But for those athletes who it does affect, this is
huge that they are now able to just like carry
on with their life.
Speaker 1 (40:18):
What a stupid rule. And also do you know what.
Speaker 3 (40:21):
I will give it credit for so much of the
stories that we saw during the Olympics. Hello a monk
lyf showed the worst side of social media where people
just jumped on the back of something and things escalated
and it wasn't great. People jumped on the back of this,
It escalated and it got resolved.
Speaker 1 (40:37):
Hey, power to the people. Power to the people.
Speaker 3 (40:41):
Go and get whatever tattoos you want, get the golden
arches on your chest for all we care.
Speaker 2 (40:46):
Brand up two Good Sports great brand great you want
to copy. I'm looking at you.
Speaker 1 (40:52):
I know you listen to this podcast, sir, I.
Speaker 2 (40:54):
Know you do.
Speaker 3 (40:56):
That is two Good Sports Sports News definitely told differently.
Please do subscribe at two Good Sports Podcasts and slide
into our dms with any sort of fun facts, because
that is a particularly fun fact for us. And subscribe
to all of the nice things lovely Reviews George.
Speaker 1 (41:12):
Only lovely reviews, only lovely reviews five stars. Please and
we will see you next week. Until then, though, watch
the Paralympics.
Popular Podcasts
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
I’m Jay Shetty host of On Purpose the worlds #1 Mental Health podcast and I’m so grateful you found us. I started this podcast 5 years ago to invite you into conversations and workshops that are designed to help make you happier, healthier and more healed. I believe that when you (yes you) feel seen, heard and understood you’re able to deal with relationship struggles, work challenges and life’s ups and downs with more ease and grace. I interview experts, celebrities, thought leaders and athletes so that we can grow our mindset, build better habits and uncover a side of them we’ve never seen before. New episodes every Monday and Friday. Your support means the world to me and I don’t take it for granted — click the follow button and leave a review to help us spread the love with On Purpose. I can’t wait for you to listen to your first or 500th episode!