August 28, 2023 • 32 mins
It's been the year from hell for Australian middle-distance runner, Peter Bol. In January, he was provisionally suspended from athletics for failing a routine doping test. He'd tested positive for a banned substance. As of August, Peter has been fully exonerated but questions remain. How did this happen? And what does it mean for the future of Peter Bol's athletic career?
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Two Good Sports would like to acknowledge the traditional owners
of the land on which we record this podcast that
will run dury people. This land was never seated, always was,
always will be. Hello, dear listener, and welcome to Two
Good Sports.
Speaker 2 (00:17):
I'm Georgie Tunney.
Speaker 3 (00:18):
I'm Abbie Jelmy, and we are pumped as always to
get to the headlines of what's been making news in
sport this week.
Speaker 4 (00:24):
But Georgie, our deep dive today. It's a super deep one.
Speaker 3 (00:28):
It's one that you can need a whiteboard and a
pen to understand and oxygen. But we are going to
take you through because it's Peter Bowl and how he
has been so greatly wronged in the plight for clean sport.
He's innocent, We know that, does the mud stick? Who
has to answer for it? So many questions, so many questions.
This is all coming off the back of the World
Champs in Budapest, which is also making our headlines.
Speaker 4 (00:49):
So should we get to it.
Speaker 2 (00:50):
Let's do it.
Speaker 1 (00:55):
The AFL's Chop eight Finals footy.
Speaker 2 (00:58):
Can you taste it? Jelmy, can yes smell it?
Speaker 3 (01:00):
We're in Victoria, of course you can. It tastes like
stale beer and Pies.
Speaker 1 (01:04):
I have full disclosure that ahead of this the final
round of the regular season of the AFL, I was
like Jelmy Carlton flag favorites.
Speaker 2 (01:12):
There it is. I've said it.
Speaker 3 (01:14):
They're still in the running, They've still got momentum. They're fine,
They're gonna be fine. Let's have a look at the
top eight. So Collingwood are the minor premiers and we
have the Lions, Port Melbourne, Carlton, Saint Kilda, GWS and Sydney.
Speaker 4 (01:25):
But George, you've got a fun fact.
Speaker 1 (01:26):
I do have a fun factor the Brisbane Lions. Yes,
I was a Lion cub when I was younger and
we go to every single game at the Gabba.
Speaker 2 (01:33):
That's actually not the fun fact.
Speaker 1 (01:35):
But apparently the Brisbane Lions they have not lost a
home game this season, this entire season. Every time they
play at the Gabba, the Cauldron, the Coliseum, they win.
And during this final series, because they finished so high
on the ladder, they're going to get those home finals,
so they may not play away from the Gabba until
the Grand Final at the MCG.
Speaker 3 (01:56):
As a Lion cub, does that fill you with confidence
or conser because their record at the MCG is infamous
in that it's certainly not their strongest ground. Would you
prefer to get a game at the MCG in the
lead up just to I guess, get that confidence or nah?
Speaker 1 (02:11):
No, if you want to get there, Yeah, you want
to get to the MCG. If we go there before
the final, we're not making it. So if we're at
the final, who knows. But you've got to at least
get to the big dance.
Speaker 2 (02:21):
You know what I'm saying.
Speaker 3 (02:22):
What if it's Brisbane and the Broncos in respective finals
in two codes, you might implode.
Speaker 2 (02:25):
Guys, I'll be moving.
Speaker 1 (02:26):
I'll have to go back to I'll have to go
back to Brisbane for that particular weekend because I just.
Speaker 2 (02:34):
The city would stop.
Speaker 1 (02:35):
The city would stop, and we'd just keep reminding every
single person who is also interested in those finals that
we also have the Olympics in twenty thirty two, because
that's what every Queenslander wants to tell you right now.
Headline number two, speaking of down Under hosting things, the
Women's World Cup story that will not go away. Spain
women's World champions for the first time in their history.
(02:57):
It was such a remarkable achievement. We have already discussed
previously about the turmoil happening behind the scenes with lar Roja,
it has entered a whole new stratosphere this week. Lewis
Rubiali is the president of the Spanish Federation of Football.
We at the time, Jelmy, when we were watching the
(03:18):
presentations of the Spanish team after they defeated England in
the final one nil. There was this moment where all
the players were heading up onto the stage to get
their medal, to pose with the trophy, and they were
embraced by the President Rubiales.
Speaker 2 (03:31):
And for a lot of the players, I felt that
he was being overly friendly.
Speaker 1 (03:35):
He was kissing a lot of them on the cheek,
giving them really, really enthusiastic hugs. It all seemed to
be maybe okay, not really my cup of tea.
Speaker 2 (03:44):
I was kind of gaslighting myself.
Speaker 1 (03:46):
And then Jenny Hermosa came up to greet him and
he kissed her, grabbed her face and kissed her full
on the.
Speaker 4 (03:54):
Mouth, and the world went, oh.
Speaker 1 (03:57):
Yeah, what they must know each other, or or that
just doesn't that didn't feel right, didn't feel right.
Speaker 3 (04:05):
No, and again it's a World Cup, so the world
has gone Unless she really knows him.
Speaker 4 (04:12):
That's not on That's not right.
Speaker 3 (04:13):
In a workplace, yes, a very public workplace, but a
workplace for anyone who's superior to you to grab your
face and kiss you like that unconsensually is not okay with.
Speaker 1 (04:23):
I would say, an extra layer of violation that all
of the world's eyes are on you. So what are
you going to do in that moment? Do you know
what I mean? Like you can't like just what slap
the president of the Federation of Football, the Spanish Federation
of Football. But I mean, for me, that's the only
where the story begins. Because after that, everyone was like,
hang on a second, was that good? Did that pass
the pub test? And Jenny was like, oh, actually no,
(04:43):
I did make me uncomfortable. I did felt victimized were
her words, And then it caused the Federation of Football
in Spain to say to release a statement coercing Jenny
saying no, no consensual, it was fine, was fine with it.
Two days later Jenny Goes actually absolutely was not.
Speaker 2 (05:02):
Fine with it.
Speaker 1 (05:02):
I did not want this at all. Eighty one players
Spanish players have since signed a petition or a contract
or a letter to RFEF, which is what the federation
is called saying that they will not play while Rubiales
is still at the helm. We expected him to stand down.
He instead held a press conference saying I'm not standing down.
I've been the victim of false feminists. So yeah, the
(05:26):
ultimate gas light, the ultimate gas light. And now FIFA's
got involved and removed him for the moment. And you
know you're doing well when FIFA comes in to be like, actually,
that not good.
Speaker 4 (05:41):
Not good.
Speaker 3 (05:41):
When FIFA a like, you clearly can't sort this out
among yourself, so we're going to come in as the
principle and suspend you. What does it say when the
world saw something and witness something that they still try
to gaslight both the victim and the public that what
happened was okay. It sets a message that if this
(06:05):
happened to you privately and you don't have the world
to back you up. She would have dreamed about that
moment her whole life as a young girl, as a
young footballer who just wanted to be a world champion,
and he took the joy of that moment away from her.
Speaker 4 (06:22):
Stand down, stand down.
Speaker 1 (06:23):
So this is a moving story. There will be more developments.
At the moment, he has been forcibly stood down the coach, which,
if you remember, the players don't even like coach Wilda.
He's come out now and said, oh, it was inappropriate
Rubalez's actions. So he's gone against the federation which kept
him employed instead of taking the player's side at the
end of last year.
Speaker 3 (06:43):
And yet he hasn't stood down, but the rest of
the coaching staff have quit. He's the one that he's like,
it's not right, but the rest of quit.
Speaker 1 (06:49):
Yes, the rest have stood down in kind of protest
against Rubali's headline.
Speaker 4 (06:55):
Three.
Speaker 3 (06:55):
Nina Kennedy is a world champion in the pole vault,
and it happened in the most incredible way, which we'll
get to in the fun fact. But she tired with
American Katie Moon when she said, hey, girl, want to
split this.
Speaker 4 (07:07):
This isn't Hollywood, This is actually happening.
Speaker 1 (07:10):
This is real life, This is real competition. They were
discussing whether they should have a jump off or not,
but then they decided that they will split the gold medal.
Speaker 4 (07:20):
Incredible, two champions crowned. They can hardly believe the way
in which it's finished.
Speaker 1 (07:27):
Can I just make a little bit of a petition
here that Ozzie rules, isn't actually our national sport, it's
pol bolt.
Speaker 2 (07:33):
We surprisingly we're so good at it.
Speaker 1 (07:35):
Steve Hooker, Taddiana Gregory over, hello, Hello, Nina.
Speaker 3 (07:40):
Like what it's also the most Australian thing, but perhaps
not the most American thing to be like Gall, I'm tired.
Speaker 4 (07:47):
Fatigue is setting in? Do you just want to split this?
Are we good? And I love that?
Speaker 3 (07:53):
In both their post interviews and just like they both
speak about the moment where they made eye contact with
each other and had a conversation without.
Speaker 4 (08:02):
Words, going oh you're going to want to split this?
I'm so down for that.
Speaker 1 (08:08):
We're going to talk about more about that in the
fun fact segment. Also overseas, the Fever World Cup is
happening right now. The Boomers mixed results. First game defeated Finland.
Speaker 2 (08:19):
Take that. Finn's second game lost to Germany. Damn it Germans.
So we still have a little bit of work to do.
Speaker 1 (08:26):
Still positive, Patty Mills is there scoring all the points,
so we just need someone else to score points. And
final headline one of note to me is that the
Brisbane Broncos are going to win the NRL Premiership.
Speaker 2 (08:37):
We still have one round of the regular season to go.
Speaker 4 (08:39):
It's funny, but that's not what our NRL headline is.
Speaker 2 (08:44):
What is Oh hang on, let me just hang on.
Speaker 1 (08:47):
You're letting my impartiality really dictate where we're going here,
and let me just hang on. Sorry, Sorry, dear listener.
It's not about the Broncos. That seems like an oversight.
Sam Burgess has left the coaching staff or the South
Sydney Rabbito has taken up a position with the Warrington
Wolves over in the English Super League after a fallout
with the players, notably Latrelle Mitchell potentially Cody Walker, and
(09:10):
also disagreements we'll call them with Jason Demetrio, who is
the coach of the Sydney South Sydney Rabbitos. So it
seems like it's not actually about the Broncos.
Speaker 3 (09:20):
This is Russell Crowe still at the Rabbito's Still can
they solve this in a gladiator style fashion and just
let them all charging and fight to the death.
Speaker 4 (09:28):
Is this just wanting to do it?
Speaker 2 (09:29):
Hey, they'd sell out.
Speaker 1 (09:31):
They'd sell out any stadium in Australia if they wanted
to do that, And that's a good seat to finish.
Speaker 3 (09:41):
Our headlines the Tokyo Olympics twenty twenty. So it happened
in twenty twenty one. The greater part of Australia was
all lockdown and we were looking for a hero for
(10:04):
a story and a person to lift our spirits and
that person was Peter Bowl.
Speaker 4 (10:10):
Bulls there for the moment.
Speaker 5 (10:11):
Tel Comrie in Peter Bowl nineteen sixty eight, the last
time we've.
Speaker 2 (10:15):
Had a finals at the eight hundred hang on Peter Kodu.
He's in the finals. He has won Persumi.
Speaker 5 (10:22):
Finally, my mom did call me and said, I'm not
saying she's in arab because we speak Arabic. She said,
you've lifted the community's heads up. And then my dad said, no,
I think you lifted the nation set up. And I
really felt that, So yeah, it is obviously I'm very
proud of my heritage and my background and for my
people and everyone's my people.
Speaker 1 (10:45):
A young boy flees war torn Sudan. He's just four
years of age. By five, he's living in a refugee camp.
By ten, he's traversed half the world to settle in
a new home down Under. By twenty seven, he becomes
the first Australian in fifty three years to race in
the eight hundred meter final at the Olympic Games, missing
(11:05):
the gold byero point eighty six seconds, but cementing his
spot in the hearts of a nation. It's a storyline
straight out of a movie. But it's not actually Peter
Bowles story, at least not all of it, despite what
a lot of media would have you believe at the
time of the Tokyo Olympics in twenty twenty one. You see,
Bowl was born in Sudan and his family did dream
(11:27):
of a safer world, but he was never in a
refugee camp. Bowl's true journey is one of hardship and circumstance,
of beating the odds and being the Aussie laraken of
vertigo inducing highs and soul crossing lows. It's also, as
of last week, arguably just beginning from national hero to
(11:48):
drug cheat two exonerated. Let's go back, jelmy, because Bold
did arrive in Australia as a kid into Woomba. Therefore
he's actually a Queensland Oh my goodness, thank you so much.
I will I will take that. Yep, I'll claim him.
You know, I'll claim anything. I'll claim Peter Bowl as
an eight year old in two thousand and two. He
goes to Womba. Then he moves over to Perth.
Speaker 4 (12:09):
You'll claim thank you, checkmate.
Speaker 1 (12:13):
Moves over to Perth on a sports scholarship. But it
wasn't to anything to do with athletics. It was a
basketball scholarship because he was obsessed with basketball. All he
wanted to do was be the next Kobe Bryant, who
was his hero. By sixteen, he still hadn't even tried running.
It was a teacher who suggests that he maybe give
middle distance ago after he ran a really incredible cross
(12:34):
country race with zero training and he thought.
Speaker 2 (12:36):
That guy, the kid can run.
Speaker 1 (12:39):
Three years later he was the national junior eight hundred
meter champion. Bowls on the record as saying that he
didn't really fall in love with the sport of running
until he started traveling, so first around Australia, then around
the world, he saw running as his passport. He moved
to Melbourne, got a new coach named Justin. From there
he competed at the ye Olympics in twenty sixteen. He
(13:01):
was sixth in his heat. He's competed at World Championships
in twenty seventeen, twenty nineteen. He's had a lot of
other international meets, but as you just heard, we know
him best from the magic that he pulled off in
twenty twenty one. He smashed his PB multiple times at
the Olympics, breaking his own national record in the semis
(13:22):
to qualify for the Tokyo final in one minute forty
four seconds eleven milliseconds. Again, Jelmy, we know I'm not
great at maths, but I've done some figures. I've punched
some numbers. That's thirteen seconds per hundred meters that he's
sustaining for eight hundred meters, which means he's going at
almost forty seven k's an hour. That's how fast he's
(13:43):
running in those events. Now, for me to read out
all of that, that's taken me about ten seconds, so
he would already be at the first turn of a
four hundred meter track.
Speaker 2 (13:54):
That's how fast he is.
Speaker 1 (13:56):
And that's how obsessed everyone was with him and the
joy that he was able to give us while we
were in lockdowns a lot of the time in twenty
twenty one, so much so that when TV cameras joined
his large family in a small lounge room in his
adopted city of Perth, not Queens to watch the race
the final. Every Aussie, we felt the nerves, we felt
(14:17):
every stride. A Commonwealth silver medal in twenty twenty two
followed Bowl's Olympic fourth from twenty twenty one. He was
favorite to win the twenty twenty three Young Australian of
the Year at a ceremony in late January our quintessential
Golden Boy. Though things started going awry one week before
that ceremony was going to take place. The results of
(14:39):
a drug test were elect and the fairy tale was over.
Good boy on career turning.
Speaker 6 (14:45):
Now Peter's going to hold these ground here.
Speaker 4 (14:48):
A mass is coming with a run one and fifty
to gains.
Speaker 6 (14:52):
Taken away with.
Speaker 2 (14:55):
Australian Olympian.
Speaker 1 (14:56):
Peter Bowl has been provisionally suspended after test positive to
the band's substance EPO. Peter Bowl is cleared of doping
allegations after test results revealed his B sample was not
consistent with his first test, but his.
Speaker 2 (15:11):
Doping case has taken another twist.
Speaker 1 (15:13):
The result of the part B analysis was an atypical finding.
Speaker 3 (15:18):
There is no difference between an atypical finding and a
negative finding.
Speaker 1 (15:21):
From an evidentiary perspective, neither one provides any evidence that
Peter did anything wrong. Two independent lab tests found he
did not use a banned substance. The Sport Integrity Australia
body closed its investigation into a false positive drug test
against him.
Speaker 6 (15:40):
Absolutely, I have nothing to hide, one hundred percent.
Speaker 4 (15:41):
Innocent, Georgie.
Speaker 3 (15:45):
This takes us to the tenth of January, where on
the back page and front pages of newspapers around the country,
Peter Bowl was branded a cheat with a positive sample
to EPO. This was just his a sample. His b
sample was yet to con firm the result that the
lab found. Peter Bowls world was turned upside down. But
(16:05):
in order to understand how this all happened, you need
to understand EPO. I have EPO on my system right now,
so do you, so does producer James. Let's take you
on a journey because EPO is a hormone naturally produced
in the kidney that stimulates bone marrows stem cells to
increase the production of red blood cells and therefore aerobic capacity.
Speaker 2 (16:23):
I'm going to start calling you doctor jellmy thank you.
Speaker 3 (16:25):
Hen I've forgot my lab cope, but sometimes referred to
as blood doping. The use of synthetic EPO in sport
is banned as it unfairly allows better endurance and recovery
and athletes beyond normal human conditions.
Speaker 1 (16:37):
So basically it allows you to create a lot more
oxygen to move throughout your body, which then helps with recovery,
so you wouldn't necessarily have I don't know solness, guessing
it helps with black dec acid you're.
Speaker 3 (16:48):
The doctor, and aerobic capacity, which is why you see
it in elite cyclists and endurance runners from distances from
four hundred to eight hundred meters. It was banned in
the nineties and from as early as the two thousand
Olympics is when they started testing for EPO. It's really
important to note that EPO must be administered by injection.
(17:09):
This is not something that Peter could have accidentally had
in a protein shake or somehow been given in a vitamin.
He must have known that this was administered to him.
So when they came knocking on the tenth and gave
him a one page summary saying that you have been
provisionally suspended from athletics, Peter said, take my phone, take
my laptop, take my iPad.
Speaker 4 (17:30):
This is a huge mistake. I haven't done it.
Speaker 1 (17:33):
I just cannot even fathom that for someone who has
dedicated their life to sport, and part of that sport
of utmost importance is having a clean sport, and then
for you to know that you are innocent, and yet
everyone's going to treat you like you're guilty until you
are proven to be innocent.
Speaker 3 (17:52):
And there is no clarity provided to you or your
lawyers or your team on how this was leaked. And
there's a big speculation there that Peter's made himself about
the fact that this all occurred days out from the
announcement of Young Australian of the Year, of which Peter
was such a strong candidate to win that award, and
he was one of the nominees. If one of the
(18:13):
governing bodies had known that this may come out later,
were they trying to protect themselves potentially by leaking this,
because that is still the question, how does this leak happen?
Because on the fourteenth of February, the B sample did
not confirm the A sample, So we're talking from the
tenth of jan through to the fourteenth of February is
the period where Peter's in limbo with the world and
(18:36):
national media calling him a cheat, unable to train physically
and mentally disadvantaged as an athlete, and.
Speaker 4 (18:44):
All of this could have been avoided.
Speaker 3 (18:48):
Peter Bowl pointed this out in a conversation with Michael
Lasher on Channel seven Spotlight.
Speaker 6 (18:52):
This whole process shouldn't have come out until the b
sample and if it didn't, you receive so much pain.
You know, I'm so uncomfortable accusing anyone because I am
being accused of something that I'm not even going to
go there. Let's put it this way, right, it's the
process of elimination. So if myself and my team need
a result, then there's two other people that need to results.
(19:14):
It's going to be one of the three and Australia
and I'm sponsor Integrity and you and your team, And
I'm one hundred percent certain of my team did not
leak anything.
Speaker 1 (19:22):
Did that leak rob you of that opportunity at the
Australian of the Year Awards?
Speaker 6 (19:26):
Yeah, it certainly did.
Speaker 4 (19:29):
And then you are expected to compete.
Speaker 2 (19:32):
Well, why would you?
Speaker 1 (19:33):
Why would you want to keep competing for a country,
for an organization that has, to your best knowledge, been
complicit in some way in the worst moment of your
entire life.
Speaker 3 (19:44):
Because to continue doing what you love and what you're
gifted at and what you've dreamed of achieving the highest
heights in you have no choice. In the context of
athletics cycling, there are some sports, unfortunately that are so
non with cheating. Athletics is one of them. And all
of a sudden, that good guy, big smile, the Golden Boards,
(20:07):
the story that we all loved our almost young Australian
of the year he so loved is tainted and Athletics
Australia came out with a statement on the twentieth of
January saying that Peter Bowl after an adverse analytical finding
was detected in an out of competition control test on
the eleventh of October, so the test was backdated to
(20:28):
the eleventh October twenty twenty two. This means he will
not be permitted to train at a national, state or
club level, compete at any level, coach, receive funding, use
official or member facilities, or hold a position within a
sporting organization. Can you imagine trying to train at an
elite level for competition with nationals coming up, with World
(20:52):
Champs coming up with Paris a year away from now,
and not knowing how long you were going to get
banned from training at the elite level.
Speaker 1 (20:59):
And just being having that in your mind, being like,
what is the point what is the point of even
going out there to train? If people are thinking this
about me? And I know that I haven't done I
haven't been injecting.
Speaker 3 (21:13):
The thing about EPO that is so important to note
that I think not many people would realize is that
because it is naturally occurring in the body when they're
analyzing it in the lab from urine samples that athletes
have to give all the time, and Peter had had
up to twenty negative tests since the October positive. Supposedly,
(21:35):
the synthetic EPO looks very similar to the natural EPO
that occurs in your body. Really hard to tell the difference,
So it is grey. It is human judgment that says
this is a positive sample and this is a negative sample.
So someone in a lab has looked at what is
naturally occurring in Peter's body and said, you have synthetically
(21:56):
added this, You've cheated. In a world world where we
believe that our legal system protects the innocent, the innocent
are found guilty in order to have clean sport, because
otherwise there's no other way to test for EPO and
you have cheats.
Speaker 1 (22:12):
And this is I think my understanding of WADA, maybe
in general, the World Antidoping Agency and a lot of
systems and policies that they have in place, is that
it's kind of this catch all. Right, yes, like these
we know, we admit they're not perfect systems, but they
will allow us to catch hopefully most of the drug cheats,
(22:36):
most people doping. We do accept that there are going
to be innocent people that are carried into that, because
then it's not a perfect system.
Speaker 3 (22:44):
And at least those world bodies have come out and
the day that Peter was going to race in his
first heat of the eight hundred in Budapest have come
out and said it's a disaster. The worst thing that
could have possibly happened happened in this case because three
weeks on the first of August. Again we're talking from
January tenth to only the first of August was it
(23:07):
officially dropped as an investigation.
Speaker 1 (23:10):
How do you change the system then, How do we
protect athletes by not becoming the next Peter Bowl.
Speaker 3 (23:15):
This conversation has happened. The conversation you and I are
having now is relevant because of Peter's performance at the
World Champs where in the heat the commentary itself says this,
and it's.
Speaker 6 (23:25):
Gonna be pol who's run out of this one.
Speaker 5 (23:27):
I think I can't stay leading Prava and Mula coming
through Brown Jerrett, but Pernica.
Speaker 4 (23:33):
Their talent in form and Paula joked the.
Speaker 5 (23:35):
Cross the line one twenty four, He's sure to kept
running harder.
Speaker 4 (23:40):
He should have kept running harder. Do you know worry?
Speaker 3 (23:43):
He did keep running George through the media because understandably,
after the week that's been, after the year that's been,
Peter didn't want to comment. And hopefully it's our role
now as the media that Peter doesn't have to because
we see someone that's been so clearly wronged. We can
take on that conversation for him. And if he wants
to let his running do the talking, that's up to him.
(24:05):
If he decides he never wants to run again, that's
also up to him and it would be understandable. But
it's our job now to explain how this happened to
someone who's innocent, and to keep pressure on the governing bodies,
what are you going to do about it? And the
problem is, in order to have clean sport, there is
no better testing method for EPO that means that innocent
(24:26):
people aren't going to continually be found guilty of cheating.
Speaker 2 (24:30):
Within that parameter.
Speaker 1 (24:31):
Then of their having to be innocent victims to keep
the sport clean. It sounds really great and it sounds
very very virtuous until it happens to someone that you love.
And as Australians, we loved Peter Bowl. I hope we
still do love him. But there will be people on
the street who don't know the latest twists and turns
(24:54):
that have happened in this roller coaster ride of an
eight months for Peter Bowl. They will still just remember
the back page that called him a drug cheat, Like
I wonder what happened to that guy? I mean, I
guess he's out of the sport because because he cheated
and you know he's been suspended, et cetera, et cetera,
Rather than maybe the alternative reading, which is Peter Bowl
isn't performing very well because he's had the mental load
(25:15):
of dealing with being falsely accused of being a drug.
Speaker 3 (25:18):
Check and in his own words in that Spotlight interview,
he said, well, if I go out and break a
national record, people are going to think I'm still on
the juice. And if I stop performing well, people are
going to think because I got off that And I
can't control that narrative. But what he can control is
that he's running to clear his name.
Speaker 1 (25:36):
And also I think he's running for himself now. He's
running for his family, he's running for the people that
did stand behind him, because, in his own words, the
governing body hasn't.
Speaker 6 (25:50):
We wanted the people that in charge to give that
support as well, and have they. I mean maybe they're
ringing a different number, but certainly not ringing you directly,
absolutely or not. And I wouldn't even pick up right now.
Speaker 3 (26:08):
I just think someone at Athletics Australia or Sports Integrity
Australia need to put their hand up and explain what's
happened here. Someone needs to come out and take ownership
of his in the same way that Pete was forced
to take ownership of an error that he actually didn't make.
But someone has done him a massive disservice here. We
(26:31):
wouldn't be talking about it. He perhaps would have competed
differently to national championships. He subbed out of training to
the point where he was cycling and playing basketball because
he wasn't running, because what was the point. And I
really hope, I really really hope that brands get behind
Peter and stick with him because he's innocent and he's
(26:52):
done nothing wrong, and I really believe in clean sport.
I think it's so important, particularly with Olympics. You think
of all those golden moments, those Kathy moments that it
gives Australia and different countries to have someone bearing your
flag do well once every four years on that international stage,
(27:12):
and how much those moments punctuate our culture as a
sport loving nation that can only continue to exist in
a manner that makes you feel good about the world
if sport is clean. And unfortunately this is the only
way that we can keep sport clean. But there are
innocent victims of that, and Peter Bowl, unfortunately, has been
(27:33):
the human tole.
Speaker 1 (27:34):
I think the telling thing has really been throughout this
last eight months of hell and turmoil for Peter Bowl,
the silence from Athletics Australia, Sport Integrity Australia's come out
and said, you know, it's a disaster. All that great,
great to talk about it now, but where were you
in the last eight months? As Peter Bowl says, they're
not calling him, but Athletics Australia as far as they're concerned.
(27:54):
They say their hands were tied with the protocols that
are in place and that they couldn't do any They
couldn't do anymore. They've also said in a statement that
Peter Bowl's welfare was always at the top of mind.
They asked Sport Integrity Australia to hurry up the investigation
as quickly as possible, tied up so that it wouldn't
be so distressing and disruptive and frustrating for Peter and
(28:18):
his team and Athletics Australia.
Speaker 4 (28:20):
None of that sounds like an apology for it being leaked.
Speaker 1 (28:24):
I'm missing the word sorry in any of the statement.
Speaker 2 (28:27):
It's not there.
Speaker 3 (28:28):
How difficult would it be to move beyond anger, such
justified anger at being so unfairly treated and so wronged,
and no one picked up the phone to then perform
under that banner.
Speaker 4 (28:44):
It's unimaginable.
Speaker 1 (28:45):
We started this discussion with Peter Bowl telling us or
reminding us that everyone is his people. Everyone is part
of his unit, and I think that we owe it
to him as our golden boy who has been so wronged,
to stay with him, to support him, to show him
that he's our people as well.
Speaker 3 (29:07):
We really hope to see you in Paris, Pete, but
if we don't, we understand and we're so sorry for
what happened to you.
Speaker 2 (29:26):
Jellmy.
Speaker 1 (29:27):
You and I obviously are all about sports. Hopefully, dear listeners,
you are too, and we're about the big moments in sports.
We're also about learning. It's our gift to you. This
is our favorite segment, fun Facts, Fun Facts, Jellmy. We
mentioned it in our headlines about our latest world champion
in athletics, Nina Kennedy sharing gold with her best friend
(29:47):
Katie Moon.
Speaker 2 (29:48):
Did you know that one you can actually do? Did
you know that? Did you know that you can share
gold medals?
Speaker 1 (29:53):
The only reason I knew this was because of Tokyo,
because I was watching it in a studio with the
men's high jump, and there were salute scenes.
Speaker 4 (30:01):
Roll the clip.
Speaker 1 (30:02):
They're gonna share.
Speaker 2 (30:03):
It, They're gonna share it, this series, share it, shoot it.
So there you go, fantastic.
Speaker 4 (30:08):
I jump off and there Florida's guitar.
Speaker 2 (30:10):
That is the man by the Italian Jan Marco.
Speaker 1 (30:15):
The contacts Italians on the ground, rolling around in absolute ecstasy.
It was one of my favorite moments of the Games,
and I had forgotten about it, to my shame until
I saw Nina Kennedy and.
Speaker 2 (30:28):
I thought, oh, that's right. In track and field you
can share golds. It's wild.
Speaker 1 (30:32):
You can mutually agree to no longer compete after you
reach a certain time, right, So it's like you've tried,
You've tried, You've keep jumping, jump and jumping, and.
Speaker 2 (30:39):
Then it's like I am done.
Speaker 1 (30:42):
But that was the first time that an Olympic track
and field medal a gold medal had been shared at
the Tokyo Olympics or at an Olympic Games since nineteen twelve.
So that's a big time. In between drinks that people thought,
you know what, let's have that camaraderie and extend it.
Speaker 3 (30:58):
And also I think the world needs did a group
hug covid had been so rough, everyone was angry at everyone.
Speaker 4 (31:06):
There was something about.
Speaker 3 (31:07):
Watching two different athletes from different nations instead of going
stuff you I'm gonna fight for the death. I'm the
greatest of all time, just the complete love and.
Speaker 4 (31:16):
Joy because they split. It was why you love sport.
Speaker 1 (31:20):
But also it can only obviously happen for certain events, right.
Speaker 4 (31:23):
There are some sports where it would ruin the theater.
Speaker 3 (31:26):
Can you imagine if we didn't have a penalty shootout?
Oh against France now in the World Cup because they're like, look,
you can't share. I may have shared the semi final
result though with England we could both play three teams
on the pitch in the.
Speaker 2 (31:40):
Final show, let's go for it. I don't worry work,
would you do it?
Speaker 3 (31:44):
No one needs to know about that side of me yet, George.
I'm I'm a very competitive person. Whether it's Connect four,
whether it's monopoly, it just doesn't matter.
Speaker 2 (31:55):
I's a bachelor sweep stage.
Speaker 4 (31:57):
I would like to think. I'd like to think that
I'd be a better person and I would share.
Speaker 2 (32:02):
I wouldn't.
Speaker 4 (32:03):
I wouldn't.
Speaker 2 (32:03):
I wouldn't.
Speaker 4 (32:04):
No, I damn well wouldn't.
Speaker 1 (32:05):
Actually hang on, I wouldn't until I absolutely knew that
I couldn't win like myself.
Speaker 3 (32:11):
That's it this week for two good sports. Thanks for
hanging around to Georgia. We actually have an Instagram handle,
so hit us up.
Speaker 2 (32:17):
We do two good sports podcasts. Go follow it.
Speaker 1 (32:20):
We're going to have all of the news, some behind
the scenes stuff, some of the best social clips. Because yes,
you may have been able to tell Gelmy and I
get quite excited by certain random things and our voice
does change a lot. But also along with our voice,
our facial expressions are really quite something. So follow that
Instagram account all of our social media so that you.
Speaker 2 (32:41):
Too can join the conversation.
Speaker 3 (32:42):
Feel free to slide into our DMS with a fun
fact and until next week, Beakers Book
Two Good Sports would like to acknowledge the traditional owners
of the land on which we record this podcast that
will run dury people. This land was never seated, always was,
always will be. Hello, dear listener, and welcome to Two
Good Sports.
Speaker 2 (00:17):
I'm Georgie Tunney.
Speaker 3 (00:18):
I'm Abbie Jelmy, and we are pumped as always to
get to the headlines of what's been making news in
sport this week.
Speaker 4 (00:24):
But Georgie, our deep dive today. It's a super deep one.
Speaker 3 (00:28):
It's one that you can need a whiteboard and a
pen to understand and oxygen. But we are going to
take you through because it's Peter Bowl and how he
has been so greatly wronged in the plight for clean sport.
He's innocent, We know that, does the mud stick? Who
has to answer for it? So many questions, so many questions.
This is all coming off the back of the World
Champs in Budapest, which is also making our headlines.
Speaker 4 (00:49):
So should we get to it.
Speaker 2 (00:50):
Let's do it.
Speaker 1 (00:55):
The AFL's Chop eight Finals footy.
Speaker 2 (00:58):
Can you taste it? Jelmy, can yes smell it?
Speaker 3 (01:00):
We're in Victoria, of course you can. It tastes like
stale beer and Pies.
Speaker 1 (01:04):
I have full disclosure that ahead of this the final
round of the regular season of the AFL, I was
like Jelmy Carlton flag favorites.
Speaker 2 (01:12):
There it is. I've said it.
Speaker 3 (01:14):
They're still in the running, They've still got momentum. They're fine,
They're gonna be fine. Let's have a look at the
top eight. So Collingwood are the minor premiers and we
have the Lions, Port Melbourne, Carlton, Saint Kilda, GWS and Sydney.
Speaker 4 (01:25):
But George, you've got a fun fact.
Speaker 1 (01:26):
I do have a fun factor the Brisbane Lions. Yes,
I was a Lion cub when I was younger and
we go to every single game at the Gabba.
Speaker 2 (01:33):
That's actually not the fun fact.
Speaker 1 (01:35):
But apparently the Brisbane Lions they have not lost a
home game this season, this entire season. Every time they
play at the Gabba, the Cauldron, the Coliseum, they win.
And during this final series, because they finished so high
on the ladder, they're going to get those home finals,
so they may not play away from the Gabba until
the Grand Final at the MCG.
Speaker 3 (01:56):
As a Lion cub, does that fill you with confidence
or conser because their record at the MCG is infamous
in that it's certainly not their strongest ground. Would you
prefer to get a game at the MCG in the
lead up just to I guess, get that confidence or nah?
Speaker 1 (02:11):
No, if you want to get there, Yeah, you want
to get to the MCG. If we go there before
the final, we're not making it. So if we're at
the final, who knows. But you've got to at least
get to the big dance.
Speaker 2 (02:21):
You know what I'm saying.
Speaker 3 (02:22):
What if it's Brisbane and the Broncos in respective finals
in two codes, you might implode.
Speaker 2 (02:25):
Guys, I'll be moving.
Speaker 1 (02:26):
I'll have to go back to I'll have to go
back to Brisbane for that particular weekend because I just.
Speaker 2 (02:34):
The city would stop.
Speaker 1 (02:35):
The city would stop, and we'd just keep reminding every
single person who is also interested in those finals that
we also have the Olympics in twenty thirty two, because
that's what every Queenslander wants to tell you right now.
Headline number two, speaking of down Under hosting things, the
Women's World Cup story that will not go away. Spain
women's World champions for the first time in their history.
(02:57):
It was such a remarkable achievement. We have already discussed
previously about the turmoil happening behind the scenes with lar Roja,
it has entered a whole new stratosphere this week. Lewis
Rubiali is the president of the Spanish Federation of Football.
We at the time, Jelmy, when we were watching the
(03:18):
presentations of the Spanish team after they defeated England in
the final one nil. There was this moment where all
the players were heading up onto the stage to get
their medal, to pose with the trophy, and they were
embraced by the President Rubiales.
Speaker 2 (03:31):
And for a lot of the players, I felt that
he was being overly friendly.
Speaker 1 (03:35):
He was kissing a lot of them on the cheek,
giving them really, really enthusiastic hugs. It all seemed to
be maybe okay, not really my cup of tea.
Speaker 2 (03:44):
I was kind of gaslighting myself.
Speaker 1 (03:46):
And then Jenny Hermosa came up to greet him and
he kissed her, grabbed her face and kissed her full
on the.
Speaker 4 (03:54):
Mouth, and the world went, oh.
Speaker 1 (03:57):
Yeah, what they must know each other, or or that
just doesn't that didn't feel right, didn't feel right.
Speaker 3 (04:05):
No, and again it's a World Cup, so the world
has gone Unless she really knows him.
Speaker 4 (04:12):
That's not on That's not right.
Speaker 3 (04:13):
In a workplace, yes, a very public workplace, but a
workplace for anyone who's superior to you to grab your
face and kiss you like that unconsensually is not okay with.
Speaker 1 (04:23):
I would say, an extra layer of violation that all
of the world's eyes are on you. So what are
you going to do in that moment? Do you know
what I mean? Like you can't like just what slap
the president of the Federation of Football, the Spanish Federation
of Football. But I mean, for me, that's the only
where the story begins. Because after that, everyone was like,
hang on a second, was that good? Did that pass
the pub test? And Jenny was like, oh, actually no,
(04:43):
I did make me uncomfortable. I did felt victimized were
her words, And then it caused the Federation of Football
in Spain to say to release a statement coercing Jenny
saying no, no consensual, it was fine, was fine with it.
Two days later Jenny Goes actually absolutely was not.
Speaker 2 (05:02):
Fine with it.
Speaker 1 (05:02):
I did not want this at all. Eighty one players
Spanish players have since signed a petition or a contract
or a letter to RFEF, which is what the federation
is called saying that they will not play while Rubiales
is still at the helm. We expected him to stand down.
He instead held a press conference saying I'm not standing down.
I've been the victim of false feminists. So yeah, the
(05:26):
ultimate gas light, the ultimate gas light. And now FIFA's
got involved and removed him for the moment. And you
know you're doing well when FIFA comes in to be like, actually,
that not good.
Speaker 4 (05:41):
Not good.
Speaker 3 (05:41):
When FIFA a like, you clearly can't sort this out
among yourself, so we're going to come in as the
principle and suspend you. What does it say when the
world saw something and witness something that they still try
to gaslight both the victim and the public that what
happened was okay. It sets a message that if this
(06:05):
happened to you privately and you don't have the world
to back you up. She would have dreamed about that
moment her whole life as a young girl, as a
young footballer who just wanted to be a world champion,
and he took the joy of that moment away from her.
Speaker 4 (06:22):
Stand down, stand down.
Speaker 1 (06:23):
So this is a moving story. There will be more developments.
At the moment, he has been forcibly stood down the coach, which,
if you remember, the players don't even like coach Wilda.
He's come out now and said, oh, it was inappropriate
Rubalez's actions. So he's gone against the federation which kept
him employed instead of taking the player's side at the
end of last year.
Speaker 3 (06:43):
And yet he hasn't stood down, but the rest of
the coaching staff have quit. He's the one that he's like,
it's not right, but the rest of quit.
Speaker 1 (06:49):
Yes, the rest have stood down in kind of protest
against Rubali's headline.
Speaker 4 (06:55):
Three.
Speaker 3 (06:55):
Nina Kennedy is a world champion in the pole vault,
and it happened in the most incredible way, which we'll
get to in the fun fact. But she tired with
American Katie Moon when she said, hey, girl, want to
split this.
Speaker 4 (07:07):
This isn't Hollywood, This is actually happening.
Speaker 1 (07:10):
This is real life, This is real competition. They were
discussing whether they should have a jump off or not,
but then they decided that they will split the gold medal.
Speaker 4 (07:20):
Incredible, two champions crowned. They can hardly believe the way
in which it's finished.
Speaker 1 (07:27):
Can I just make a little bit of a petition
here that Ozzie rules, isn't actually our national sport, it's
pol bolt.
Speaker 2 (07:33):
We surprisingly we're so good at it.
Speaker 1 (07:35):
Steve Hooker, Taddiana Gregory over, hello, Hello, Nina.
Speaker 3 (07:40):
Like what it's also the most Australian thing, but perhaps
not the most American thing to be like Gall, I'm tired.
Speaker 4 (07:47):
Fatigue is setting in? Do you just want to split this?
Are we good? And I love that?
Speaker 3 (07:53):
In both their post interviews and just like they both
speak about the moment where they made eye contact with
each other and had a conversation without.
Speaker 4 (08:02):
Words, going oh you're going to want to split this?
I'm so down for that.
Speaker 1 (08:08):
We're going to talk about more about that in the
fun fact segment. Also overseas, the Fever World Cup is
happening right now. The Boomers mixed results. First game defeated Finland.
Speaker 2 (08:19):
Take that. Finn's second game lost to Germany. Damn it Germans.
So we still have a little bit of work to do.
Speaker 1 (08:26):
Still positive, Patty Mills is there scoring all the points,
so we just need someone else to score points. And
final headline one of note to me is that the
Brisbane Broncos are going to win the NRL Premiership.
Speaker 2 (08:37):
We still have one round of the regular season to go.
Speaker 4 (08:39):
It's funny, but that's not what our NRL headline is.
Speaker 2 (08:44):
What is Oh hang on, let me just hang on.
Speaker 1 (08:47):
You're letting my impartiality really dictate where we're going here,
and let me just hang on. Sorry, Sorry, dear listener.
It's not about the Broncos. That seems like an oversight.
Sam Burgess has left the coaching staff or the South
Sydney Rabbito has taken up a position with the Warrington
Wolves over in the English Super League after a fallout
with the players, notably Latrelle Mitchell potentially Cody Walker, and
(09:10):
also disagreements we'll call them with Jason Demetrio, who is
the coach of the Sydney South Sydney Rabbitos. So it
seems like it's not actually about the Broncos.
Speaker 3 (09:20):
This is Russell Crowe still at the Rabbito's Still can
they solve this in a gladiator style fashion and just
let them all charging and fight to the death.
Speaker 4 (09:28):
Is this just wanting to do it?
Speaker 2 (09:29):
Hey, they'd sell out.
Speaker 1 (09:31):
They'd sell out any stadium in Australia if they wanted
to do that, And that's a good seat to finish.
Speaker 3 (09:41):
Our headlines the Tokyo Olympics twenty twenty. So it happened
in twenty twenty one. The greater part of Australia was
all lockdown and we were looking for a hero for
(10:04):
a story and a person to lift our spirits and
that person was Peter Bowl.
Speaker 4 (10:10):
Bulls there for the moment.
Speaker 5 (10:11):
Tel Comrie in Peter Bowl nineteen sixty eight, the last
time we've.
Speaker 2 (10:15):
Had a finals at the eight hundred hang on Peter Kodu.
He's in the finals. He has won Persumi.
Speaker 5 (10:22):
Finally, my mom did call me and said, I'm not
saying she's in arab because we speak Arabic. She said,
you've lifted the community's heads up. And then my dad said, no,
I think you lifted the nation set up. And I
really felt that, So yeah, it is obviously I'm very
proud of my heritage and my background and for my
people and everyone's my people.
Speaker 1 (10:45):
A young boy flees war torn Sudan. He's just four
years of age. By five, he's living in a refugee camp.
By ten, he's traversed half the world to settle in
a new home down Under. By twenty seven, he becomes
the first Australian in fifty three years to race in
the eight hundred meter final at the Olympic Games, missing
(11:05):
the gold byero point eighty six seconds, but cementing his
spot in the hearts of a nation. It's a storyline
straight out of a movie. But it's not actually Peter
Bowles story, at least not all of it, despite what
a lot of media would have you believe at the
time of the Tokyo Olympics in twenty twenty one. You see,
Bowl was born in Sudan and his family did dream
(11:27):
of a safer world, but he was never in a
refugee camp. Bowl's true journey is one of hardship and circumstance,
of beating the odds and being the Aussie laraken of
vertigo inducing highs and soul crossing lows. It's also, as
of last week, arguably just beginning from national hero to
(11:48):
drug cheat two exonerated. Let's go back, jelmy, because Bold
did arrive in Australia as a kid into Woomba. Therefore
he's actually a Queensland Oh my goodness, thank you so much.
I will I will take that. Yep, I'll claim him.
You know, I'll claim anything. I'll claim Peter Bowl as
an eight year old in two thousand and two. He
goes to Womba. Then he moves over to Perth.
Speaker 4 (12:09):
You'll claim thank you, checkmate.
Speaker 1 (12:13):
Moves over to Perth on a sports scholarship. But it
wasn't to anything to do with athletics. It was a
basketball scholarship because he was obsessed with basketball. All he
wanted to do was be the next Kobe Bryant, who
was his hero. By sixteen, he still hadn't even tried running.
It was a teacher who suggests that he maybe give
middle distance ago after he ran a really incredible cross
(12:34):
country race with zero training and he thought.
Speaker 2 (12:36):
That guy, the kid can run.
Speaker 1 (12:39):
Three years later he was the national junior eight hundred
meter champion. Bowls on the record as saying that he
didn't really fall in love with the sport of running
until he started traveling, so first around Australia, then around
the world, he saw running as his passport. He moved
to Melbourne, got a new coach named Justin. From there
he competed at the ye Olympics in twenty sixteen. He
(13:01):
was sixth in his heat. He's competed at World Championships
in twenty seventeen, twenty nineteen. He's had a lot of
other international meets, but as you just heard, we know
him best from the magic that he pulled off in
twenty twenty one. He smashed his PB multiple times at
the Olympics, breaking his own national record in the semis
(13:22):
to qualify for the Tokyo final in one minute forty
four seconds eleven milliseconds. Again, Jelmy, we know I'm not
great at maths, but I've done some figures. I've punched
some numbers. That's thirteen seconds per hundred meters that he's
sustaining for eight hundred meters, which means he's going at
almost forty seven k's an hour. That's how fast he's
(13:43):
running in those events. Now, for me to read out
all of that, that's taken me about ten seconds, so
he would already be at the first turn of a
four hundred meter track.
Speaker 2 (13:54):
That's how fast he is.
Speaker 1 (13:56):
And that's how obsessed everyone was with him and the
joy that he was able to give us while we
were in lockdowns a lot of the time in twenty
twenty one, so much so that when TV cameras joined
his large family in a small lounge room in his
adopted city of Perth, not Queens to watch the race
the final. Every Aussie, we felt the nerves, we felt
(14:17):
every stride. A Commonwealth silver medal in twenty twenty two
followed Bowl's Olympic fourth from twenty twenty one. He was
favorite to win the twenty twenty three Young Australian of
the Year at a ceremony in late January our quintessential
Golden Boy. Though things started going awry one week before
that ceremony was going to take place. The results of
(14:39):
a drug test were elect and the fairy tale was over.
Good boy on career turning.
Speaker 6 (14:45):
Now Peter's going to hold these ground here.
Speaker 4 (14:48):
A mass is coming with a run one and fifty
to gains.
Speaker 6 (14:52):
Taken away with.
Speaker 2 (14:55):
Australian Olympian.
Speaker 1 (14:56):
Peter Bowl has been provisionally suspended after test positive to
the band's substance EPO. Peter Bowl is cleared of doping
allegations after test results revealed his B sample was not
consistent with his first test, but his.
Speaker 2 (15:11):
Doping case has taken another twist.
Speaker 1 (15:13):
The result of the part B analysis was an atypical finding.
Speaker 3 (15:18):
There is no difference between an atypical finding and a
negative finding.
Speaker 1 (15:21):
From an evidentiary perspective, neither one provides any evidence that
Peter did anything wrong. Two independent lab tests found he
did not use a banned substance. The Sport Integrity Australia
body closed its investigation into a false positive drug test
against him.
Speaker 6 (15:40):
Absolutely, I have nothing to hide, one hundred percent.
Speaker 4 (15:41):
Innocent, Georgie.
Speaker 3 (15:45):
This takes us to the tenth of January, where on
the back page and front pages of newspapers around the country,
Peter Bowl was branded a cheat with a positive sample
to EPO. This was just his a sample. His b
sample was yet to con firm the result that the
lab found. Peter Bowls world was turned upside down. But
(16:05):
in order to understand how this all happened, you need
to understand EPO. I have EPO on my system right now,
so do you, so does producer James. Let's take you
on a journey because EPO is a hormone naturally produced
in the kidney that stimulates bone marrows stem cells to
increase the production of red blood cells and therefore aerobic capacity.
Speaker 2 (16:23):
I'm going to start calling you doctor jellmy thank you.
Speaker 3 (16:25):
Hen I've forgot my lab cope, but sometimes referred to
as blood doping. The use of synthetic EPO in sport
is banned as it unfairly allows better endurance and recovery
and athletes beyond normal human conditions.
Speaker 1 (16:37):
So basically it allows you to create a lot more
oxygen to move throughout your body, which then helps with recovery,
so you wouldn't necessarily have I don't know solness, guessing
it helps with black dec acid you're.
Speaker 3 (16:48):
The doctor, and aerobic capacity, which is why you see
it in elite cyclists and endurance runners from distances from
four hundred to eight hundred meters. It was banned in
the nineties and from as early as the two thousand
Olympics is when they started testing for EPO. It's really
important to note that EPO must be administered by injection.
(17:09):
This is not something that Peter could have accidentally had
in a protein shake or somehow been given in a vitamin.
He must have known that this was administered to him.
So when they came knocking on the tenth and gave
him a one page summary saying that you have been
provisionally suspended from athletics, Peter said, take my phone, take
my laptop, take my iPad.
Speaker 4 (17:30):
This is a huge mistake. I haven't done it.
Speaker 1 (17:33):
I just cannot even fathom that for someone who has
dedicated their life to sport, and part of that sport
of utmost importance is having a clean sport, and then
for you to know that you are innocent, and yet
everyone's going to treat you like you're guilty until you
are proven to be innocent.
Speaker 3 (17:52):
And there is no clarity provided to you or your
lawyers or your team on how this was leaked. And
there's a big speculation there that Peter's made himself about
the fact that this all occurred days out from the
announcement of Young Australian of the Year, of which Peter
was such a strong candidate to win that award, and
he was one of the nominees. If one of the
(18:13):
governing bodies had known that this may come out later,
were they trying to protect themselves potentially by leaking this,
because that is still the question, how does this leak happen?
Because on the fourteenth of February, the B sample did
not confirm the A sample, So we're talking from the
tenth of jan through to the fourteenth of February is
the period where Peter's in limbo with the world and
(18:36):
national media calling him a cheat, unable to train physically
and mentally disadvantaged as an athlete, and.
Speaker 4 (18:44):
All of this could have been avoided.
Speaker 3 (18:48):
Peter Bowl pointed this out in a conversation with Michael
Lasher on Channel seven Spotlight.
Speaker 6 (18:52):
This whole process shouldn't have come out until the b
sample and if it didn't, you receive so much pain.
You know, I'm so uncomfortable accusing anyone because I am
being accused of something that I'm not even going to
go there. Let's put it this way, right, it's the
process of elimination. So if myself and my team need
a result, then there's two other people that need to results.
(19:14):
It's going to be one of the three and Australia
and I'm sponsor Integrity and you and your team, And
I'm one hundred percent certain of my team did not
leak anything.
Speaker 1 (19:22):
Did that leak rob you of that opportunity at the
Australian of the Year Awards?
Speaker 6 (19:26):
Yeah, it certainly did.
Speaker 4 (19:29):
And then you are expected to compete.
Speaker 2 (19:32):
Well, why would you?
Speaker 1 (19:33):
Why would you want to keep competing for a country,
for an organization that has, to your best knowledge, been
complicit in some way in the worst moment of your
entire life.
Speaker 3 (19:44):
Because to continue doing what you love and what you're
gifted at and what you've dreamed of achieving the highest
heights in you have no choice. In the context of
athletics cycling, there are some sports, unfortunately that are so
non with cheating. Athletics is one of them. And all
of a sudden, that good guy, big smile, the Golden Boards,
(20:07):
the story that we all loved our almost young Australian
of the year he so loved is tainted and Athletics
Australia came out with a statement on the twentieth of
January saying that Peter Bowl after an adverse analytical finding
was detected in an out of competition control test on
the eleventh of October, so the test was backdated to
(20:28):
the eleventh October twenty twenty two. This means he will
not be permitted to train at a national, state or
club level, compete at any level, coach, receive funding, use
official or member facilities, or hold a position within a
sporting organization. Can you imagine trying to train at an
elite level for competition with nationals coming up, with World
(20:52):
Champs coming up with Paris a year away from now,
and not knowing how long you were going to get
banned from training at the elite level.
Speaker 1 (20:59):
And just being having that in your mind, being like,
what is the point what is the point of even
going out there to train? If people are thinking this
about me? And I know that I haven't done I
haven't been injecting.
Speaker 3 (21:13):
The thing about EPO that is so important to note
that I think not many people would realize is that
because it is naturally occurring in the body when they're
analyzing it in the lab from urine samples that athletes
have to give all the time, and Peter had had
up to twenty negative tests since the October positive. Supposedly,
(21:35):
the synthetic EPO looks very similar to the natural EPO
that occurs in your body. Really hard to tell the difference,
So it is grey. It is human judgment that says
this is a positive sample and this is a negative sample.
So someone in a lab has looked at what is
naturally occurring in Peter's body and said, you have synthetically
(21:56):
added this, You've cheated. In a world world where we
believe that our legal system protects the innocent, the innocent
are found guilty in order to have clean sport, because
otherwise there's no other way to test for EPO and
you have cheats.
Speaker 1 (22:12):
And this is I think my understanding of WADA, maybe
in general, the World Antidoping Agency and a lot of
systems and policies that they have in place, is that
it's kind of this catch all. Right, yes, like these
we know, we admit they're not perfect systems, but they
will allow us to catch hopefully most of the drug cheats,
(22:36):
most people doping. We do accept that there are going
to be innocent people that are carried into that, because
then it's not a perfect system.
Speaker 3 (22:44):
And at least those world bodies have come out and
the day that Peter was going to race in his
first heat of the eight hundred in Budapest have come
out and said it's a disaster. The worst thing that
could have possibly happened happened in this case because three
weeks on the first of August. Again we're talking from
January tenth to only the first of August was it
(23:07):
officially dropped as an investigation.
Speaker 1 (23:10):
How do you change the system then, How do we
protect athletes by not becoming the next Peter Bowl.
Speaker 3 (23:15):
This conversation has happened. The conversation you and I are
having now is relevant because of Peter's performance at the
World Champs where in the heat the commentary itself says this,
and it's.
Speaker 6 (23:25):
Gonna be pol who's run out of this one.
Speaker 5 (23:27):
I think I can't stay leading Prava and Mula coming
through Brown Jerrett, but Pernica.
Speaker 4 (23:33):
Their talent in form and Paula joked the.
Speaker 5 (23:35):
Cross the line one twenty four, He's sure to kept
running harder.
Speaker 4 (23:40):
He should have kept running harder. Do you know worry?
Speaker 3 (23:43):
He did keep running George through the media because understandably,
after the week that's been, after the year that's been,
Peter didn't want to comment. And hopefully it's our role
now as the media that Peter doesn't have to because
we see someone that's been so clearly wronged. We can
take on that conversation for him. And if he wants
to let his running do the talking, that's up to him.
(24:05):
If he decides he never wants to run again, that's
also up to him and it would be understandable. But
it's our job now to explain how this happened to
someone who's innocent, and to keep pressure on the governing bodies,
what are you going to do about it? And the
problem is, in order to have clean sport, there is
no better testing method for EPO that means that innocent
(24:26):
people aren't going to continually be found guilty of cheating.
Speaker 2 (24:30):
Within that parameter.
Speaker 1 (24:31):
Then of their having to be innocent victims to keep
the sport clean. It sounds really great and it sounds
very very virtuous until it happens to someone that you love.
And as Australians, we loved Peter Bowl. I hope we
still do love him. But there will be people on
the street who don't know the latest twists and turns
(24:54):
that have happened in this roller coaster ride of an
eight months for Peter Bowl. They will still just remember
the back page that called him a drug cheat, Like
I wonder what happened to that guy? I mean, I
guess he's out of the sport because because he cheated
and you know he's been suspended, et cetera, et cetera,
Rather than maybe the alternative reading, which is Peter Bowl
isn't performing very well because he's had the mental load
(25:15):
of dealing with being falsely accused of being a drug.
Speaker 3 (25:18):
Check and in his own words in that Spotlight interview,
he said, well, if I go out and break a
national record, people are going to think I'm still on
the juice. And if I stop performing well, people are
going to think because I got off that And I
can't control that narrative. But what he can control is
that he's running to clear his name.
Speaker 1 (25:36):
And also I think he's running for himself now. He's
running for his family, he's running for the people that
did stand behind him, because, in his own words, the
governing body hasn't.
Speaker 6 (25:50):
We wanted the people that in charge to give that
support as well, and have they. I mean maybe they're
ringing a different number, but certainly not ringing you directly,
absolutely or not. And I wouldn't even pick up right now.
Speaker 3 (26:08):
I just think someone at Athletics Australia or Sports Integrity
Australia need to put their hand up and explain what's
happened here. Someone needs to come out and take ownership
of his in the same way that Pete was forced
to take ownership of an error that he actually didn't make.
But someone has done him a massive disservice here. We
(26:31):
wouldn't be talking about it. He perhaps would have competed
differently to national championships. He subbed out of training to
the point where he was cycling and playing basketball because
he wasn't running, because what was the point. And I
really hope, I really really hope that brands get behind
Peter and stick with him because he's innocent and he's
(26:52):
done nothing wrong, and I really believe in clean sport.
I think it's so important, particularly with Olympics. You think
of all those golden moments, those Kathy moments that it
gives Australia and different countries to have someone bearing your
flag do well once every four years on that international stage,
(27:12):
and how much those moments punctuate our culture as a
sport loving nation that can only continue to exist in
a manner that makes you feel good about the world
if sport is clean. And unfortunately this is the only
way that we can keep sport clean. But there are
innocent victims of that, and Peter Bowl, unfortunately, has been
(27:33):
the human tole.
Speaker 1 (27:34):
I think the telling thing has really been throughout this
last eight months of hell and turmoil for Peter Bowl,
the silence from Athletics Australia, Sport Integrity Australia's come out
and said, you know, it's a disaster. All that great,
great to talk about it now, but where were you
in the last eight months? As Peter Bowl says, they're
not calling him, but Athletics Australia as far as they're concerned.
(27:54):
They say their hands were tied with the protocols that
are in place and that they couldn't do any They
couldn't do anymore. They've also said in a statement that
Peter Bowl's welfare was always at the top of mind.
They asked Sport Integrity Australia to hurry up the investigation
as quickly as possible, tied up so that it wouldn't
be so distressing and disruptive and frustrating for Peter and
(28:18):
his team and Athletics Australia.
Speaker 4 (28:20):
None of that sounds like an apology for it being leaked.
Speaker 1 (28:24):
I'm missing the word sorry in any of the statement.
Speaker 2 (28:27):
It's not there.
Speaker 3 (28:28):
How difficult would it be to move beyond anger, such
justified anger at being so unfairly treated and so wronged,
and no one picked up the phone to then perform
under that banner.
Speaker 4 (28:44):
It's unimaginable.
Speaker 1 (28:45):
We started this discussion with Peter Bowl telling us or
reminding us that everyone is his people. Everyone is part
of his unit, and I think that we owe it
to him as our golden boy who has been so wronged,
to stay with him, to support him, to show him
that he's our people as well.
Speaker 3 (29:07):
We really hope to see you in Paris, Pete, but
if we don't, we understand and we're so sorry for
what happened to you.
Speaker 2 (29:26):
Jellmy.
Speaker 1 (29:27):
You and I obviously are all about sports. Hopefully, dear listeners,
you are too, and we're about the big moments in sports.
We're also about learning. It's our gift to you. This
is our favorite segment, fun Facts, Fun Facts, Jellmy. We
mentioned it in our headlines about our latest world champion
in athletics, Nina Kennedy sharing gold with her best friend
(29:47):
Katie Moon.
Speaker 2 (29:48):
Did you know that one you can actually do? Did
you know that? Did you know that you can share
gold medals?
Speaker 1 (29:53):
The only reason I knew this was because of Tokyo,
because I was watching it in a studio with the
men's high jump, and there were salute scenes.
Speaker 4 (30:01):
Roll the clip.
Speaker 1 (30:02):
They're gonna share.
Speaker 2 (30:03):
It, They're gonna share it, this series, share it, shoot it.
So there you go, fantastic.
Speaker 4 (30:08):
I jump off and there Florida's guitar.
Speaker 2 (30:10):
That is the man by the Italian Jan Marco.
Speaker 1 (30:15):
The contacts Italians on the ground, rolling around in absolute ecstasy.
It was one of my favorite moments of the Games,
and I had forgotten about it, to my shame until
I saw Nina Kennedy and.
Speaker 2 (30:28):
I thought, oh, that's right. In track and field you
can share golds. It's wild.
Speaker 1 (30:32):
You can mutually agree to no longer compete after you
reach a certain time, right, So it's like you've tried,
You've tried, You've keep jumping, jump and jumping, and.
Speaker 2 (30:39):
Then it's like I am done.
Speaker 1 (30:42):
But that was the first time that an Olympic track
and field medal a gold medal had been shared at
the Tokyo Olympics or at an Olympic Games since nineteen twelve.
So that's a big time. In between drinks that people thought,
you know what, let's have that camaraderie and extend it.
Speaker 3 (30:58):
And also I think the world needs did a group
hug covid had been so rough, everyone was angry at everyone.
Speaker 4 (31:06):
There was something about.
Speaker 3 (31:07):
Watching two different athletes from different nations instead of going
stuff you I'm gonna fight for the death. I'm the
greatest of all time, just the complete love and.
Speaker 4 (31:16):
Joy because they split. It was why you love sport.
Speaker 1 (31:20):
But also it can only obviously happen for certain events, right.
Speaker 4 (31:23):
There are some sports where it would ruin the theater.
Speaker 3 (31:26):
Can you imagine if we didn't have a penalty shootout?
Oh against France now in the World Cup because they're like, look,
you can't share. I may have shared the semi final
result though with England we could both play three teams
on the pitch in the.
Speaker 2 (31:40):
Final show, let's go for it. I don't worry work,
would you do it?
Speaker 3 (31:44):
No one needs to know about that side of me yet, George.
I'm I'm a very competitive person. Whether it's Connect four,
whether it's monopoly, it just doesn't matter.
Speaker 2 (31:55):
I's a bachelor sweep stage.
Speaker 4 (31:57):
I would like to think. I'd like to think that
I'd be a better person and I would share.
Speaker 2 (32:02):
I wouldn't.
Speaker 4 (32:03):
I wouldn't.
Speaker 2 (32:03):
I wouldn't.
Speaker 4 (32:04):
No, I damn well wouldn't.
Speaker 1 (32:05):
Actually hang on, I wouldn't until I absolutely knew that
I couldn't win like myself.
Speaker 3 (32:11):
That's it this week for two good sports. Thanks for
hanging around to Georgia. We actually have an Instagram handle,
so hit us up.
Speaker 2 (32:17):
We do two good sports podcasts. Go follow it.
Speaker 1 (32:20):
We're going to have all of the news, some behind
the scenes stuff, some of the best social clips. Because yes,
you may have been able to tell Gelmy and I
get quite excited by certain random things and our voice
does change a lot. But also along with our voice,
our facial expressions are really quite something. So follow that
Instagram account all of our social media so that you.
Speaker 2 (32:41):
Too can join the conversation.
Speaker 3 (32:42):
Feel free to slide into our DMS with a fun
fact and until next week, Beakers Book
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