The Olympic Games are done and dusted, and the Paralympics are only a week away.
New Zealand is sending 25 athletes along, competing across eight different Para sports.
Piney caught up with Anna Grimaldi, one of our biggest medal hopes, as she prepares for her third Paralympic Games.
She told him that being offered the role of flag bearer was really special, and a personal achievement for her.
“It was a no brainer to say yes.”
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:06):
You're listening to the Weekend Sport podcast with Jason Fine
from newstalk EDB.
Speaker 2 (00:12):
Olympic Games in Paris are underway in a week's time.
Next weekend is the start of competition, the opening ceremony
and then competition proper gets underway. Long jumper and sprinter
Anna Grimaldi is looking to become just the third New
Zealander ever to win three consecutive Paralympic gold medals in
(00:33):
track and field.
Speaker 3 (00:34):
Now, Anna Grimaldi of New Zealand, who's sitting in bronze
medal position, guaranteed a medal. Can she improve from third?
Or maybe she has? Comes up smiling. This is a
new PB for Grimaldi. This could be really something special
for the Kiwi. We'll wait for this with some excitement
(00:56):
for young Anna Grimaldi five sixty two in season gold
medal position. Can you believe it? She can't, and Grimaldi
has for New Zealand.
Speaker 2 (01:07):
Here that was Rio twenty sixteen and a GRIMOLDI also
won gold in the T forty seven long jump in Paris.
It's rather in Tokyo, looking to make it three in
a line in Paris. Before any of that, though, she's
also a flag bearer for the opening ceremony alongside Cameron
Leslie and a GRIMOLDI as well this and maybe let's
start there. How did they let you know you'd be
a flag bearer? And how special a moment will that
(01:29):
be for you?
Speaker 4 (01:31):
Yeah, it was real, it was really special. She really
emotional when they asked me. Rayl Lane Bates is usually
our team manager, but she's taken up the role of
shift mission for these games, and her and another pens
Is staff member, Gracie, they rang me and asked if
it was something that I'd be interested in, and of
(01:52):
course it definitely was. It wasn't our plan to go
into the village that early, but it's just one of
those opportunities that's like kind of a you know, a
personal achievement on something that I'll you know, will make
this games, you know, really special for me. So it
was a no brainer to say yes and to accept it,
and to deal with Cam.
Speaker 5 (02:12):
As well, who's such a legend. It was really exciting.
Speaker 4 (02:16):
Yeah, it made me really emotional and yeah, I can't lie,
I can't lie.
Speaker 5 (02:20):
I can't believe it's my third games and yeah I'm
playing there. It's crazy.
Speaker 2 (02:26):
Yeah, it's amazing. It's terrific recognition for you, not only
your third games, you're double defending champion in the T
forty seven long jump. How motivated a you to make
that three in a row.
Speaker 5 (02:37):
Yeah, it's crazy. It's crazy to me to even think that.
Speaker 4 (02:40):
I think back to my you know, when I first
started athletics in twenty thirteen, I was sixteen, and I
had a conversation with someone who was like talking about
Rio which was at that point sort of three years away,
twenty sixteen, and.
Speaker 5 (02:53):
They were sort of like.
Speaker 4 (02:54):
Oh, you know, that'll be the goal, and I sort
of said to them, Oh, nah, no, that's too soon.
I don't think I'll make that team. I'll be aiming
for Tokyo on twenty twenty. And just to have you know,
been in rio let alone and then to have been
in Tokyo and then one again, it's yeah, it's such
a Yeah, it's such a I can't I can't even
(03:16):
put words for it. Like it's it's taken like a
long time to settle in, and I think like this year,
this past year, it's really hit home, like what big
achievements those are and how special they are and how
different of like athletes I will have been at all
three games, and yeah, I'm super excited to get out there.
(03:37):
There's been so much work gone into this and lots
of risks, especially over the last three years to get here,
and I'm enjoying it more than I ever have.
Speaker 5 (03:47):
And I think that's kind of been.
Speaker 4 (03:50):
The you know, the thing underpinning it or all of
the great performance office I've had in the last year.
And yeah, just the journey, I don't know, it's just
made me appreciate it a whole lot more.
Speaker 5 (04:03):
And yeah, I'm really excited to get there.
Speaker 2 (04:07):
What are the risks that you've taken over the past year.
Speaker 4 (04:11):
Yeah, over the well, I mean over the last three years.
It was such a Tokyo was such an interesting games,
and I think like it for the reasons I loved
this being my career. You know, the people I get
to meet, the places I get to go, the experiences
(04:31):
I get to have.
Speaker 5 (04:32):
That was not.
Speaker 4 (04:34):
In essence any of what our Tokyo experience was. It
was really closed off. I was getting up super early,
and maybe not I was getting up at four am,
and I maybe didn't speak in a single word to
anyone until eleven am. And that's just anyone that knows me.
That's no normal, and I think I really struggled with that,
and just my enjoyment for the sport really really waned
(04:57):
in that time. I think a bit of self identity
stuff went on. You know, who was I outside of
those two Paralympic gold medals. That wasn't really so that
I'd put a lot of effort into, and I think
over the last couple of years really putting in the
effort to find out who Anna is outside of sport, and.
Speaker 5 (05:16):
I was working part time.
Speaker 4 (05:18):
I decided to finish that off last year before heading
away to World Champs. I went to Europe and did
a big European season before World Champs last year. And
I also changed coaches at the end of twenty twenty two,
sort of six months before last year's World Champs, which
was a really big decision because Brent, my old coach,
(05:39):
was a huge part of my life and a huge,
huge reason why I'd won those two Paralympic golds, and
quite a scary decision to, you know, face your you're
going for your third Paralympic title and you're not doing
it with one of the main pillars of the other
two teams. But it just felt like the right time
for both of us, and I think it has been
(06:02):
has been really really.
Speaker 5 (06:03):
Positive for me.
Speaker 4 (06:03):
It's pushed me a lot, and I think that's kind
of what I needed to get to where I am now.
And there's some really special things, Brewer, I can feel them.
That training is hard, and technically it's really hard at
the moment, but it's feeling like hopeful that there is
there's more, there's still more distance in me yet, which
(06:24):
is really exciting.
Speaker 2 (06:26):
Absolutely. I've heard you talk about the pressure and a
little bit of anxiety you felt going into Tokyo as
you looked to defend the goal that you won in Rio,
and just hearing you talk then about being defined only
by your Paralympic feats. Has that anxiety now disappeared? Are
you now just comfortable that you know no one can
take Rio away from you, no one can take Tokyo
(06:47):
away from you. Has that anxiety kind of disappeared now?
Speaker 1 (06:50):
Yeah?
Speaker 4 (06:51):
I think that I had so much attachment to those medals,
but that they were sort of like only relevant if
I keep winning them, you know, like they weren't they
weren't these like great standard loan achievements. In my mind,
it was like the first one felt quite fluky, and
I felt really, you know, not not like I wasn't
(07:13):
the best on paper at all in that field. I
just had the best day and I felt like, you know,
maybe I didn't deserve to win. I wasn't what a
what I thought a Paralympic champion you know, looked like,
or what it would feel like. And so I think
I thought, you know, like, oh need to do this
again to prove to myself, you know, that I that
I'm worthy of being in this you know, high performance
(07:35):
sport world. And so when I won in Tokyo, I
think when I went into Tokyo, I just had this huge,
overwhelming feeling that it was like maybe not going to happen,
and what would that mean for me? But also being
I had the best season of my life nearly that
year of Tokyo and knowing that I was the best
on paper that time going into it, and that I'd
(07:57):
been on the other side of that coin and lost
being I mean and one not being the best on paper,
so I think it just felt really scary, and I
think when I won, there was just an overwhelming sense
of relief. There was, of course happiness, and joy and
and everything else. But it was it was just like
I'd taken a huge, deep breath out for the first
(08:18):
time in five years at that point. And but that
feeling kind of didn't stick around for very long. Like
the gold medal was kind of like a shiny gold
plaster and it didn't fell off eventually, And I think
I really struggled to pack myself back up and get
back into it and find motivation beyond beyond just the
(08:38):
medals and the and the and the achievements, because there
are so many other aspects of sport other than just
performing at the Paralympic Games or the Olympic Games or
World Champs or whatever it is. And I think really
leaning into those other things has made, you know, me
a lot happier person. And you know, if I'm happier,
(09:02):
I'm able to perform better and and you know that's
always the saying. And I think I didn't really I
didn't really buy into that until last year, because I mean,
I was the happiest I'd been in my sport and
I produced, you know, some really well two personal bests
at a major champ So it was it was kind
of like a light bulb moment for me, like, if
(09:23):
we don't look after Anna Anna sporting, Anna is going
to struggle.
Speaker 2 (09:27):
There's such good self awareness, amazing when you talk about
last year Paris bronze and the one h meters, Yeah,
it wasn't a fluke because you repeated the feat that
this year's World Champs. I remember chatting to you after
the bronze in Paris. Yeah, and you said, I remember
you said, you said you had a real deep calm
about your sprinting. It wasn't something you felt anxious about
(09:48):
at all.
Speaker 4 (09:48):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (09:48):
Have you been able to continue that feeling when you sprint?
Speaker 5 (09:52):
No, so I did. I didn't feel very nervous at World.
Speaker 4 (10:01):
Champs and in Kobe earlier this year, I just felt
I did. I didn't quite feel myself. I'd been battling
a little a few injuries actually over the last year
that sort of took me out from running for quite
a wee while, and I knew that we were still
in the building phase, but it was kind of it's
(10:22):
kind of hard when you know you're not quite at
your best, but you're at one of the best acomplishs
of the year and you want to put your best
foot forward and you are putting your best foot forward,
but it's not the best foot you've ever had, And
I think that was quite It was quite hard. But
in saying that, like, I'm really proud of the performance
I was able to put out there and it is
a nice confidence builder going into this year. And I've
(10:44):
ran you know, a lot quicker since then, which is
not I think it.
Speaker 5 (10:47):
I was super happy with.
Speaker 4 (10:49):
The obviously with the bronze medal, that's awesome, but I
think the time I struggled seeing that time and going like, right,
are we are we on track?
Speaker 5 (10:58):
Like for Paris? Is this?
Speaker 4 (11:00):
Are we going to be able to put it together
in Paris? But I think since then we've been able to.
Speaker 5 (11:07):
Sort of.
Speaker 4 (11:08):
Not sit back, but like let the training take its course,
you know, go through the full cycle, run the full
training program. And now we are seeing we're seeing positive signs.
So that is like calming.
Speaker 2 (11:22):
Yeah, cool, And you've added the two hundred back end,
But you've run that event quite regularly during your career,
haven't you. This isn't absolutely news to you, is it
the two hundred?
Speaker 5 (11:32):
No?
Speaker 4 (11:32):
But it feels new again because I have ran i
think three two hundred meters in the last sort of
six year, we'll say, and before that, my last one
was in twenty seventeen, so sort of near on seven
years ago. And my last race was the two hundred
(11:53):
meters heats at World Champs in twenty seventeen, and I
broke my foot. My foot had been giving me grief
all that year, but it really gave up.
Speaker 5 (12:02):
In that race.
Speaker 4 (12:03):
And then my last international race before that was an
Rio and I was in the heats, qualified for the final,
left the stadium and then got a call from our
manager saying you've been disqualified.
Speaker 5 (12:15):
You stood on the line, and.
Speaker 4 (12:16):
So I feel like there's this real like like I've
got some beef with the two hundred that we need
to sort out, you know.
Speaker 5 (12:25):
Like we've I've had two I've had.
Speaker 4 (12:27):
My last two opportunities have been you know, a qualification
and a foot break. And the foot break, you know,
we decided that we were never going to run the
two again, Like that was a big factor and why
my foot broke, and we decided it was too risky
and I was never gonna run it again. And then
it's been really nice this last year having open discussions about, well,
you know what, my body isn't fragile anymore. It can
(12:49):
handle the two hundred. We are going to get out
there and give it a go. And it's really just
for me this event. It's like a nice kind of
like a bit of a like, yep, my body, my
body struggled for a while, but we're not struggling anymore.
We're really thriving, and my body you can handle this
type of thing.
Speaker 5 (13:08):
And so I'm really excited for that.
Speaker 4 (13:10):
It's the last event on the program and I'll give
it my best, may be shot, but yeah, that one's
just sort of for me.
Speaker 2 (13:17):
Cool long jump PB five ninety six, you reckon, you've
got that, You've got you reckon got that six meters
in your next couple of weeks.
Speaker 4 (13:27):
Yeah, yeah, I think we're quose, Like we're close there there,
We've got the elements all there. It's just getting them,
getting them to all be friends with one.
Speaker 5 (13:35):
Another is what we're working on right now.
Speaker 4 (13:38):
And I think, yeah, we yeah, I think I think
it is there. I would love it to be there,
you know, in a couple of weeks time. Six fine
ninety six is painfully close to six meters and I
would just I would It's just like, yeah, it's been
a goal since I started to jump six meters, so
(13:58):
it'd be really lovely to be able to deal with,
you know, on the biggest competition of my life.
Speaker 2 (14:02):
Really well, we can't wait to see how you go.
So one hundred meters long jump, two hundred meters before
all that, you carry the flag. So cool for you, Enna,
Thanks for taking the time for a chat. I hope
the rest of you build up towards the start of
the Games goes brilliantly and we just can't wait to
see how you go. Thanks for having me, no, thanks
for joining us anam Anak Grimaldi there, long jumper flag bearer,
(14:23):
What a delight to chat to her again.
Speaker 1 (14:25):
For more from Weekend Sport with Jason Fine, listen live
to News Talk sed B weekends from midday, or follow
the podcast on iHeartRadio.
You're listening to the Weekend Sport podcast with Jason Fine
from newstalk EDB.
Speaker 2 (00:12):
Olympic Games in Paris are underway in a week's time.
Next weekend is the start of competition, the opening ceremony
and then competition proper gets underway. Long jumper and sprinter
Anna Grimaldi is looking to become just the third New
Zealander ever to win three consecutive Paralympic gold medals in
(00:33):
track and field.
Speaker 3 (00:34):
Now, Anna Grimaldi of New Zealand, who's sitting in bronze
medal position, guaranteed a medal. Can she improve from third?
Or maybe she has? Comes up smiling. This is a
new PB for Grimaldi. This could be really something special
for the Kiwi. We'll wait for this with some excitement
(00:56):
for young Anna Grimaldi five sixty two in season gold
medal position. Can you believe it? She can't, and Grimaldi
has for New Zealand.
Speaker 2 (01:07):
Here that was Rio twenty sixteen and a GRIMOLDI also
won gold in the T forty seven long jump in Paris.
It's rather in Tokyo, looking to make it three in
a line in Paris. Before any of that, though, she's
also a flag bearer for the opening ceremony alongside Cameron
Leslie and a GRIMOLDI as well this and maybe let's
start there. How did they let you know you'd be
a flag bearer? And how special a moment will that
(01:29):
be for you?
Speaker 4 (01:31):
Yeah, it was real, it was really special. She really
emotional when they asked me. Rayl Lane Bates is usually
our team manager, but she's taken up the role of
shift mission for these games, and her and another pens
Is staff member, Gracie, they rang me and asked if
it was something that I'd be interested in, and of
(01:52):
course it definitely was. It wasn't our plan to go
into the village that early, but it's just one of
those opportunities that's like kind of a you know, a
personal achievement on something that I'll you know, will make
this games, you know, really special for me. So it
was a no brainer to say yes and to accept it,
and to deal with Cam.
Speaker 5 (02:12):
As well, who's such a legend. It was really exciting.
Speaker 4 (02:16):
Yeah, it made me really emotional and yeah, I can't lie,
I can't lie.
Speaker 5 (02:20):
I can't believe it's my third games and yeah I'm
playing there. It's crazy.
Speaker 2 (02:26):
Yeah, it's amazing. It's terrific recognition for you, not only
your third games, you're double defending champion in the T
forty seven long jump. How motivated a you to make
that three in a row.
Speaker 5 (02:37):
Yeah, it's crazy. It's crazy to me to even think that.
Speaker 4 (02:40):
I think back to my you know, when I first
started athletics in twenty thirteen, I was sixteen, and I
had a conversation with someone who was like talking about
Rio which was at that point sort of three years away,
twenty sixteen, and.
Speaker 5 (02:53):
They were sort of like.
Speaker 4 (02:54):
Oh, you know, that'll be the goal, and I sort
of said to them, Oh, nah, no, that's too soon.
I don't think I'll make that team. I'll be aiming
for Tokyo on twenty twenty. And just to have you know,
been in rio let alone and then to have been
in Tokyo and then one again, it's yeah, it's such
a Yeah, it's such a I can't I can't even
(03:16):
put words for it. Like it's it's taken like a
long time to settle in, and I think like this year,
this past year, it's really hit home, like what big
achievements those are and how special they are and how
different of like athletes I will have been at all
three games, and yeah, I'm super excited to get out there.
(03:37):
There's been so much work gone into this and lots
of risks, especially over the last three years to get here,
and I'm enjoying it more than I ever have.
Speaker 5 (03:47):
And I think that's kind of been.
Speaker 4 (03:50):
The you know, the thing underpinning it or all of
the great performance office I've had in the last year.
And yeah, just the journey, I don't know, it's just
made me appreciate it a whole lot more.
Speaker 5 (04:03):
And yeah, I'm really excited to get there.
Speaker 2 (04:07):
What are the risks that you've taken over the past year.
Speaker 4 (04:11):
Yeah, over the well, I mean over the last three years.
It was such a Tokyo was such an interesting games,
and I think like it for the reasons I loved
this being my career. You know, the people I get
to meet, the places I get to go, the experiences
(04:31):
I get to have.
Speaker 5 (04:32):
That was not.
Speaker 4 (04:34):
In essence any of what our Tokyo experience was. It
was really closed off. I was getting up super early,
and maybe not I was getting up at four am,
and I maybe didn't speak in a single word to
anyone until eleven am. And that's just anyone that knows me.
That's no normal, and I think I really struggled with that,
and just my enjoyment for the sport really really waned
(04:57):
in that time. I think a bit of self identity
stuff went on. You know, who was I outside of
those two Paralympic gold medals. That wasn't really so that
I'd put a lot of effort into, and I think
over the last couple of years really putting in the
effort to find out who Anna is outside of sport, and.
Speaker 5 (05:16):
I was working part time.
Speaker 4 (05:18):
I decided to finish that off last year before heading
away to World Champs. I went to Europe and did
a big European season before World Champs last year. And
I also changed coaches at the end of twenty twenty two,
sort of six months before last year's World Champs, which
was a really big decision because Brent, my old coach,
(05:39):
was a huge part of my life and a huge,
huge reason why I'd won those two Paralympic golds, and
quite a scary decision to, you know, face your you're
going for your third Paralympic title and you're not doing
it with one of the main pillars of the other
two teams. But it just felt like the right time
for both of us, and I think it has been
(06:02):
has been really really.
Speaker 5 (06:03):
Positive for me.
Speaker 4 (06:03):
It's pushed me a lot, and I think that's kind
of what I needed to get to where I am now.
And there's some really special things, Brewer, I can feel them.
That training is hard, and technically it's really hard at
the moment, but it's feeling like hopeful that there is
there's more, there's still more distance in me yet, which
(06:24):
is really exciting.
Speaker 2 (06:26):
Absolutely. I've heard you talk about the pressure and a
little bit of anxiety you felt going into Tokyo as
you looked to defend the goal that you won in Rio,
and just hearing you talk then about being defined only
by your Paralympic feats. Has that anxiety now disappeared? Are
you now just comfortable that you know no one can
take Rio away from you, no one can take Tokyo
(06:47):
away from you. Has that anxiety kind of disappeared now?
Speaker 1 (06:50):
Yeah?
Speaker 4 (06:51):
I think that I had so much attachment to those medals,
but that they were sort of like only relevant if
I keep winning them, you know, like they weren't they
weren't these like great standard loan achievements. In my mind,
it was like the first one felt quite fluky, and
I felt really, you know, not not like I wasn't
(07:13):
the best on paper at all in that field. I
just had the best day and I felt like, you know,
maybe I didn't deserve to win. I wasn't what a
what I thought a Paralympic champion you know, looked like,
or what it would feel like. And so I think
I thought, you know, like, oh need to do this
again to prove to myself, you know, that I that
I'm worthy of being in this you know, high performance
(07:35):
sport world. And so when I won in Tokyo, I
think when I went into Tokyo, I just had this huge,
overwhelming feeling that it was like maybe not going to happen,
and what would that mean for me? But also being
I had the best season of my life nearly that
year of Tokyo and knowing that I was the best
on paper that time going into it, and that I'd
(07:57):
been on the other side of that coin and lost
being I mean and one not being the best on paper,
so I think it just felt really scary, and I
think when I won, there was just an overwhelming sense
of relief. There was, of course happiness, and joy and
and everything else. But it was it was just like
I'd taken a huge, deep breath out for the first
(08:18):
time in five years at that point. And but that
feeling kind of didn't stick around for very long. Like
the gold medal was kind of like a shiny gold
plaster and it didn't fell off eventually, And I think
I really struggled to pack myself back up and get
back into it and find motivation beyond beyond just the
(08:38):
medals and the and the and the achievements, because there
are so many other aspects of sport other than just
performing at the Paralympic Games or the Olympic Games or
World Champs or whatever it is. And I think really
leaning into those other things has made, you know, me
a lot happier person. And you know, if I'm happier,
(09:02):
I'm able to perform better and and you know that's
always the saying. And I think I didn't really I
didn't really buy into that until last year, because I mean,
I was the happiest I'd been in my sport and
I produced, you know, some really well two personal bests
at a major champ So it was it was kind
of like a light bulb moment for me, like, if
(09:23):
we don't look after Anna Anna sporting, Anna is going
to struggle.
Speaker 2 (09:27):
There's such good self awareness, amazing when you talk about
last year Paris bronze and the one h meters, Yeah,
it wasn't a fluke because you repeated the feat that
this year's World Champs. I remember chatting to you after
the bronze in Paris. Yeah, and you said, I remember
you said, you said you had a real deep calm
about your sprinting. It wasn't something you felt anxious about
(09:48):
at all.
Speaker 4 (09:48):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (09:48):
Have you been able to continue that feeling when you sprint?
Speaker 5 (09:52):
No, so I did. I didn't feel very nervous at World.
Speaker 4 (10:01):
Champs and in Kobe earlier this year, I just felt
I did. I didn't quite feel myself. I'd been battling
a little a few injuries actually over the last year
that sort of took me out from running for quite
a wee while, and I knew that we were still
in the building phase, but it was kind of it's
(10:22):
kind of hard when you know you're not quite at
your best, but you're at one of the best acomplishs
of the year and you want to put your best
foot forward and you are putting your best foot forward,
but it's not the best foot you've ever had, And
I think that was quite It was quite hard. But
in saying that, like, I'm really proud of the performance
I was able to put out there and it is
a nice confidence builder going into this year. And I've
(10:44):
ran you know, a lot quicker since then, which is
not I think it.
Speaker 5 (10:47):
I was super happy with.
Speaker 4 (10:49):
The obviously with the bronze medal, that's awesome, but I
think the time I struggled seeing that time and going like, right,
are we are we on track?
Speaker 5 (10:58):
Like for Paris? Is this?
Speaker 4 (11:00):
Are we going to be able to put it together
in Paris? But I think since then we've been able to.
Speaker 5 (11:07):
Sort of.
Speaker 4 (11:08):
Not sit back, but like let the training take its course,
you know, go through the full cycle, run the full
training program. And now we are seeing we're seeing positive signs.
So that is like calming.
Speaker 2 (11:22):
Yeah, cool, And you've added the two hundred back end,
But you've run that event quite regularly during your career,
haven't you. This isn't absolutely news to you, is it
the two hundred?
Speaker 5 (11:32):
No?
Speaker 4 (11:32):
But it feels new again because I have ran i
think three two hundred meters in the last sort of
six year, we'll say, and before that, my last one
was in twenty seventeen, so sort of near on seven
years ago. And my last race was the two hundred
(11:53):
meters heats at World Champs in twenty seventeen, and I
broke my foot. My foot had been giving me grief
all that year, but it really gave up.
Speaker 5 (12:02):
In that race.
Speaker 4 (12:03):
And then my last international race before that was an
Rio and I was in the heats, qualified for the final,
left the stadium and then got a call from our
manager saying you've been disqualified.
Speaker 5 (12:15):
You stood on the line, and.
Speaker 4 (12:16):
So I feel like there's this real like like I've
got some beef with the two hundred that we need
to sort out, you know.
Speaker 5 (12:25):
Like we've I've had two I've had.
Speaker 4 (12:27):
My last two opportunities have been you know, a qualification
and a foot break. And the foot break, you know,
we decided that we were never going to run the
two again, Like that was a big factor and why
my foot broke, and we decided it was too risky
and I was never gonna run it again. And then
it's been really nice this last year having open discussions about, well,
you know what, my body isn't fragile anymore. It can
(12:49):
handle the two hundred. We are going to get out
there and give it a go. And it's really just
for me this event. It's like a nice kind of
like a bit of a like, yep, my body, my
body struggled for a while, but we're not struggling anymore.
We're really thriving, and my body you can handle this
type of thing.
Speaker 5 (13:08):
And so I'm really excited for that.
Speaker 4 (13:10):
It's the last event on the program and I'll give
it my best, may be shot, but yeah, that one's
just sort of for me.
Speaker 2 (13:17):
Cool long jump PB five ninety six, you reckon, you've
got that, You've got you reckon got that six meters
in your next couple of weeks.
Speaker 4 (13:27):
Yeah, yeah, I think we're quose, Like we're close there there,
We've got the elements all there. It's just getting them,
getting them to all be friends with one.
Speaker 5 (13:35):
Another is what we're working on right now.
Speaker 4 (13:38):
And I think, yeah, we yeah, I think I think
it is there. I would love it to be there,
you know, in a couple of weeks time. Six fine
ninety six is painfully close to six meters and I
would just I would It's just like, yeah, it's been
a goal since I started to jump six meters, so
(13:58):
it'd be really lovely to be able to deal with,
you know, on the biggest competition of my life.
Speaker 2 (14:02):
Really well, we can't wait to see how you go.
So one hundred meters long jump, two hundred meters before
all that, you carry the flag. So cool for you, Enna,
Thanks for taking the time for a chat. I hope
the rest of you build up towards the start of
the Games goes brilliantly and we just can't wait to
see how you go. Thanks for having me, no, thanks
for joining us anam Anak Grimaldi there, long jumper flag bearer,
(14:23):
What a delight to chat to her again.
Speaker 1 (14:25):
For more from Weekend Sport with Jason Fine, listen live
to News Talk sed B weekends from midday, or follow
the podcast on iHeartRadio.
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