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Speaker 1: We just jumped straight into an open makee missile. Today.

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Speaker 2: I want to have to talk about our chances in

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Speaker 2: the pool, but also want to talk about from your perspective,

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Speaker 2: it must be a big thing when you're over there,

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Speaker 2: holding your focus, holding.

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Speaker 1: Your nerve amongst everything.

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Speaker 2: All the excitement, new city opening ceremonies, whole box and dice,

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Speaker 2: but personally the enhanced games. Yes, Ridley Scott producing the

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Speaker 2: special million dollars on the table. If you break the

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Speaker 2: fifteen meters world record, here you going, how you're tracking.

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Speaker 3: Mat It's going really good. To be honest, if I

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Speaker 3: could sum it up, I'm the happiest I've been in

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Speaker 3: five years, been back in the pool, being back in

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Speaker 3: the pool doing what I feel like I was born

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Speaker 3: to do. People they say to me, I sports, it's

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Speaker 3: so hard, there's so much pressure, there's expectation. It's physically

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Speaker 3: quite daunting to be a professional athlete. I think it's

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Speaker 3: the easiest job in the world. I now wake up

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Speaker 3: of a morning and I have two choices, will this

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Speaker 3: thing make me faster or will it not? And I

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Speaker 3: go the faster route every day and it's really simplified

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Speaker 3: my life. It's made me happier, and just that being

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Speaker 3: able to express myself in the pool like I did

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Speaker 3: my whole career couldn't be happier.

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Speaker 1: How close say it to the world record I have of.

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Speaker 3: The fifty I reckon I'd be within a second now

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Speaker 3: with a year with a year ago.

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Speaker 2: Okay, in that case, do you have a think there

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Speaker 2: must be going through your mindset?

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Speaker 1: I give it up too quick.

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Speaker 3: I mean, you know, the hardest thing. But when I

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Speaker 3: initially retired, and it wasn't just for like performance wise,

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Speaker 3: I was still making the austrained teams. I was still

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Speaker 3: doing my thing. It was that the culmination of you're

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Speaker 3: not only a professional som I was swimming from the

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Speaker 3: time I was you know, eleven twelve years of age,

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Speaker 3: a lot of hours and I was just tired and

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Speaker 3: I'd had enough of the sport and the scene, the environment.

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Speaker 3: I was tired of environment. And the hardest part is

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Speaker 3: watching the Olympic Trials or the Olympics or the Commonwealth

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Speaker 3: Games and just going could I should I have I

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Speaker 3: wasted a part of my career. But then also saying,

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Speaker 3: you know, at times I was thinking it's a very

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Speaker 3: selfish lifestyle, and you know, getting along in my life

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Speaker 3: and having a partner and wanting to spend more time

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Speaker 3: with her and friends. I felt selfish continuing to swim,

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Speaker 3: But now with this opportunity, it's almost self less in

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Speaker 3: that I can set up my future family for the

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Speaker 3: rest of their lives with this one opportunity.

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Speaker 2: Before we talk about yourself further as far as preparation

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Speaker 2: and whatnot. Some legends are saying this could be a

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Speaker 2: record haul in the pool.

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Speaker 3: You agree with that, Yeah, I do, Maddie. I do.

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Speaker 3: Our last World Championships, we historically beat the world, beat

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Speaker 3: the Americans on the medal tally. They changed the goalpost

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Speaker 3: and said it's all inclusive of medals, not just goal

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Speaker 3: but as far as gold medals went. We beat the

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Speaker 3: Americans at the last World Championships first time, first time ever.

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Speaker 3: I believe this is our most talented swim team we've

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Speaker 3: ever had. Now is that final heard all?

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Speaker 1: Right? Now?

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Speaker 3: Is performing on the big stage Tokyo. We went in

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Speaker 3: a little under the radar. We'd kind of heard of

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Speaker 3: Arion Tipmas, we'd heard of Emma mckam. We knew of them.

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Speaker 3: Now we as Australians expect them to win and it's

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Speaker 3: a slightly different feel heading into this Olympics. This Olympics,

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Speaker 3: there's an expectation from the public that we are going

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Speaker 3: to really put it to the Americans.

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Speaker 2: Well, I mean this is very different when you first

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Speaker 2: competed at London because this time around we're talking about

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Speaker 2: five or six different swimmers and the attention is spread compared.

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Speaker 1: To when you were the everyone was focusing on you.

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Speaker 2: Does for the individual does it do you think for

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Speaker 2: them Arian and Cam and that.

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Speaker 1: Do you think it spreads the pressure?

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Speaker 3: I think it's a massive bonus for this team when

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Speaker 3: we see our strongest Australian swim teams were spreading the

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Speaker 3: medals across quite a few people. So if you look

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Speaker 3: back to Sydney two thousand, you had Clem Hackett, Thor

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Speaker 3: Susie O'Neil, Jeff Fugel, there was all these people and

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Speaker 3: you know, Ian thought mister gold in the two hundred freestyle,

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Speaker 3: but we kind of didn't. We didn't think about it

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Speaker 3: too much because oh boom, then Michael clims up the

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Speaker 3: next day, there's Susie O'Neil. Our attention shifted quickly and

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Speaker 3: they didn't seem to be a huge spotlight on any

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Speaker 3: one person. If I could compare it to an event,

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Speaker 3: I'd say, look at Kathy Freeman in the athletics in Sydney.

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Speaker 3: She was our only chance for gold in that whole

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Speaker 3: of athletics competition, and therefore the focus of the nation

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Speaker 3: narrowed right in on it. For whatever reason that the

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Speaker 3: cycles and swings of high performance that London Olympics was

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Speaker 3: only only one medal, gold medal was predicted were two

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Speaker 3: gold medals, and that was me and one hundred freestyle

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Speaker 3: and me and the four by one free. So again

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Speaker 3: that attention really narrowed. And to be honest, Maddie, I

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Speaker 3: wouldn't have any other way. I loved that build up

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Speaker 3: to those games. You know, it's set me up for

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Speaker 3: the rest of my career. But you certainly feel the

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Speaker 3: weight of expectation of a nation that has a proud

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Speaker 3: history in swimming, that expects gold, and when you're the

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Speaker 3: only one that's expected to get gold, that intensifies the experience.

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Speaker 2: I want to ask you about that, because you were

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Speaker 2: in numerous events that must be problematic when you look

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Speaker 2: back at the Olympics, do you wish that maybe you

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Speaker 2: were just what in the one hundred meters three or

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Speaker 2: the fifty meters compared to competing in three or four

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Speaker 2: different events.

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Speaker 3: There was one mistake we made, and I'm pretty confident

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Speaker 3: I've never spoken about this on camera before. So we

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Speaker 3: made a mistake of that Olympics, myself, my team, and

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Speaker 3: the Australian swim team as a whole. So Day one

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Speaker 3: we had the four by one hundred freestyle relay, which

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Speaker 3: was you know, that was a shot at gold, and

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Speaker 3: I was coming off the back of winning gold at

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Speaker 3: the World Champs. I led the relay team at the

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Speaker 3: World Champs and we'd won gold in that as well,

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Speaker 3: and the feeling around the team was, you know, I

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Speaker 3: was only twenty years of age. I was saying, your

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Speaker 3: first Olympics, we need to get a swim undera belt.

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Speaker 3: We're going to swim him in the heats and then

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Speaker 3: back him up again in the finals. So often you

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Speaker 3: sort of rest your best swimmers for the finals, and

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Speaker 3: they said, oh, let's blow the cobwebs out and swim

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Speaker 3: you in the heats. The way these heats panned out,

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Speaker 3: we swim a few of our weaker swimmers in the

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Speaker 3: heats and then I was sort of anchoring the team

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Speaker 3: to get us into the finals. I'm standing there in

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Speaker 3: the morning in the heats, all sweet, this is our event.

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Speaker 3: And suddenly we're in the lane next to America and

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Speaker 3: it comes to the third swimmer dives in and he's

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Speaker 3: coming back on the second fifty. I'm anchoring the team.

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Speaker 3: Suddenly we're third in our heat, and I'm looking around.

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Speaker 3: I'm going, if we don't win this heat, we won't

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Speaker 3: get the middle lane for the final. We might not

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Speaker 3: have the best chance of winning.

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Speaker 1: It had to open it up.

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Speaker 3: So I'm next to Jason Zak, who did the famous

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Speaker 3: last leg for America to beat Frands in Beijing, and

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Speaker 3: he's on the blocks next to me. I haven't raced

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Speaker 3: him before, so that's you know, it's a big moment.

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Speaker 3: But I'm going, all right, well now I need to

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Speaker 3: haul last. We need to win this heat because we

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Speaker 3: want the middle lane tonight. So I drop a full

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Speaker 3: ball swim in that heat and blew the cob website out,

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Speaker 3: but also blew myself out a bit and felt quite

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Speaker 3: fatigued for the rest of that day, And in hindsight,

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Speaker 3: we should have just saw on one of the other

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Speaker 3: swimmers in the heats rested me up for the final

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Speaker 3: and then come out and done my thing that night,

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Speaker 3: the same as what had been done the previous year

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Speaker 3: in Shanghai when we won the World Champs. But the

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Speaker 3: whole time, and swimmers will be hearing this the whole time.

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Speaker 3: Leading into Paris, everyone said to me, the Olympics is different.

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Speaker 3: It's different. It doesn't matter what you've done before. It's different.

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Speaker 3: It's different. It's different, to the point where they said,

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Speaker 3: this is so different, you need to go out and

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Speaker 3: swim before your big event to feel what it's like.

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Speaker 3: When in hindsight sometimes I think there's an element of

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Speaker 3: blissful ignorance to walk out there on the night go

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Speaker 3: oh shit, here I am and go.

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Speaker 2: That disappointment in the in the relay and that was

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Speaker 2: the first event.

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Speaker 1: Did that spill into your individual times?

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Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, yeah, big time, big time. What happened there

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Speaker 3: was it lowered the mood of the whole team because

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Speaker 3: this was this was the Australian swim team's relay team.

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Speaker 3: This was And then the other thing that happened on

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Speaker 3: that same night, our only gold medal of the whole Olympics,

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Speaker 3: the women's four by one hundred team wins gold on

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Speaker 3: the same night. So you got high high, highest of

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Speaker 3: highs and lowest of lows and we're looking at them

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Speaker 3: going that should have been us, and the rest of

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Speaker 3: the teams looking at us going, these guys bottled it.

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Speaker 3: And the Australian media was vicious instantly after that race.

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Speaker 3: And it was in a time when social media was

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Speaker 3: a really new thing and nobody knew how to deal

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Speaker 3: with it. You didn't know how to turn off notifications

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Speaker 3: and stuff that. So you go back to the village

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Speaker 3: and the phone's just ping, ping, ping, ping, ping, pink

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Speaker 3: pin of course of Bill, nice lovely stuff, a lot

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Speaker 3: of support, a lot of support, and that was just

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Speaker 3: a moment of I remember my coach and I were

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Speaker 3: sitting in the dining room in the dining hall after

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Speaker 3: the race that night and we're both seeing they were

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Speaker 3: a bit shell shocked, and he just said, all right,

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Speaker 3: we got to we've got to turn this week around.

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Speaker 3: That was the start from hell, but we got to

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Speaker 3: turn it around because at that point, suddenly people are

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Speaker 3: going Magnuson won't win, he won't Finally, he's out of form,

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Speaker 3: he's not swimming well. And you start to read and

191
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Speaker 3: hear that stuff and it made it this amount everest

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Speaker 3: of a week that it probably didn't need to be.

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Speaker 2: Right, fifty freestyle that you favored to win, you get,

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Speaker 2: you pick up a silver. Yeah, great achievement. Yeah you're

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Speaker 2: beaten by one one hundredth of a second. Now, Maggie,

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Speaker 2: when you.

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Speaker 1: Hit the wall, what did you think?

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Speaker 2: Did you know that you'll beat Did you think you

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Speaker 2: got it?

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Speaker 3: It was a weird race where I was toing and froing,

201
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Speaker 3: so I think I turned maybe fifth or six at

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Speaker 3: the fifty meter mark, and I would have hit the

203
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Speaker 3: lead at about the ninety meter mark, and usually that

204
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Speaker 3: means that I've won, But in this race, for however,

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Speaker 3: he did it. Nathan Adrian got this second wind and

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Speaker 3: we hit the wall together. In my mind, I thought

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Speaker 3: that I had lost because I thought I could see

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Speaker 3: under the water that he was slightly in front. I

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Speaker 3: didn't realize it was one one hundredth But that was

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Speaker 3: also the first time in probably eighteen months to two

211
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Speaker 3: years where someone had bit back at the end because

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Speaker 3: I was known for being so strong at the finish,

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Speaker 3: and all of a sudden, when he had that second

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Speaker 3: wind and we finished on the wall together, it was

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Speaker 3: a moment for me where I was like, holy shit,

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Speaker 3: no one's done that before. And I just wasn't even

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Speaker 3: used to that feeling of someone going with me that

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Speaker 3: last five meters, So I really I thought I'd probably lost.

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Speaker 3: I wasn't sure. And then you look up to the

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Speaker 3: board and it probably wasn't until five ten minutes after

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Speaker 3: the race that I saw the one one hundredth. I

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Speaker 3: just saw second next to my name, and it was

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Speaker 3: sort of I guess, dealing with that or coping with that,

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Speaker 3: And it was a little bit later that I saw

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Speaker 3: that it was only one one hundredth. But as swimmers,

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Speaker 3: the one one hundredth is not insignificant. But it's not

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Speaker 3: as important to outside viewers because I've won countless races

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Speaker 3: during my career by one one hundredth and I've lost

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Speaker 3: races by one one hundredths. That's just the margins that

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Speaker 3: we work with. It's not something that you spend a

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Speaker 3: lot of time thinking could, should have, would have because

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Speaker 3: of the one one hundredth.

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Speaker 2: Let's have a talk about it, Let's let's give people

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Speaker 2: an insight of what the athlete's going to do with

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Speaker 2: And as I said before the preparation, you know you

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Speaker 2: win and lose on preparation and focus. But it must

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Speaker 2: be so hard, so exciting, fulfilling a lifelong dream at a.

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Speaker 1: New city all the other athletes. Okay, what's it like.

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Speaker 2: You arrive in London and you've got and you go

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Speaker 2: into the Olympic village.

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Speaker 1: What does the Olympic Village look like?

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Speaker 3: It's it's like a zoo. It's literally a zoo. So

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Speaker 3: first of all, you walk past a seven foot tall

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Speaker 3: girl and I've never seen a girl taller than me

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Speaker 3: in my life.

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Speaker 1: You holy shit.

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Speaker 3: And then you walk past a one hundred and eighty

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Speaker 3: kilo shot putter, and then you walk past a five

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Speaker 3: foot two gymnasts with arms the size of your head,

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Speaker 3: and you're just going, there's so many distractions, and that's

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Speaker 3: just that's just the physical aspect of it. The athletes

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Speaker 3: is amazing. Then you walk into the food hall and

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Speaker 3: you see a bit of a scrum of people and

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Speaker 3: you go, oh wow, that's Lebron James over there, that's

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Speaker 3: Roger Federer over there. It's it's all the distractions that

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Speaker 3: you that you're not used to. And then what what really,

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Speaker 3: what really settled settles in quite fast, is this is

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Speaker 3: not the ideal environment for peak performance. So you get

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Speaker 3: to your room and you realize, oh, I'm on a

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Speaker 3: single bed. The Olympics now they're on a cardboard bed.

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Speaker 3: This is this is the no sex.

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Speaker 1: Bed that's on cardboard bed.

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Speaker 3: Cardboard bed. So for second person lies on the bed.

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Speaker 2: Some people will say where, particularly for professional athletes, you

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Speaker 2: are the most athletic people in the world.

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Speaker 3: Do you think they can't find a way around that?

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Speaker 3: But that quickly said I was in for you that,

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Speaker 3: Oh this is you know, in all my past meets,

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Speaker 3: I'm going five star hotels, private buses, the best food,

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Speaker 3: everything is is on a plat for you. Then you

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Speaker 3: get to the Olympic Games and go, oh, this is suboptimal.

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Speaker 3: I think is the phrase. You know, this is I'm

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Speaker 3: hanging from my midshin over the bed. You know, I'm

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Speaker 3: walking a kilometer kilometer to the food hall. I don't

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Speaker 3: walk in my day to day life. I just swim.

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Speaker 3: And then there's all these factors that kind of build

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Speaker 3: up and you're going you're a little bit unsure, which

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Speaker 3: is why for so many athletes, their best Olympics is

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Speaker 3: their second one.

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Speaker 1: So Michael Phelps was.

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Speaker 3: A fifteen year old in Sydney, we never heard of him,

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Speaker 3: and then all of his sudden he comes out and

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Speaker 3: he comes across our radar and says, I want to

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Speaker 3: win eight gold medals in Athens, and we go, who

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Speaker 3: the hell is at But he's been to the Olympics,

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Speaker 3: he's experienced that, he understands it, nothing shocks him. He

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Speaker 3: comes out in Athens, he smashes it. By his third Olympics,

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Speaker 3: he then wins the eight golds. So for our swimmers

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Speaker 3: that are going over there, and that's why Emma McKean

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Speaker 3: was so good in Tokyo because it was a second Olympics.

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Speaker 3: She'd been to the Rio, she understood it and then

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Speaker 3: she excelled. So for those first time Olympians in Paris,

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Speaker 3: it's almost as much about dealing with the distractions and

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Speaker 3: dealing with the change in environment as it is the

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Speaker 3: swim itself, because once you get in the pool, it

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Speaker 3: is essentially another race, but the lead up is anything

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Speaker 3: but normal.

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Speaker 2: Okay, Like you just said before, you look at a

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Speaker 2: cross and there might be Roger Feeder or Lebron James.

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Speaker 1: I mean these people. You've got people there who.

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Speaker 2: Are legends, yeah, complete legends of their sports, their heroes,

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Speaker 2: do they get left alone?

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Speaker 1: Like what is the dynamic?

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Speaker 3: Yeah, I guess it depends. And often Australians are really good.

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Speaker 3: So like a Roger Federer might find solaced in coming

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Speaker 3: and sitting at the Australian table because he'll be left alone.

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Speaker 3: Because for the most part, I would say the Australian

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Speaker 3: Olympic team aren't what I like to call tourists, because

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Speaker 3: there's a lot of tourists in the Olympic village. Their

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Speaker 3: lifelong dream was to go to the Olympics. It's not

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Speaker 3: necessarily to win an Olympic medal, it's not to win gold.

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Speaker 3: It was to get to the Olympics and they had

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Speaker 3: to find a sport or an outlet where they could

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Speaker 3: get to the Olympic Games. Once they're there, it's photos,

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Speaker 3: it's chocolate bars, it's nightclubs, it's yeah, yeah, and there

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Speaker 3: is there is tourists. There's a lot of tourists in

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Speaker 3: the village. And so a Roger Federer or Nadale might

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Speaker 3: find solace in coming to the Australian table and sitting

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Speaker 3: with us because we're just chat to him and not

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Speaker 3: ask for photos and hassling.

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Speaker 1: But what it can.

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Speaker 3: Also give you is a little bit of imposter syndrome

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Speaker 3: because you start looking at some of these athletes and

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Speaker 3: you think you know they're coming here his favorites to win.

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Speaker 3: I'm also here. I'm here with Roger Federer, and my

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Speaker 3: country expects me to do the same as Roger Federer.

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Speaker 3: And you start going like, as a twenty year old guy,

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Speaker 3: am I on the same level as.

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Speaker 1: A Roger Federer.

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Speaker 3: So that's a really interesting aspect of it as well.

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Speaker 1: And then.

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Speaker 3: The ones that do not get left alone is the

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Speaker 3: dream team above and beyond the tennis players, the Usain Boltz,

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Speaker 3: the Michael Phelps, the NBA Dream Team walks in there,

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Speaker 3: the American dream Team walks in there, and people flock

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Speaker 3: to them, and they stand out like dogs balls as well,

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Speaker 3: because they're so alls.

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Speaker 2: It's funny you say that about not being intimidated by

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Speaker 2: other athletes. I read a story about eighty eight Soul

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Speaker 2: and some athletes said that Edwin Moses walked into the

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Speaker 2: food hall, you know, the great forum of.

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Speaker 1: Me to heard like, and everyone just went and he

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Speaker 1: walked like just gliding across.

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Speaker 2: The ground and everywhere and just went over and he

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Speaker 2: got his Super Bowl filled the soup, walk back, grace

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Speaker 2: sat down. Everyone's going, oh my god, they won't spilled

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Speaker 2: it all over and the.

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Speaker 1: Actually he is human. Opening ceremony. For athletes.

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Speaker 2: It must be it must be strange, all that standing

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Speaker 2: on your feet, particularly for the for the sprinters, will

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Speaker 2: you stand them?

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Speaker 1: Do they want to be there?

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Speaker 3: So swimmers, it's it's pretty much taken out of our hands.

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Speaker 3: We don't participate in the opening ceremony a couple of reasons. Firstly,

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Speaker 3: we're not land animals, so all that time on the

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Speaker 3: feet is terrible. But the second thing is we we

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Speaker 3: start competing that first day, so night night of the

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Speaker 3: opening ceremony, we're sitting back in the village knowing that

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Speaker 3: we're racing tomorrow. There's fireworks, there's people running around yipping

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Speaker 3: and yahooing and all that.

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Speaker 1: Sort of jazz.

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Speaker 3: So for us, we don't do it. It's an interesting decision

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Speaker 3: for athletes, right, So depending on where the village is.

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Speaker 3: For example, in London, the stadium was within walking distance

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Speaker 3: of the village, so you know they walk probably two

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Speaker 3: to three k to the stadium. They stand there for

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Speaker 3: a couple of hours behind the scenes while all the

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Speaker 3: pomp and pageantry is going on. Then they walk them out,

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Speaker 3: they lap the oval, They then stand in the middle

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Speaker 3: while all the other countries coming out. They then walk home.

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Speaker 3: By the time all this is said and done, they're

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Speaker 3: probably getting home around one am at night. So it's

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Speaker 3: a really interesting decision to make for other athletes, to

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Speaker 3: the point where, you know, I think if you're serious

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Speaker 3: about winning gold medals, that opening ceremony is unless you're

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Speaker 3: back end of that second week, I wouldn't be recommending

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Speaker 3: it to first time athletes.

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Speaker 1: Okay, closing ceremony a lot more fun, a lot of fun.

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Speaker 3: The closing ceremony is a lot of fun. A couple

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Speaker 3: of drinks beforehand if you can find them. I think

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Speaker 3: a bunch of US swimmers went to the casino before

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Speaker 3: the London closing ceremony, so we got charged up for it.

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Speaker 3: And then once you're out in the middle of the field,

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Speaker 3: it's a free for all, so you mix with all

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Speaker 3: the other countries and athletes and all that sort of stuff.

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Speaker 3: And for the closing ceremony in London, we had, you know,

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Speaker 3: we had spice girls and all these iconic I think

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Speaker 3: David Beckham came out and paraded around like all these

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Speaker 3: iconic British people and then you go back to the

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Speaker 3: village and that's probably the biggest party of the whole Olympics,

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Speaker 3: because every athlete's finished competing and you can all go

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Speaker 3: at the same time. And usually each country will bring

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Speaker 3: in some sort of alcohol themed with their own country.

394
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Speaker 3: So for example, you know, the Australians are bringing I

395
00:19:46,800 --> 00:19:49,399
Speaker 3: don't know, it's two years of eb or whatever. The

396
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Speaker 3: Americans will bring in like bagwise, yeah, something, and then

397
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Speaker 3: you mix. So like for us, we would go to

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Speaker 3: I think we spent a lot of time at the

399
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Speaker 3: German Building, the German Building, and then yet and we

400
00:20:02,760 --> 00:20:06,159
Speaker 3: had an infamous in London, we had an infamous I

401
00:20:06,200 --> 00:20:10,080
Speaker 3: know it, Rio got an infamous boat race, so the

402
00:20:10,119 --> 00:20:13,760
Speaker 3: ten ten best drinkers from each country to go head

403
00:20:13,760 --> 00:20:15,919
Speaker 3: to head in so one person skulls and then you

404
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Speaker 3: go down.

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Speaker 1: You got the anchor I know what a boat race.

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Speaker 3: And as one of the best gold medals of the

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Speaker 3: whole meet, I reckon as an Australian team, we got

408
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Speaker 3: to the final against Great Britain and beat them in

409
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Speaker 3: the in the ultimate boat race.

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Speaker 1: How good.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, Before we get off London and look if we

412
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Speaker 2: just go back a little bit, just about the one

413
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Speaker 2: hundred meters.

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Speaker 1: You know, silver bow one one hundred a second.

415
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Speaker 2: James, how did you deal with that that night going

416
00:20:45,040 --> 00:20:48,320
Speaker 2: What was your emotions when you laid down to bed

417
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Speaker 2: that night.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, for a starter, it was sleepless. I didn't get

419
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Speaker 3: a wink of sleep. I think I was trying to

420
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Speaker 3: digest how it was going to be received back home.

421
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Speaker 3: I had only ever envisaged winning that race, and that's

422
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Speaker 3: what you have to do as an athlete. I think

423
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Speaker 3: if you go into a meet thinking about coming second

424
00:21:10,800 --> 00:21:13,320
Speaker 3: and how that will be received, and you've already lost.

425
00:21:13,800 --> 00:21:19,560
Speaker 3: So I don't only ever envisaged or visualized winning, and

426
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Speaker 3: I was trying to understand how that would be received

427
00:21:22,240 --> 00:21:26,879
Speaker 3: back home. Again, that's probably one of the problems with

428
00:21:28,960 --> 00:21:33,800
Speaker 3: youth is that you're acutely aware of other people's reactions. Absolutely, yeah,

429
00:21:33,840 --> 00:21:35,919
Speaker 3: But as you get older, you become really comfortable in

430
00:21:35,920 --> 00:21:38,120
Speaker 3: your own skin and you care less about what people think.

431
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Speaker 3: But I was so worried about what people would be thinking.

432
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Speaker 3: I think the first emotion was embarrassment, I really do,

433
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Speaker 3: and it took me, I reckon. It took me a

434
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Speaker 3: good six to nine months to get over that night.

435
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Speaker 3: It definitely rattle me, and I think it was something

436
00:22:03,520 --> 00:22:08,080
Speaker 3: that it puts you in good stead for life. But

437
00:22:08,200 --> 00:22:09,960
Speaker 3: Jesus is a hard lesson to learn as a twenty

438
00:22:10,040 --> 00:22:15,879
Speaker 3: year old on an international stage, and more prominently, you know,

439
00:22:15,960 --> 00:22:19,000
Speaker 3: back here with twenty million people watching it live on TV.

440
00:22:19,880 --> 00:22:20,920
Speaker 1: Let's talk about Ria.

441
00:22:21,040 --> 00:22:23,360
Speaker 2: It did an amazing job to just qualify for Rio,

442
00:22:23,480 --> 00:22:24,880
Speaker 2: coming off shoulder reconstruction.

443
00:22:25,160 --> 00:22:27,119
Speaker 1: Yeah, and we were just in the full by one

444
00:22:27,200 --> 00:22:28,320
Speaker 1: hundred yeah.

445
00:22:28,400 --> 00:22:28,600
Speaker 3: Yeah.

446
00:22:28,720 --> 00:22:31,800
Speaker 1: So did that allow you to enjoy Rio a lot more?

447
00:22:32,480 --> 00:22:34,800
Speaker 3: I think so? Yeah, I think so. I think by

448
00:22:35,119 --> 00:22:37,240
Speaker 3: the time I got to Rio, so Rio was a

449
00:22:37,280 --> 00:22:41,720
Speaker 3: bittersweet because post London, we go out and just go

450
00:22:41,760 --> 00:22:45,360
Speaker 3: on this streak of winning everything and go for almost

451
00:22:45,440 --> 00:22:48,080
Speaker 3: like two years without losing a race, and I'm going beautiful,

452
00:22:48,119 --> 00:22:50,000
Speaker 3: I'm back on track. I'll go to Rio, I'll win

453
00:22:50,040 --> 00:22:54,000
Speaker 3: the gold, right the wrongs, and life is good. And

454
00:22:54,040 --> 00:22:57,480
Speaker 3: then about it, just under a year out from Rio,

455
00:22:57,520 --> 00:22:59,479
Speaker 3: I have to get a shoulder reconstruction, and it kind

456
00:22:59,480 --> 00:23:01,159
Speaker 3: of flips the whole thing in its head. And so

457
00:23:01,280 --> 00:23:04,280
Speaker 3: then the story goes from winning in Rio to just

458
00:23:04,520 --> 00:23:08,320
Speaker 3: to getting to Rio, which was a really weird place

459
00:23:08,359 --> 00:23:10,480
Speaker 3: for me. And then I go into the next Olympics

460
00:23:10,880 --> 00:23:13,080
Speaker 3: and I'm watching some of these other athletes who are

461
00:23:13,160 --> 00:23:17,400
Speaker 3: you know, the faces of that Olympics one like this

462
00:23:17,520 --> 00:23:20,240
Speaker 3: should be me? This was me And it was a

463
00:23:20,280 --> 00:23:25,200
Speaker 3: really weird feeling and I think people were a little

464
00:23:25,240 --> 00:23:28,439
Speaker 3: bit awkward around me because of it, because they were like, oh, like,

465
00:23:28,520 --> 00:23:30,879
Speaker 3: you know, we're kind of the faces of it, but

466
00:23:30,920 --> 00:23:33,040
Speaker 3: you're like, I don't know it. It was a weird environment.

467
00:23:34,480 --> 00:23:36,240
Speaker 3: But then once the swimming was said and done, like

468
00:23:36,320 --> 00:23:38,159
Speaker 3: we want to we want a bronze medal in the relay,

469
00:23:38,160 --> 00:23:43,200
Speaker 3: which was which was great. And then I think because

470
00:23:43,240 --> 00:23:44,840
Speaker 3: I was a little bit older on the team and

471
00:23:44,880 --> 00:23:48,720
Speaker 3: I've been around those guys, once the second week came there,

472
00:23:49,080 --> 00:23:52,000
Speaker 3: everyone went all right, what does what's James doing?

473
00:23:52,000 --> 00:23:53,320
Speaker 1: Where are we going? Well, it's what's.

474
00:23:53,240 --> 00:23:57,199
Speaker 3: James the most important job? Yeah, I became the focal

475
00:23:57,240 --> 00:24:00,159
Speaker 3: point of that second week, which was it was a

476
00:24:00,160 --> 00:24:00,880
Speaker 3: lot of fun.

477
00:24:02,520 --> 00:24:05,080
Speaker 2: Reports were out of London that wasn't a really tight

478
00:24:05,119 --> 00:24:05,760
Speaker 2: knit scene.

479
00:24:05,880 --> 00:24:08,200
Speaker 1: The karate wasn't that great and that was real.

480
00:24:10,040 --> 00:24:12,920
Speaker 3: I was, Yeah, London's a funny one. I would say

481
00:24:13,000 --> 00:24:17,440
Speaker 3: there was there was pockets of tight knit people within

482
00:24:17,480 --> 00:24:21,040
Speaker 3: the team, in London, and then there was there was

483
00:24:21,119 --> 00:24:26,919
Speaker 3: people that were warring during London, both privately and publicly,

484
00:24:27,720 --> 00:24:30,440
Speaker 3: leading into that that that London Olympics, which I think

485
00:24:30,560 --> 00:24:33,320
Speaker 3: was probably the biggest upset in the team. And the

486
00:24:33,320 --> 00:24:35,399
Speaker 3: funny thing was that it wasn't it wasn't on the

487
00:24:35,760 --> 00:24:37,960
Speaker 3: men's side of the team. So they came back and

488
00:24:37,960 --> 00:24:40,159
Speaker 3: they said, oh, you know, the men, they they had

489
00:24:40,160 --> 00:24:42,119
Speaker 3: the still nice thing. They were toxic. They did this,

490
00:24:42,200 --> 00:24:44,720
Speaker 3: they did that, people talking about bullying, which was the

491
00:24:45,280 --> 00:24:48,240
Speaker 3: catchphrase of the time. Bullying was a big, big buzzword

492
00:24:49,520 --> 00:24:52,920
Speaker 3: and we're going, mate, we that that second week we

493
00:24:53,000 --> 00:24:54,760
Speaker 3: had the best week of our lives together. You know,

494
00:24:54,800 --> 00:25:00,360
Speaker 3: we're all pretty pretty buddied up. But there were there

495
00:25:00,400 --> 00:25:03,320
Speaker 3: was warring factions of that team who couldn't even be

496
00:25:03,320 --> 00:25:06,840
Speaker 3: in the same dining room together and it wasn't our side.

497
00:25:06,920 --> 00:25:09,280
Speaker 3: So everyone was seeing there going what is going on?

498
00:25:10,440 --> 00:25:13,800
Speaker 3: That was really confusing. By the time Rio came around,

499
00:25:14,640 --> 00:25:18,879
Speaker 3: we had dealt with the backlash of London, the backlash

500
00:25:18,920 --> 00:25:22,600
Speaker 3: of the still Knocks thing, Like everyone was like really

501
00:25:22,640 --> 00:25:25,480
Speaker 3: sensitive to you know, we've got to create this image

502
00:25:25,480 --> 00:25:28,320
Speaker 3: of the Australian swim team and everyone was so obsessed

503
00:25:28,359 --> 00:25:32,000
Speaker 3: with like how we presenting, how we perceived. You know,

504
00:25:32,000 --> 00:25:34,800
Speaker 3: we're having meetings about like don't swear in the team

505
00:25:34,880 --> 00:25:37,960
Speaker 3: rooms and stuff like. It became this really pc environment

506
00:25:38,480 --> 00:25:42,480
Speaker 3: that was quite I don't know, it was a little

507
00:25:42,480 --> 00:25:45,080
Speaker 3: bit uncomfortable at times, but as athletes we all got

508
00:25:45,080 --> 00:25:47,119
Speaker 3: along with each other really well, but it just felt

509
00:25:47,160 --> 00:25:50,120
Speaker 3: like we had to be this really polished, well spoken,

510
00:25:50,200 --> 00:25:54,280
Speaker 3: well represented team that that just couldn't be themselves.

511
00:25:54,359 --> 00:25:57,680
Speaker 2: It felt like at times, let's talk about Paris now,

512
00:25:58,520 --> 00:26:02,920
Speaker 2: the Australian swimsuit team, the chenemy always are the Americans,

513
00:26:02,920 --> 00:26:05,119
Speaker 2: the USA swim so we've had some ding dong battles

514
00:26:05,119 --> 00:26:11,040
Speaker 2: against him. Recently, we had a Poluka in the movie

515
00:26:11,040 --> 00:26:14,199
Speaker 2: that came out and he slammed not a swimmer by

516
00:26:14,200 --> 00:26:16,880
Speaker 2: the way, come out and slammed the American side.

517
00:26:16,680 --> 00:26:19,600
Speaker 1: In particular their living legend, Michael Phelps.

518
00:26:19,760 --> 00:26:23,600
Speaker 2: Now, from an Australian swimmers perspective, they must be filthy.

519
00:26:24,080 --> 00:26:28,880
Speaker 3: I can tell you from within the inner sanctum, they're

520
00:26:28,960 --> 00:26:33,120
Speaker 3: furious about it. America doesn't need more motivation heading into

521
00:26:33,119 --> 00:26:37,159
Speaker 3: the Olympics. But above and beyond that, Mattie, it's disrespectful.

522
00:26:38,359 --> 00:26:41,119
Speaker 3: You can imagine if we were sitting back here in

523
00:26:41,160 --> 00:26:46,760
Speaker 3: Australia and an American pundit off a talk show just

524
00:26:46,880 --> 00:26:50,600
Speaker 3: absolutely ripped into Ian thought, called him a tossa, said

525
00:26:50,600 --> 00:26:52,600
Speaker 3: that he needs to lay off the bombs, said that

526
00:26:52,600 --> 00:26:55,640
Speaker 3: he won't be watching the swimming, He'll be watching SpongeBob SquarePants,

527
00:26:55,960 --> 00:26:58,800
Speaker 3: said that he presents terribly, has a bad haircut, looks

528
00:26:58,840 --> 00:27:04,240
Speaker 3: like a dead shit. Basically, we would be incensed by that.

529
00:27:04,720 --> 00:27:07,600
Speaker 3: And Americans don't know who Kyl Stefanovick is. They don't

530
00:27:07,600 --> 00:27:10,159
Speaker 3: know what Tony's saying it in, they don't understand the

531
00:27:10,200 --> 00:27:14,520
Speaker 3: Today Show. They've never heard of Kyl Stefanovick in their life.

532
00:27:14,560 --> 00:27:17,280
Speaker 3: All they know is this guy on Australian television has

533
00:27:17,359 --> 00:27:22,600
Speaker 3: absolutely ripped in to a sporting icon, to a guy

534
00:27:22,640 --> 00:27:26,359
Speaker 3: that I believe is the greatest athlete.

535
00:27:25,960 --> 00:27:26,520
Speaker 1: Of all time.

536
00:27:26,600 --> 00:27:28,960
Speaker 3: And now I'm slightly biased because I come from swimming,

537
00:27:28,960 --> 00:27:30,960
Speaker 3: but there's an argument to be made that he is

538
00:27:31,000 --> 00:27:33,240
Speaker 3: the greatest athlete at all time. He's the greatest Olympian

539
00:27:33,280 --> 00:27:37,119
Speaker 3: of all time. I'm all for creating a stir and

540
00:27:37,200 --> 00:27:41,840
Speaker 3: I'm all for banter between athletes when it's the athlete

541
00:27:41,880 --> 00:27:44,199
Speaker 3: that then has to go and back it up. So,

542
00:27:44,280 --> 00:27:46,240
Speaker 3: for example, we know in twenty twelve, I have the

543
00:27:46,280 --> 00:27:49,240
Speaker 3: famous line brace yourselves. My guess who then has to

544
00:27:49,240 --> 00:27:50,080
Speaker 3: go and back that up.

545
00:27:50,359 --> 00:27:50,639
Speaker 1: I do.

546
00:27:51,640 --> 00:27:55,280
Speaker 3: I'm the one that's standing behind those words. To come

547
00:27:55,320 --> 00:27:59,000
Speaker 3: from the sidelines, to come from the rafters and shoot

548
00:27:59,040 --> 00:28:01,960
Speaker 3: down an icon of the country, an icon of the

549
00:28:01,960 --> 00:28:05,920
Speaker 3: sport and icon of the Olympics, it just felt disrespectful

550
00:28:05,920 --> 00:28:07,920
Speaker 3: and the manner it was done to call him Atossa,

551
00:28:08,480 --> 00:28:12,439
Speaker 3: that's verbatim, called him Atossa. That's just not how you

552
00:28:12,600 --> 00:28:15,800
Speaker 3: treat sporting grades. It's not how you treat people in general,

553
00:28:16,119 --> 00:28:19,119
Speaker 3: but certainly it's not how you treat a legend of

554
00:28:19,160 --> 00:28:20,359
Speaker 3: the Olympics.

555
00:28:21,200 --> 00:28:21,720
Speaker 1: What do you think?

556
00:28:21,880 --> 00:28:23,399
Speaker 2: People are saying that this is going to be some

557
00:28:23,480 --> 00:28:25,160
Speaker 2: special Olympics Paris.

558
00:28:25,440 --> 00:28:26,440
Speaker 1: What do you think, Maggie.

559
00:28:26,680 --> 00:28:29,479
Speaker 3: I think this is our strongest ever swim team. I

560
00:28:29,480 --> 00:28:31,720
Speaker 3: think this is the biggest ever head to head battle

561
00:28:31,720 --> 00:28:35,480
Speaker 3: between the United States and Australia. And I'm going to

562
00:28:35,520 --> 00:28:37,840
Speaker 3: say this will be our most successful Olympics from a

563
00:28:37,840 --> 00:28:39,320
Speaker 3: swimming perspective in history.

564
00:28:40,800 --> 00:28:41,800
Speaker 1: Which is going to be our star.

565
00:28:43,680 --> 00:28:45,800
Speaker 3: I've got a few to pick from this this time.

566
00:28:47,080 --> 00:28:50,120
Speaker 3: I've change. Each time I get asked a question, I'm

567
00:28:50,120 --> 00:28:52,719
Speaker 3: going to back myself in. I'm going to say, Molly O'Callaghan.

568
00:28:53,440 --> 00:28:56,040
Speaker 3: I'm going to say she's going to win five gold

569
00:28:56,040 --> 00:28:57,480
Speaker 3: medals at this Olympic Game.

570
00:28:58,640 --> 00:29:01,800
Speaker 2: Well, Maggie, I've enjoyed that today. Uh, it's good news

571
00:29:01,800 --> 00:29:04,760
Speaker 2: and bad news. The good news is that we are

572
00:29:04,840 --> 00:29:10,360
Speaker 2: rooming together. The bad news is we together po Maaggie

573
00:29:10,800 --> 00:29:10,840
Speaker 2: like