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Speaker 1: From The Australian. I'm Claire Harvey. We've loved bringing you

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Speaker 1: insights from our journals around the nation and the world

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Speaker 1: this year. Over this holiday break, we're revisiting some of

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Speaker 1: our biggest and best episodes from a huge year in

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Speaker 1: the news. This episode originally aired on August twelve, when

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Speaker 1: her Olympic performance propelled Australian breaker Rachel gunn Aka regum

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Speaker 1: to global infamy, and when another Olympic legend leapt to

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Speaker 1: her defense, the blame game began. The Front will return

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Speaker 1: with all new episodes on Monday, January thirteen. Just hit

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Speaker 1: follow or subscribe to hear the latest every morning. Every

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Speaker 1: Olympic Games turns up a folk hero. We've had Eddie

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Speaker 1: b Eagle, the British ski jumper who in nineteen eighty

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Speaker 1: eight finished a resounding last but became a crowd sensation.

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Speaker 1: Or Eddie the Eel, who in two thousand Sydney Games

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Speaker 1: swam the slowest one hundred meters freestyle in Olympic history,

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Speaker 1: one of his first dips in a fifty meter pool

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Speaker 1: to a roaring standing ovation. Well, I thought I'd seen

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Speaker 1: everything in the Olympics.

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Speaker 2: Rooming poor.

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Speaker 1: Speed skater Stephen Bradbury, who I would defend as a

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Speaker 1: master tactician art who Australians embraced for the pure dumb

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Speaker 1: luck of winning a race after everybody else fell over.

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Speaker 2: Bradbury way off the pace and Lee is now the

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Speaker 2: challenger for owner Lee coming up on the outside when

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Speaker 2: Lee has gone down and Bradbury was in a perfect

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Speaker 2: spot states over the line. Australia's first ever Winter Olympics

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Speaker 2: called Metal. Steven Bradbury is the.

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Speaker 1: Champion and now there's Raygun. The thirty six year old

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Speaker 1: university lecturer with a PhD in breakdancing culture was Australia's

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Speaker 1: sole female team member in what the Olympics are calling

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Speaker 1: breaking a new sport in the twenty twenty four Games.

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Speaker 1: Very unlikely to reappear in future.

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Speaker 3: Where you going to represent her country.

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Speaker 1: Raygun was terrible, terrible in the way you or I

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Speaker 1: would be terrible at breakdancing or pole vaulting or gymnastic

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Speaker 1: ribbon dancing or judo or weightlifting. That is, we would

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Speaker 1: be normal, normal levels of coordination, normal levels of skill,

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Speaker 1: nothing wrong with that, but does normal belong at the

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Speaker 1: highest levels of athletic excellence to be televised live to

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Speaker 1: an audience of billions. I chatted to our sports writer

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Speaker 1: Will Swanton and I've got to warn you we got

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Speaker 1: a serious case of the giggles during this interview. Will

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Speaker 1: Swanton is a sports writer with The Australian. Will you

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Speaker 1: were at the Place de la Concord when Reagun made

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Speaker 1: her international debut. Tell me what you thought when you

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Speaker 1: saw her come on to the stage.

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Speaker 3: Oh, just that name rey Gun.

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Speaker 4: Now, I've never heard of Raygun, like I actually not

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Speaker 4: being the world's most experienced.

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Speaker 3: Breaking reporter, Not exactly.

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Speaker 4: No, And I actually said some of mate sitting next

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Speaker 4: to me, what time is gun? Ray On?

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Speaker 3: Not done? Raids brain? Gun?

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Speaker 4: So sitting there and they introduced the sixteen b girls

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Speaker 4: as they're called, and they don't like being called athletes.

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Speaker 4: Apparently they're all be girls in breaking and they're all

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Speaker 4: wearing the Americans and the French and the Japanese. They're

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Speaker 4: wearing their funky hip hop clothes. And then Ygun comes

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Speaker 4: out in the Australian team track suit. All right, And

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Speaker 4: that was the first time I thought, what's going on here?

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Speaker 3: What's this?

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Speaker 4: The first thing I thought was Alissa Heeley and the

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Speaker 4: women's one Day cricket team just like it looks like

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Speaker 4: the cricket in the four the or Sydney, all kind

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Speaker 4: of thing.

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Speaker 3: That's all right.

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Speaker 4: And I literally thought she was going to get changed

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Speaker 4: before she paid me up to compete.

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Speaker 3: She was just in her trackings.

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Speaker 4: So they have one on one battles as they call it,

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Speaker 4: which is basically just a dance on like Zoolander. And

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Speaker 4: so she came out and she was you couldn't say

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Speaker 4: she was breaking like the rest of them.

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Speaker 1: First came the judge's verdict with zero. Then came the

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Speaker 1: social media verdict. I'm trying to see They said somebody

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Speaker 1: Mama hopped out the soccer fan and came to the

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Speaker 1: stage and we're what is going on here?

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Speaker 4: So mad you from Australia and you've done lied on

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Speaker 4: your Olympics application and said that you know how to

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Speaker 4: break dance.

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Speaker 3: Funny rabbit kank of one of those two. I got moved.

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Speaker 3: So what you're gonna do?

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Speaker 4: I'm a worm a feeling that maybe we're not taking

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Speaker 4: the break dancing very seriously.

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Speaker 3: She did a thing, though she did.

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Speaker 5: Mama turned up her moves.

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Speaker 3: This I say, I love her originality though.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, for sure, I love ebit of this stuff

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Speaker 1: you ain't seen, but.

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Speaker 3: At all.

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Speaker 1: Did you think at any point is this a spoof

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Speaker 1: or is this a joke? Or did you know from

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Speaker 1: the very beginning that actually this we were saying someone

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Speaker 1: who was just not of the same athletic standard as

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Speaker 1: the other competitors.

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Speaker 4: So she qualified through the Oceania Championships. She's the reigning

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Speaker 4: Oceania champion of breaking, so she earned her spot, and

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Speaker 4: so there's a tournament and the winner got to go

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Speaker 4: to the Olympics. And I'm fascinated. I can't see any

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Speaker 4: footage anywhere her in that final, Like I didn't think

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Speaker 4: it was a spoof, and I didn't think I just

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Speaker 4: thought that she I mean, it's funny, we're all trying

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Speaker 4: to find polite ways of putting it, but she just

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Speaker 4: wasn't up to that standard, like remotely up to that standard.

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Speaker 1: After the event, but before it all went sour on

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Speaker 1: social media, Rachel Gunn came out to speak to the journos.

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Speaker 4: Just a lovely woman and she was thrilled with being

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Speaker 4: part of the Olympics and I just wanted to do

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Speaker 4: it my way and it's been such an honor and

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Speaker 4: what a treat and Breaking might never be here again.

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Speaker 4: Then it's just all been so much fun, and we're

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Speaker 4: looking at her thinking, oh my gosh, she's got no

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Speaker 4: idea yet of what's happening on social media. I think

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Speaker 4: it was a bad It was probably a bad look

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Speaker 4: for the Olympics. I don't mean just her performance. I

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Speaker 4: just think Breaking didn't suit the Olympics. It didn't fit

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Speaker 4: the Olympics.

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Speaker 5: I love Rachel and I think that what has occurred

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Speaker 5: on social media with trolls and keyboard warriors and taking

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Speaker 5: those comments and giving them airtime has been really disappointing.

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Speaker 1: Adamir Is, the boss of the Olympic team, complained publicly

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Speaker 1: that trolls were being unkind to Raygun.

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Speaker 5: She is the best breakdancer female that we have for Australia.

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Speaker 5: She has represented the Olympic team the Olympic spirit with

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Speaker 5: great enthusiasm and I absolutely love her courage, I love

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Speaker 5: her character and I feel very disappointed for her that

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Speaker 5: she has come under the attack that she has.

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Speaker 1: And I think we could probably agree that some people

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Speaker 1: have been unkind to her, but will doesn't be AOC

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Speaker 1: and enemies have to take some responsibility for putting Rachel

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Speaker 1: Gunn in a position where she was going to be

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Speaker 1: humiliated internationally. Don't bear some responsibility for that.

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Speaker 4: I'm sure Rachel is probably shattered. She was trying to

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Speaker 4: give everyone a bit of jo quity. But there's also

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Speaker 4: from Rachel's point of view, if you're for any athlete,

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Speaker 4: if you're willing to step up into something as big

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Speaker 4: as the Olympics, there's the chance that you could be

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Speaker 4: praised from the rooftops as some kind of sporting hero,

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Speaker 4: which everyone's happen to. But for any professional sport or

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Speaker 4: once you step out there, you're up for praise, to

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Speaker 4: be mocked, ridicule, criticized, told how great you are, told

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Speaker 4: that you work great. So that's all part and parcel

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Speaker 4: of us. There is definitely a part of it where

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Speaker 4: if the AOC sends an athlete out there, there has

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Speaker 4: to be some recognition of this is Olympic competition. It

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Speaker 4: has to be taken seriously. But I think they do

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Speaker 4: have to accept that once you be come an Olympic

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Speaker 4: athlete and you're in what was a high profile event,

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Speaker 4: you're up to be judged.

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Speaker 1: Coming up. It was an otherwise stunning games for Australia,

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Speaker 1: so how did we do so well? In a fortnight,

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Speaker 1: It'll be the Paralympics where everyone has an incredible backstory.

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Speaker 1: We'll have all the action twenty four to seven at

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Speaker 1: the Australian dot com dot au for our subscribers. We'll

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Speaker 1: be back after this break. Olympic Games usually follow a

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Speaker 1: pattern for Australia. We start very strong in the pool

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Speaker 1: with gold medals and advance Australia fair coming from all directions.

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Speaker 1: We all love Week one, but in the Olympiads of

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Speaker 1: recent memory, Weeks two and three are a little less

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Speaker 1: spine tingling As we watch ken You win the marathon,

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Speaker 1: Sweden win the high jump and China win everything else.

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Speaker 1: By the closing ceremony, Australians are cheerfully celebrating a sixteenth

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Speaker 1: place in the sports win know when not very good

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Speaker 1: at Paris has been different. The golds have kept coming

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Speaker 1: in sports we don't normally prosper in road, cycling, skateboarding, BMX.

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Speaker 1: This Olympics Australia has done incredibly well, mind blowing well.

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Speaker 1: So what's changed that's incredible?

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Speaker 4: I think one thing that has happened a lot of

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Speaker 4: other countries have become stronger and they started taking medals

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Speaker 4: off the powerhouses as well, and the swimming it gets

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Speaker 4: and it's not all America winning the swimming. Well, my

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Speaker 4: impression is across all the sports, a lot more nations

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Speaker 4: are winning medals, which are taking some off Great Britain

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Speaker 4: and taking some of France and taking some off Japan.

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Speaker 4: So the top two America and China and miles ahead,

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Speaker 4: and then the rest of the top ten is a

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Speaker 4: bit of a bunch. Then we're just snuck through. But

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Speaker 4: like the men's doubles tennis at Roland Garos, it was

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Speaker 4: a clocks set, but they were John Piers and Matt Ebden,

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Speaker 4: a couple of thirty six year olds who live on

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Speaker 4: the same street in Perth. Wives are best friends, kids

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Speaker 4: play together, all that kind of stuff. Unseated doubles players

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Speaker 4: in a field that had Rafa and Adal and Alcahaz

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Speaker 4: playing together and all that kind of thing, and that

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Speaker 4: was just the unlikeliest gold medal. It's lucky for Australia

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Speaker 4: that the swimming is the first week because it's everyone

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Speaker 4: on Ohio from night one. So Arion one gold that

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Speaker 4: first night, and the women's relay one gold that first night,

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Speaker 4: so Australia's got two gold medals the first night, it's

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Speaker 4: all celebratory. Back at the village where was I think

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Speaker 4: if swimming was weak too, if we had the ass

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Speaker 4: the first week would be down and it wouldn't have

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Speaker 4: that same But I think they all fed each other

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Speaker 4: off a bit.

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Speaker 3: The impression I get is that they just had a ball.

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Speaker 4: They're in Paris, the whole backdrop is one of the

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Speaker 4: great cities in the world.

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Speaker 3: They've done incredibly well.

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Speaker 4: I think Anime is even in the way I think

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Speaker 4: she was a bit off the mark with defending Raygan,

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Speaker 4: because like some form of comment was always going to

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Speaker 4: happen once they sent her out there. But I think

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Speaker 4: in a way that was also an example of Anna

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Speaker 4: just airs deeply about all these athletes, and I'm sure

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Speaker 4: the way she is around the village just constantly encouraging them.

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Speaker 4: She's done great things as an Olympian, so they've got

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Speaker 4: someone there who's actually done it, who's spurring them on.

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Speaker 4: The impression I get is that she's whipped up this

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Speaker 4: fantastic team and spirit. I think that's been part of it.

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Speaker 4: But they should be incredibly proud of themselves.

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Speaker 1: You can read all the nation's best news, sport, politics

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Speaker 1: and business anytime at the Australian dot com dot au