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Speaker 1: You're listening to the Saturday Morning with Jack Team podcast

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Speaker 1: from News Talk s B.

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Speaker 2: Kevin mill Is with us. First things first, this morning.

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Speaker 3: You go to, Kevin, kill a Jack? What an awful

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Speaker 3: for Jack? Tame at the grumpy Mole.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, I know, it's not not a pretty one a

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Speaker 2: pretty sight. The thing is, I'm i mean, look, I'm

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Speaker 2: not going to be too critical of Raygun because you know,

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Speaker 2: you know, speaking of my own moves, I'm sort of

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Speaker 2: quite a limy dancer. You know, I've sort of got

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Speaker 2: it like an egg beater. Someone said once that it

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Speaker 2: was like a watching an albatross on stilts, right, So

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Speaker 2: not not pretty, But that being said, it is just amazing,

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Speaker 2: you know how you have these kind of little cultural moments,

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Speaker 2: and you know, heading into the Games, I don't think

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Speaker 2: many people would have expected thirty six year old university

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Speaker 2: lecturer Rachel Gunn to be the kind of icon of

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Speaker 2: the Games.

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Speaker 3: But here we are. I'm one of those who haven't

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Speaker 3: seen seen her either. I've seen her name in print

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Speaker 3: for many times, but you've given me an excellent context.

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Speaker 3: I'm going to I'm going.

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Speaker 2: To I don't know, Kevin, you can't have been on

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Speaker 2: social media all of this week. Literally every single social

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Speaker 2: media post this week has been Raygun has been her

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Speaker 2: doing the Kangaroo.

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Speaker 3: I think may I may have seen it, but just

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Speaker 3: not kind of reacted because I didn't have your peace.

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Speaker 3: Yeahs now given me a reason to actually watch it.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, well, there you go. And you've been reflecting on

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Speaker 2: the Olympics a bit as well, Kevin. You've been wondering

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Speaker 2: if actually competitive sport at the very highest level is

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Speaker 2: actually worth it.

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Speaker 3: Yeah. Well, when I supported my daughter Tommy and her

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Speaker 3: swimming ambitions, Jack, when we head off to the pool

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Speaker 3: for training it ridiculously early hours. You'll remember I used

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Speaker 3: to do this show from pool side often, and when

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Speaker 3: we traveled to championship meetings all over the country. One

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Speaker 3: thing was in the back of my mind. Is all

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Speaker 3: this effort on my daughter's part worth it? Could the

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Speaker 3: fifteen hours training each week be better spent? I don't

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Speaker 3: mean another sport, I mean something non competitive, painting, photography,

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Speaker 3: playing in a band, a skillful life. Sure, being a

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Speaker 3: great swimmers handy if you fall off a boat, but

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Speaker 3: you can achieve that without fifteen hours training a week.

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Speaker 3: For four years. As it turned out, Tommy stayed in

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Speaker 3: competitive swimming until she was seventeen, felt she couldn't swim

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Speaker 3: any faster and gave it away with no regrets. I

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Speaker 3: loved watching the Olympics. I loved the achievements of the winners,

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Speaker 3: but I came away feeling I'd seen a lot of tears,

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Speaker 3: a lot of busy disappointment. I don't know about competitive

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Speaker 3: sport unless you're making big bucks out of it. When

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Speaker 3: you win, you're given something tougher to beat, and this

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Speaker 3: continues if you're lucky, right up to the Olympics, where

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Speaker 3: nearly everyone finally gets beaten. We rightly celebrate the winners,

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Speaker 3: but now my mind's on the losers. I wonder how

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Speaker 3: many who return home without medals will eventually wonder if

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Speaker 3: getting all the way to the Olympics was worth it. Yeah,

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Speaker 3: are the more useful ways to direct that extraordinary level

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Speaker 3: of effort and time and costs? You know something? Would

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Speaker 3: there be something that will help you more in later life?

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Speaker 3: With respect to the ancient Greeks, I think that might

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Speaker 3: be Jack.

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Speaker 2: I'm sure there are, Kevin. That being said, I'll push

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Speaker 2: back your push back on you with a couple of points.

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Speaker 2: First of all, I think there are lots of intangible

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Speaker 2: things that practicing a sport to an elite level must

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Speaker 2: teach you, right, Like Tommy must have learned so many

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Speaker 2: skills about discipline and organization and self management, lots of

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Speaker 2: skills that are going to put in great step going

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Speaker 2: into later life.

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Speaker 3: Right.

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Speaker 2: I also wonder if the reason we love watching sport

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Speaker 2: at the elite level is that it's a really digestible

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Speaker 2: way to see the kind of streams of human emotion

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Speaker 2: in a forum that doesn't really matter. So you get

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Speaker 2: to see people like in total ecstasy, in the moments

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Speaker 2: of you know, in moments of glory, and then you

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Speaker 2: get to see people and moments of total pain and agony.

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Speaker 2: And actually there's something deeply human about being able to

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Speaker 2: share in those experiences.

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Speaker 3: I don't know, that's just entertainment really from our point

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Speaker 3: of view. Yeah, thinking of the role and the effect

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Speaker 3: on the participant. Yeah, and they're not they're not paid actors, no,

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Speaker 3: of course. Well, I wonder first point.

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Speaker 2: First, I mean, I think I think I think they've

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Speaker 2: become I'm not saying all sports are perfect, but they've

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Speaker 2: definitely become more aware of this, haven't they, and trying

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Speaker 2: to support athletes especially as you know, sport gets more

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Speaker 2: and more money in it, more and more eyeballs watching it,

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Speaker 2: the pressures on these athletes become more and more pronounced

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Speaker 2: and refined, and you would hope that actually most of

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Speaker 2: these athletes are able to step back and maintain some

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Speaker 2: perspective in their lives as well. Yeah, well, I mean

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Speaker 2: the way I think about it is I love it, yeah,

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Speaker 2: of course, And I always think, like you know, for

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Speaker 2: most people, just making the Olympics is such an achievement.

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Speaker 2: It's such an incredible thing. And I know it's very

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Speaker 2: easy to say that as someone who's never going to

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Speaker 2: make the Olympics. Well on this actually take up a

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Speaker 2: bit of breaking. I don't know there could be an

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Speaker 2: option there, but you know what I mean, Like for

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Speaker 2: most athletes, I think even just getting to the Games

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Speaker 2: is such an achievement. So it probably depends on how

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Speaker 2: you frame success.

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Speaker 3: Yes, I guess, so, yeah, I guess I accept what

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Speaker 3: you're saying. I just think that what enormous amount of

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Speaker 3: time and effort. I mean, if you're if you pay,

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Speaker 3: if you're a rugby player or you're a golfer, ironically

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Speaker 3: both of them now and the Olympics but you're actually

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Speaker 3: getting paid anyway. Yeah, and you get paid for losing

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Speaker 3: as well as winning.

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Speaker 2: No, that's right.

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Speaker 3: If you're in a sport that's just aimed at the Olympics,

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Speaker 3: and you've spent years and years and thousands of dollars

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Speaker 3: and everything all your if it's all gone to getting

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Speaker 3: into the Olympics and you don't get a medal, I

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Speaker 3: just think wonder how many I just wonder how many

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Speaker 3: look back on all that when they're thirty and say,

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Speaker 3: I wish I'd actually done something else.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, spent my time learning to code or learning Japanese

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Speaker 2: or something. Thanksgiving.

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Speaker 1: For more from Saturday Morning with Jack Tame, listen live

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Speaker 1: to News Talks d B from nine am Saturday, or

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