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Speaker 1: Christ Yeah, welcome friends to the Christian O'Connell.

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Speaker 2: Show podcast Christian O'Connell's Show. Now, today's golden moments were

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Speaker 2: counted down to the Games in Paris this weekend opening

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Speaker 2: ceremony Friday night in Paris early Saturday morning. For us

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Speaker 2: here in Australia, these golden moments are they just amazing

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Speaker 2: to listen to where an Australian gold medal winner takes

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Speaker 2: us back to that exact moment, what was happening in

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Speaker 2: the stadium and more importantly, they take us into inside

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Speaker 2: their heads what's happening in there? And before we go

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Speaker 2: to today's one, which is at the Sydney Games on

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Speaker 2: Bondi Beach and Kerry Potthast and a partner Natty Cook

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Speaker 2: winning gold, which I can only imagine what a defining

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Speaker 2: moment that must be on home soil on Bondi Sand

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Speaker 2: as well, which is incredible about you guys must have

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Speaker 2: remembered watching this?

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Speaker 3: Yeah, absolutely, I remember them coming. You didn't know anything

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Speaker 3: about them ever, like no one ever heard of them.

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Speaker 3: Then within a week the entire nations behind them and

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Speaker 3: everyone's focused on this one game. It was crazy, So

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Speaker 3: you were watching it definitely It was one of those

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Speaker 3: things here. I never thought twice about beach volleyball as

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Speaker 3: a sport, but all of a sudden it's like, oh no,

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Speaker 3: we cared deeply about this and it's really important that

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Speaker 3: did you watch it passing? I absolutely did you.

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Speaker 4: Those girls were a power force, amazing for six too

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Speaker 4: on my dad.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, Dad, you said that.

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Speaker 1: Not chat, No, that was stunning girls.

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Speaker 3: No, but beach volleyball is such hard sport to play.

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Speaker 3: I played regular volleyball in high school and we tried

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Speaker 3: to do a beach volleyball tournament and running and jumping

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Speaker 3: on sand is another level of agility and energy that

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Speaker 3: you exert.

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Speaker 2: We are the only in London twenty twelve. I left

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Speaker 2: it too late to get tickets and sadly the well

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Speaker 2: gladly actually the only tickets that I could get for

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Speaker 2: my family was to go to the beach Volleyball, which

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Speaker 2: still gets brought up quite a lot that there was

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Speaker 2: no other games. It had to be the beach volleyball

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Speaker 2: and they got quite bored after a while and I

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Speaker 2: ended up watching it by myself as my two daughters

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Speaker 2: and wife left. It's an incredible sport to watch the

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Speaker 2: prowess ye like you said, sad eh, it's very very.

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Speaker 3: But creepy that one single doad on his owne if

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Speaker 3: they go.

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Speaker 2: To you, if you're old TV, that was that guy

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Speaker 2: with three empty seats. Just a sport phane, guys, just

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Speaker 2: a sport phane. Anyway, let's go back to his.

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Speaker 5: Kerry question you O'Connell's golden moments coming down to the

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Speaker 5: Games in Paris. Kerry Podthast on winning gold with Natalie

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Speaker 5: Cook in beach volleyball at the two thousands near Olympigs.

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Speaker 4: Playing in front of Australians in Bondo Beach.

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Speaker 1: It was a really weird feeling.

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Speaker 4: So one minute you're up, you know, really high and

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Speaker 4: everyone's feeling great for you. The next minute you lose

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Speaker 4: a point. It was a struggle of emotion. I started to,

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Speaker 4: in particular, build this kind of cone of silence around

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Speaker 4: myself and my teammate Natalie. If you can imagine, you know,

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Speaker 4: a big glass cone where you could see out that

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Speaker 4: things weren't in focus, but I could hear the noise.

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Speaker 4: We were behind in both sets by a considerable amount.

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Speaker 4: On our faces you could see that we were just

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Speaker 4: not bothered by it.

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Speaker 1: It was just like next point. What are we do?

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Speaker 4: The second to last serve was in my hands, and

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Speaker 4: I knew I could hit a serve straight down the line.

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Speaker 1: I'd been practicing it for years.

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Speaker 4: I'd go through the middle between the two players and

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Speaker 4: then I'd crack one down the line on the line.

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Speaker 4: I decided to risk it. You know, we were down

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Speaker 4: by a point. The Brazilian girl that I served at

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Speaker 4: didn't move an inch. The ball landed on the line

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Speaker 4: for an ace, and Natalie turned around and screamed towards me.

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Speaker 4: We'd leveled it up. Now it was eleven points. We

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Speaker 4: were only going to twelve. So I made the serve.

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Speaker 4: It went through the middle. One of the girls took it,

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Speaker 4: she didn't make a great pass. Her partner tried to

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Speaker 4: save it, and in doing so, the ball was flying

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Speaker 4: over the top of Natalie's head. It was going towards

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Speaker 4: our sideline, and I'd chase towards the line, and as

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Speaker 4: Natalie turned around to look what was going on, she.

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Speaker 1: Was kind of like, no, don't touch it.

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Speaker 4: And as that ball landed, every single emotion and every

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Speaker 4: single feeling that you could possibly have went through both

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Speaker 4: of our bodies, like we collapsed to the ground. I

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Speaker 4: couldn't lift my head out of the sand. I was

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Speaker 4: almost too scared to look up at the people in

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Speaker 4: the crowd. My cone of silence that I'd built sort

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Speaker 4: of shattered down around me, and I looked up. All

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Speaker 4: of a sudden, I could see the faces, I could

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Speaker 4: see where they all were.

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Speaker 1: And Natalie was just looking at me.

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Speaker 4: We couldn't have prepared for this moment in any way,

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Speaker 4: shape or form. Thinking about it now, twenty four years later,

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Speaker 4: it's an unbelievable moment. We were two ordinary people that

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Speaker 4: came together and formed a magic partnership, winning a gold

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Speaker 4: medal on our home.

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Speaker 1: Beach, in our home country.

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Speaker 4: That was just such a massive dream.

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Speaker 1: Well Christian Connell's Show podcast