Speaker 1: Welcome to the Christian No Common Show podcast.
Speaker 2: So many amazing stories coming out of the Olympics this week.
Speaker 2: One of our favorite ones happened yesterday with Jess Fox
Speaker 2: and then her dad Richard Fox, a legend himself, commentating
Speaker 2: as well. Richard is on the line right now.
Speaker 1: Good morning Richard, Good morning Christian.
Speaker 3: Good morning from Penrith.
Speaker 1: Good morning, Penrith, and from us in Melbourne.
Speaker 2: Richard, I got to say, you moved us all to
Speaker 2: tears yesterday, you and your amazing daughter winning gold and
Speaker 2: what a story.
Speaker 1: How do you feel this morning?
Speaker 3: Oh good? I mean I didn't sleep so much, but
Speaker 3: I woke up and I'm messaging back and forth across
Speaker 3: the world and yeah, amazing, feel good. And we're out
Speaker 3: on the riverbank of the Nepean here and one degree
Speaker 3: so a bit chilly, No amazing. Spoken to Jess in Tokyo,
Speaker 3: spoken to Miriam and yeah they're buzzing and it's been great,
Speaker 3: so much support, so much love, And couldn't be prouder.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I bet the thing that I may is right.
Speaker 2: As a dad myself who just loses it whenever his
Speaker 2: kids are in like a school play, how do you
Speaker 2: remain so calm.
Speaker 3: Richard, Well, I lost it quietly at the end. I look,
Speaker 3: I admit that. No, I yeah, obviously it's an emotional thing,
Speaker 3: and doing the commentary is actually a good way for
Speaker 3: me to process all of that, because you know, I'm
Speaker 3: from the sport and I was sort of in almost
Speaker 3: in the boat and living the technique and the feeling
Speaker 3: and the performance. So but once it's over, or you know,
Speaker 3: even before it happens, Yeah, there's a lot of tension
Speaker 3: and emotion and so many feelings that are attached to it.
Speaker 3: But yeah, I guess I knew when she was coming
Speaker 3: down towards the last section that she just had to
Speaker 3: finish it off. Well. She had a bit of an advantage,
Speaker 3: so it was just so good to see, so good
Speaker 3: to feel, and she was in a dark place after
Speaker 3: the race on the Tuesday where she you know, she
Speaker 3: struggled a little bit on the course, but she she
Speaker 3: was ahead and it was there for the taking, and
Speaker 3: then she made that mistake at the end of the course,
Speaker 3: she hit the gate and that that you know, scarred
Speaker 3: her heavily and she had to come back from that.
Speaker 3: And I think it was a great competition because the
Speaker 3: British athlete Mallory Franklin. She put down this huge score
Speaker 3: and when you see that, when you know the sport
Speaker 3: and you just think that's the bar, the bar has
Speaker 3: gone up and she's still got to get over that.
Speaker 3: So that was that added anovel, another layer of tension.
Speaker 2: And tell me this, then, what advice do you give
Speaker 2: her then? As a dad and also someone who competed
Speaker 2: a very high level, you know, ten time world champion yourself,
Speaker 2: how do you help your daughter from the mistake and
Speaker 2: the bronze? So then learn from that, move on and
Speaker 2: not carry it forward to when she's competing yesterday.
Speaker 1: What do you say?
Speaker 3: Yeah, there's no playbook in life for that because you
Speaker 3: just don't know. And I actually didn't sleep that well
Speaker 3: the night before the last final, and I got thinking,
Speaker 3: what do I say? I'll wait till the morning, and
Speaker 3: I talked about Yeah, I just gave us some keywords
Speaker 3: to think about. And you know, one of the things
Speaker 3: I said at the end, which I think, is, you know,
Speaker 3: for every parent, when you've got your kids in sport
Speaker 3: or any sort of activity where they're under the pump
Speaker 3: a little bit, you know, love love beyond the finish,
Speaker 3: So that whatever happens, you've got that. And then we
Speaker 3: had a little chat yesterday morning before the race. I
Speaker 3: talked about courage and confidence and control and that you've
Speaker 3: got to have that for those moments. You've got to
Speaker 3: have courage. And there was a time very early on
Speaker 3: in her career where we were in a World championship.
Speaker 3: She was sixteen, and it was the toughest course. You know,
Speaker 3: there's a big drop and she got hammered and it
Speaker 3: was one of those defining moments where you either get
Speaker 3: back on the horse so to speak, you know, back
Speaker 3: in the boat and run it again, or you know,
Speaker 3: it's a very delicate moment to say, what do you
Speaker 3: want to do? Do you want to go? Is this
Speaker 3: what you want to do? Do you want to get
Speaker 3: back in and have another go? And we talked about
Speaker 3: that moment and I yeah, so as I say, there's
Speaker 3: no playbook for it, but that was what we talked about,
Speaker 3: and she had to dig really deep. You know, she
Speaker 3: had incredible courage to you know, bring out that performance,
Speaker 3: and she talked about how nervous she was, so yeah,
Speaker 3: and I think, you know, if it doesn't happen, you've
Speaker 3: still got to have that love for the person because
Speaker 3: it's not you know, you're there in competition at the Olympics,
Speaker 3: it's what she loves to do. The chances you know,
Speaker 3: just as high or higher that she's not going to
Speaker 3: succeed because the bar is set so high. So she
Speaker 3: was in that defining moment of you know, will I
Speaker 3: do it? Am I good enough? Can I? And amazingly
Speaker 3: she did. So, Yeah, it was It was very special,
Speaker 3: but it's challenging. But I think being there and having
Speaker 3: that support was important.
Speaker 2: Was it hard for you being not out there? Was
Speaker 2: it really hard? Commentating? And I wish I was there
Speaker 2: to give her a hug?
Speaker 1: Was that hard?
Speaker 2: Richard?
Speaker 3: Yes, but we knew it was going to be like that.
Speaker 3: And so in fact, the way following the games, and
Speaker 3: I was saying this this morning to seven is actually
Speaker 3: being very very different, very revealing through the eye of
Speaker 3: the camera and you can see so much more. You
Speaker 3: can see the expression on the start line, and when
Speaker 3: you know the person, you can read a lot into that,
Speaker 3: into the emotion then. And how so I was more
Speaker 3: into the competition than I've ever been before. You miss
Speaker 3: a lot of that when you're you're there live. Of course,
Speaker 3: it's great to be there. But you know, with you know,
Speaker 3: all the technology today, we're in constant contact and you know,
Speaker 3: it's been okay, and we knew it was going to
Speaker 3: be like that, so you know, it wasn't a shock.
Speaker 3: And I've enjoyed being part of the public, if you like.
Speaker 3: The plan was to be in the stands actually, and
Speaker 3: I would have been, you know, I would have been
Speaker 3: there for the hug at the finish or whatever. But
Speaker 3: this has also been amazing.
Speaker 1: I'll tell you what.
Speaker 3: You know.
Speaker 2: The winner is Jess's and Jess as loan, but she
Speaker 2: is a real credit to you, mirroring your wife as well.
Speaker 2: And the great thing about her is yesterday is the
Speaker 2: other athlete. Some of the other partners were walking alongside
Speaker 2: while she was doing her race, cheering her on. She's
Speaker 2: she's a realness. She will actually inspire so many young
Speaker 2: boys and girls to take it up. She'll inspire the
Speaker 2: next generation. Are you are you aware of that?
Speaker 3: Oh? Look, she she does. And I think she you know,
Speaker 3: she really takes on that. It's not a responsibility, but
Speaker 3: she takes on that role and she knows how she
Speaker 3: was impacted by others. She when she grew up, I
Speaker 3: mean obviously her parents are in the sport and she
Speaker 3: sort of said that for breakfast every day. But I
Speaker 3: remember when.
Speaker 2: We before breakfast, you get in that canoe, yeah before okay,
Speaker 2: then breakfast, okay, stop crying.
Speaker 3: Yeah. And I remember, you know, we went to Bay
Speaker 3: Athens in Beijing as coaches, and you know there was
Speaker 3: always the homecoming and you come off the plane and
Speaker 3: they were always you know ian Thorpe Animeres and all
Speaker 3: Susie O'Neil, all these great legends and so you know,
Speaker 3: she was inspired by all of that, and I think
Speaker 3: she feels this real sense of joy of sharing that,
Speaker 3: and she loves the connection with the schools and with
Speaker 3: families and sharing. So I think, well, yeah, she'll really
Speaker 3: embrace that moving forward and hopefully you know, bring a
Speaker 3: lot to other people, and you know to the mums
Speaker 3: and dad too. I mean with Miriam, they have they
Speaker 3: have such a lot of violent and great stories to tell.
Speaker 1: Awesome.
Speaker 2: One final question. When I was a kid growing up
Speaker 2: in England, Rich and I remember you on a TV show.
Speaker 2: I don't know if you remember this. It was a
Speaker 2: strange show. The BBC used it for school children while
Speaker 2: they're on the summer break and it was a game
Speaker 2: show based around canoeing. Do you remember paddles up?
Speaker 3: I do? I do? And that's so funny you mentioned
Speaker 3: it because the girls when they were growing up, they
Speaker 3: loved laughing at their dad when they pulled up the
Speaker 3: videos from it and they, yeah, there are some famous
Speaker 3: moments from it.
Speaker 2: Yeah, so, I mean everyone in Australia won't know about
Speaker 2: the show, but it really was like a game show
Speaker 2: based around canoe and I seem to remember you would
Speaker 2: always smash it. But didn't your one point right have
Speaker 2: to get your canoe out the water and hit a football?
Speaker 3: Yeah? Oh there was. Yeah, there were tricks like that,
Speaker 3: and there was an Eskimaux role in it. So when
Speaker 3: you kip over and you've got to come back up. Yes,
Speaker 3: And this is the piece they loved the most because
Speaker 3: you know, I didn't do it very well. I didn't
Speaker 3: come up at the first tent and I got stuck
Speaker 3: between two obstacles. My boat you know, snapped basically snapped
Speaker 3: in two, and they just kept you know, I don't
Speaker 3: know their age or nine or whatever, they just keep
Speaker 3: playing that him laughing at their dad stucking it up.
Speaker 2: Do you know what I'm going to speak to Channel
Speaker 2: seven on your behalf. Paddles up needs to come back. Okay, yeah,
Speaker 2: you and Jess and Miriam are the hosts. Pulls up
Speaker 2: Channel seven. Let's bring it back.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I'll be up for it, all right.
Speaker 2: We'll let you go. You've given Australia so much inspiration.
Speaker 2: Joy Jess is amazing. She's one of the highlights. She's
Speaker 2: going to be one of the clips that we that
Speaker 2: Australia plays back when they do highlight reels. They'll be Catherineman,
Speaker 2: you know, Thorpe and Aimes, but also going to be
Speaker 2: your daughter, Jess. So you should be really proud. She's
Speaker 2: given us so much. I loved getting to know her
Speaker 2: and you guys in your story as well. So thanks Richard,
Speaker 2: and thanks Jess as well, and your wife Miriam as much.
Speaker 2: It has been lovely chatting to you today.
Speaker 3: Thanks Christian, we've just lost him, so I will say
Speaker 3: thank you.
Speaker 1: Who are you?
Speaker 3: I'm the offer I'm feeling with.
Speaker 1: I'm Christian, by the way you live on God. I know, Christian,
Speaker 1: I'm so sorry. You know that he's all right.
Speaker 2: Isn't following that river? He's what the side of it
Speaker 2: was excitements aren't coming back. It's calling his agent. He's
Speaker 2: cutting me out the deal. Well, listen, you have a
Speaker 2: lovely weekend.
Speaker 1: Nice to chat anyway.
Speaker 3: That's to check to you too.
Speaker 2: Things guys, when we say stuff like we're on hold
Speaker 2: with Channel seven, this is what happens in our world.
Speaker 1: Richard didn't say her, Why Richard was it?
Speaker 3: Paddles up Carlin a brighter Now you're listening to the
Speaker 3: Christian Know Carls Show podcast