Speaker 1: Christ Yeah, welcome friends to the Christian O'Connell Show podcast.
Speaker 1: Monday morning is to Christian O'Connell's show. So we're into
Speaker 1: the last week of the Games in Paris, and by
Speaker 1: an extraordinary chance, I've got a new neighbor five doors down.
Speaker 1: A couple of months ago, Steve Hooker moved in. Now.
Speaker 1: Steve Hooker won gold in the pond vault in two
Speaker 1: thousand and eight at the Games in two thousand and
Speaker 1: eight in Beijing. So Steve is actually part of the
Speaker 1: Channel nine coverage. You can hear him this week commentating
Speaker 1: all the track events. And Steve is live in Paris
Speaker 1: right now. Steve Hooker, are you.
Speaker 2: There, Christian? How are you mad? We're good?
Speaker 1: So take us through first of all, before we get
Speaker 1: into the athletes and what's going on this week, describe
Speaker 1: to us and what the games are like in Paris.
Speaker 2: Pretty amazing here. Actually, Paris itself is quiet. It's safe
Speaker 2: and quiet. It's safe and quiet as I ever seen that.
Speaker 2: So if you're a tourist in Paris, you can get
Speaker 2: straight up to the apple cower. He gets streightded to love.
Speaker 2: It's pretty amazing. But I would just like the track
Speaker 2: and field tonight and tonight was tonight we run Stilburn
Speaker 2: Bronze and the women tire jump and Noah Lyles one
Speaker 2: one hundred meters. It was pretty unforgettable evening to start
Speaker 2: the front.
Speaker 1: And so what can we get excited about over the
Speaker 1: next couple of days because your old event is coming up,
Speaker 1: isn't it? In about twenty four hours time?
Speaker 2: Yeah, that's right, Curtis Marshall takes on the greatest of
Speaker 2: all time Mondo to planters and bear in mind is
Speaker 2: the greatest of all time at twenty four years age,
Speaker 2: so there's a long time ago to elaborate on that
Speaker 2: to him. But yeah, Curtis goes up against Mondo tomorrow night.
Speaker 2: Curtis won a world championship medal last year, so he's
Speaker 2: a big chance to back that up. So we'll all
Speaker 2: be rooting to him.
Speaker 1: And what do you think the plant is going to get?
Speaker 1: I was seeing some of it yesterday. He's just so
Speaker 1: much better than everybody else.
Speaker 2: He's firstly faster. He runs over ten meters a second,
Speaker 2: so that's pretty quick.
Speaker 1: He does over ten meters a second.
Speaker 2: He runs ten meters a second holding a five meter
Speaker 2: twenty piece of fiberglass and had to get that into
Speaker 2: a plant box that's thirty centimeters wide. So it's pretty
Speaker 2: phenomenal what he does. But he also does all of
Speaker 2: that super smooth. He's been pop volting since he was
Speaker 2: five years old old. His dad was a five meter
Speaker 2: eighty pole volter. His mum was an elite hat athlete
Speaker 2: from Sweden, so that he's coaching team as well. There's
Speaker 2: a complete natural and he's a genetic freak and I
Speaker 2: love watching it, even though it makes me feel quite
Speaker 2: bad about myself.
Speaker 1: In shade on your what did you do six oh six?
Speaker 2: Or is that you've got your goal amazingly? Six six?
Speaker 2: You know, nearly thirty centimeters la twenty centimeters longer than
Speaker 2: what he's down firth. Okay, now, what do you mean he.
Speaker 1: Was pole vaulting from the age of five. What's the
Speaker 1: what's he doing jumping over the bed or a mattress.
Speaker 2: Yeah, well, he had a pole volt pit in his backyard.
Speaker 2: So his older brother's pole vaulted, and he grew up
Speaker 2: in Louisiana and had a yeah, pole volt pit in
Speaker 2: the backyard, so just had a pull in his hands
Speaker 2: his whole life.
Speaker 1: That is crazy. I want to see this level of
Speaker 1: dedication with you coaching your own kids. Now, see because
Speaker 1: Steve lives down the road for me, I want to
Speaker 1: see your kids pole vaulting in the backyard.
Speaker 2: Well we shout of we should have have a little bit. Yeah,
Speaker 2: we had a little pole vault in our front yard,
Speaker 2: not a fool's pit like Mondo, but a few little mats,
Speaker 2: so they've they've had to play with it. My two
Speaker 2: oldest boys, four year old actually has done a bit
Speaker 2: broomstick povot, so he's a year ahead of Mondo. So
Speaker 2: afulle how that goes?
Speaker 1: What a strange sight to stand in Christian's backyard and
Speaker 1: see Steve Hooker's children volding three fences down. And so
Speaker 1: what else are you looking forward to this week? Because
Speaker 1: obviously Australia have just had an amazing week in the
Speaker 1: pool the beer Max thing. There have been so many
Speaker 1: golden moments, size amazing run over the weekend. What are
Speaker 1: the other highlights that people can still get excited about
Speaker 1: because I think we've got greedy Now we've been spoiled
Speaker 1: last week with just how many golds for Yeah.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I've got a few things for that. Look, I
Speaker 2: don't know if it'll be gold, but I feel like
Speaker 2: we've got some podiums coming up, certainly some goals, and
Speaker 2: I'm covering a field event on the Channel nine, so
Speaker 2: you to tune in and watch those, Curtis, Tomorrow is
Speaker 2: a real chance. Tomorrow morning, Nina Kennedy and the polevot
Speaker 2: women's side kicks off and she's a gold medal favorite.
Speaker 2: And then we've got the women's javeling and we've got
Speaker 2: three metal chances, and probably right now mckenzi little is
Speaker 2: the gold medal favorite in women's javelin as well, and
Speaker 2: Matt Denny. Matt Denny kicks off his campaign tomorrow morning
Speaker 2: in the discuss as well, and he's our metal favorite
Speaker 2: as well. So we've got plenty coming up in the athletics,
Speaker 2: in the field.
Speaker 1: Brillimp Steve, Before we go, just tell me this what
Speaker 1: is it? Have you had the what the hell is
Speaker 1: that you stood in the middle of the radio interview
Speaker 1: with Melbourne? Please gend noisiest bits of Paris to speak
Speaker 1: to us. Steve.
Speaker 2: I've got one thing for you before I go. It's
Speaker 2: been tomorrow. Can you can you put my beIN out
Speaker 2: for me? Mate?
Speaker 1: Yes? Of course, Yeah, Tuesday nights. It's the recycling one, Steve,
Speaker 1: So I'll drag your bins out the sign. I won't
Speaker 1: disrupt the pole vaulting set up. You've got levers.
Speaker 2: We up the front yard, leave the poplot seting up alone.
Speaker 2: And yeah, the recycling great.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I'll get the whip snipper as well, because your
Speaker 1: hedges are looking a bit rough as well, so I'll
Speaker 1: do all of that as well. Steve would catch up
Speaker 1: with you later on this week. Please move off the
Speaker 1: schonz of all right, cheer Steve. Bye.
Speaker 2: The Christian O'Connell Show podcast