Do Go On - 295 - Cathy Freeman

Episode Date: June 15, 2021

The weight of a nation rested on one woman's shoulders at the Sydney 2000 Olympic Games. A household name, she was the most famous person in Australia. We look at the career of one of Australia's most celebrated athletes, Cathy Freeman.For tickets to Matt's shows in Sydney and Melbourne: https://www.mattstewartcomedy.com/ Support the show and get rewards like bonus episodes: patreon.com/DoGoOnPodBuy tickets for our screening of The Mummy on September 10: https://www.lidocinemas.com.au/mummyBuy tickets to our streamed shows (there are 12 available to watch now! All with exclusive extra sections): https://sospresents.com/authors/dogoon Check out our AACTA nominated web series: http://bit.ly/DGOWebSeries​ Check out Matt’s Beer show: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ej4TUguJL58 Submit a topic idea directly to the hat: dogoonpod.com/Submit-a-Topic Twitter: @DoGoOnPodInstagram: @DoGoOnPodFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/DoGoOnPod/Email us: [e-mail] Check out our other podcasts:Book Cheat: https://play.acast.com/s/book-cheatPrime Mates: https://play.acast.com/s/prime-mates/Listen Now: https://play.acast.com/s/listen-now/ Our awesome theme song by Evan Munro-Smith and logo by Peader Thomas REFERENCES AND FURTHER READING:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jyAzlb0WEeE

Melbourne and Canada, we got exciting news for you. And we should also say this is 2026. Jess, what year is it? 2026. Thank God you're here. Right now, I'm in Melbourne doing my show with Serenji Amarna, 630 each night at the Cooper's Inn Hotel, having so much fun. We'd love to see you there.

Canada, we are visiting you in September this year. If you've somehow missed the news, we are heading up Vancouver, Calgary, Montreal, and Toronto for shows. That's going to be so much fun. Tickets for all this stuff, I believe, are online. And I'm here too. Welcome to another episode of Do Go On. My name is Dev Warnikey and as always I'm here with Matt Stewart and Jess Perkins.

Hello. Hello. What a pleasure to be here with you, Dave and Jess Sicker Perkins. Oh, thank you. Matthew Stewart. Oh, that's so good. Would it blow anyone's mind to know that I'm actually technically not called Dave? Wait, what?

My full name is David. Does that blow anyone's mind? Wait, hang on a second. And that doesn't make any sense. Why have we been calling you Dave all this time? Where does that come from? Is that your middle name? We've got no time to discuss that because Jess, how does this show work?

Why me? Okay, so this show works. One of the three of us takes a topic often suggested by our listeners. We go away, we research the topic, we bring it back to the other two who listen patiently but also interrupt a fair bit. There's some laughter. Sometimes there's tears. That's usually off podcast.

And there's friendship a lot. the way. Did I nail that? That's great. I loved it. Tears of joy, of course. Yeah, of course. And we always start with a question. And it is my turn to do the report. And my question to you, Matt and David?

There's no time. My question is, what event occurred on the 25th of September 2000? 2000. Oh, are we doing the Olympics closing ceremony? Sydney Olympics opening ceremony. That's right. Is it the closing ceremony? It is not the closing ceremony.

Yeah, that would be wild. That is like grand final week. 2000, that was Essendon smashing the demons. Is that what we're talking about? Yeah, absolutely. I'm going to be talking about Essendon versus no. Okay, you were on the right kind of track with Olympics. What was sort of the, one of the biggest events?

Was it Mickey Webster's CD launch? I've been kissing your strawberry kissing. It was only, yeah, a couple weeks after, she really wanted to capitalize on the buzz. You've got to be quick. You got to be. You know, people forget. All right.

What about, what, so one of the big events. Is it Kathy Freeman's gold medal? Boom, yes it is. Oh, it is a spoiler. A little bit of a spoiler, but also people probably know. I personally never heard of this event. Wow. Well, I want to say 200 metres.

I want to say 400 meters. Yes. Yes. It was longer than 200. It was about double 200. Yeah, it's a lap of the track. It's a lap of the track. But I wanted to talk a little bit.

That's what I would call the event. Who wins a lap track track lap? Track lap. Track lap's fun. Yeah, that's fun. Gold medals in the track lap. Yeah, I wanted to talk. about this event, but also talk about the person behind the event.

Kathy Freeman. But if I knew the name of the person who, like, drew the lines on the track, that would be sick. I could have made one up. Nobody would know. Anyway, yeah, so I have free choice at the moment, and I was very, very surprised that Cathy Freeman hasn't been suggested by anyone in the hat. Really?

Oh, my God. Can I get on there right now? Please do, because I was a bit baffled by that. I was like, she was like my childhood hero. Surely I'm not alone there. And in doing a bit more research, I definitely was not. So, yeah, I wanted to talk to you a bit about the life and that fateful day in September 2000.

Do you remember the 25th night of September? Yeah, exactly. That's what the song's about. I'll be so curious to find out if, because obviously Cathy Freeman is a legend in Australia. I wonder how well she's known internationally. have been quite well known at the time, but I don't know. People 20 years later are still thinking about her every day like I do in other parts of

the world. Think about her every day. I love Kathy Freeman. Oh, she's an absolute legend. She carried the whole nation on her back. You're not wrong, Matt, but let's not get emotional too early. We do the tears off the pod. Well, here's something straight off the bat that's going to blow your mind.

Her real name is Catherine. What? What? I know. It's like, okay, everything is a lie. What is going on? You think you know someone. And then I was like, okay, Kathy must be her middle name,

but her middle name is Astrid. Catherine, Kathy. Because why would we be calling you a Kathy otherwise? It's crazy. Where does that come from? Where does it come from, David? I don't know. Gosh.

You know, Catherine Astrid, Salome Freeman, born on the 16th of Feb, 1973, in Mackay in Queensland. Her mother, Cecilia, is of the Gugul Yelanji people of Far North Queensland, and along with her grandmother was born in the indigenous community of Palm Island. Her father was born in Warbindi and is of the Biry-Guba people of Central Queensland. And her athletic ability seemed to be a genetic blessing. Her father, Norman Freeman, earned the nickname of Twinkle Toes.

Oh, yes. That was on the dance floor, though. Was that his middle name? His middle name was Twinkle Toes. Norman Twinkletoes Freeman. How funny is someone having both the nickname Twinkle Toes and the real name Norman? Yeah. What a combo. It's a great combo.

He followed in his own father's footsteps and played rugby league and he was known for his speed and agility, hence the nickname Twinkle Toes. Kathy herself said, legend has it that my father and my grandfather were asked to go to a club in England. But because of the way it was, at the time, they weren't allowed, obviously, because her father and grandfather were indigenous people. And, you know, I'll get into it. She's one of five children. She has three brothers, Norman, Garth and Gavin and a sister, Anne Marie. That's brilliant.

Norman, Garth and Gavin. Gavin. Love it. They are all great comedy names. The girls really got the best names there. Anne-Marie, Catherine. Yeah, they did well. Anne-Marie had cerebral palsy, spent much of her life in the Buribi Care Facility in Rockhampton.

And Kathy had her first running race at the age of five, and she fell in love with the sport. First running race, Jess. So you've specified running race. Was she racing cars prior to this? Yes, she was, yes. And women. A bit of a spoiler there. But yes, she was a junior go-kart and then full-on car racing.

Yeah. Full on cars. Full on cars. She couldn't reach the pedals, but yeah, pretty impressive. Did you do a couple of track laps? Yeah, so she fell in love with running really early on. It definitely helped that she won her first race. But people started to notice her natural ability from a young age.

It's like an interview with one of the primary school teachers who was like, holy shit, this kid is, she's got something and we've got to help her get there, which is pretty cool. Can you just imagine how quick she would have been? in like obviously she's very, very fast, the best in the world at one point. But you know when you're in primary school and there's like the quickest kid in your school and you're like, oh my God, they're so fast. But on the world stage, they're like the 15th or 20th,000 fastest person in the world.

Of course, yeah. Because she's going to be the fastest in the world. Is there any more deflating moment than seeing the fastest kid at your school get flogged by the fastest kid of another school? Oh, he didn't even make the top five. One time in primary school lining up to do the 100 metres, one girl said within earshot of me, oh shit, I'm against Jess because she knew she didn't have a fucking chance. That's great.

And then I ran against Larissa, who absolutely smoked me. I know how it feels. I think that other girl got in your head. Well, no, I beat her. Just could never beat Larissa. Oh, shit, I'm against Larissa. She's just too fast. I wonder what she's doing now.

Everyone turned to the girl next to him. And said the same thing. Oh, no. But I just heard that one thing. It was like, yeah, damn straight. Actually made you run faster. Kathy's parents, Cecilia and Norman, split up in 1978 when she was five years old. And a few years later, her mother married a man named Bruce Barber.

This is a quote. Bruce, another cracking name. Bruce Barber. How good is that? Bruce Barber. Pleasure to meet you. Yeah, he uses his full name. Bruce Barber, how do you bloody, don't?

There's a quote from Kathy. She says, I was 10 when my family and I moved from Mackay to a place named Huenden in the desert region of far north-west Queensland. The vast desert land with its wide open skies and incredible red land was another perfect setting to cultivate my love of running. Bruce wanted to encourage his stepdaughter to pursue her athletic dreams and became her very first coach, despite not knowing that much about athletics himself.

But he just wanted to help. He wanted to be supportive. Go, run. Run quicker. Faster? Yeah. That's good, but even faster. Do it again faster, though?

That fast run you just did, do you reckon you could do that ever so slightly faster? Go have a crack. Fantastic. Maybe next time you could maybe try and beat Alyssa. I don't know. Good luck. Good luck, man. He quickly realized Kathy's ability was a bit beyond his help.

But nonetheless, by her early teams, she had to call. Beyond help. I don't know how to do it. I told her to go faster. And she did, and then I was like, where do we go from there? Nonetheless, by her early teens, she had a collection of regional and national titles, having competed in the 100 metres, 200 metres, high jump and long jump. And that was just in drag racing.

What about running? I'm getting to it. You've got to get to know a person first. She looked at those cars one day and said, I reckon I could run pretty quick too. I reckon I would watch like underage drag racing. Eight-year-old having a go. Would you watch like adults doing it?

No, boring. They got long legs. I'd also watch high jump in a car. That would be sick. Yes. Yes. Just keep raising that back. I'll clear that.

I'll clear that. You've gone from younger driver racing cars to cars doing high jump. Yes. The next logical step. I thought there was no bad ideas here, man. I thought this was a safe place. I thought that too.

Tell me you wouldn't watch it. Tell me you wouldn't watch it if that was an option. Yeah. Would you watch that? Would you say, oh, no thanks, I'll go to bed? ESPN, car high jump. Come on, you're not turning that off. I'd watch the inaugural one for sure.

I think it would get older. The first and last. There's no driver in it. They just put a brick on the accelerator. No humans get hurt, but the car. Cars are fucked. Why don't you get kids to drive the cars? Now I'm watching.

Put a little helmet on it. They'll be right. Kathy's brother Norman was also a gifted runner and the siblings trained together and were both recipients of sporting scholarships to Coralbine International School in 1987 where Kathy was coached professionally by Romanian Mike Danilla, who later became a key influence throughout her. her career. He provided a strict training regimen for the young athlete. The following year, she was awarded a scholarship to an exclusive girl school called Fair Home

College in Tawumba. And in a competition in 1989, she ran 11.67 seconds in the 100 meters. The world record is 10.49. So she's done it in 11.67. It's pretty fast. So by 15, she's 1.18 seconds off the world record. Is that the current at the time or the current now? I think that's still the record. Wow. That was set by American Florence Griffith Joyner. Oh, yeah, she's had it for decades. And she also has the second and third fastest times.

I've never tried, I don't think, but I reckon I could probably go about that fast. Do you reckon? Yeah. If we get Barry Barber to help coach me. Bruce? Bruce, even better. Bruce. So yeah, she's 15.

She's, you know, she's already. incredibly fast. And like I said before, by her early teens, she had regional and national titles and her coach, Danilla, began to think about entering her in the Commonwealth Games trials in Sydney. She was selected as a member of Australia's 4x100 Relo Team for the 1990 Commonwealth Games in Auckland. Her teammates were Monique Dunstan, Cathy Sambell and Kerry Johnson, and with a time of 43.87 seconds, they won the gold medal. Cathy was the first. Cathy was the first ever Aboriginal Commonwealth game gold medalist and one of the youngest Commonwealth Games gold medalist as well. She was 16 years old.

Whoa. That's amazing. They were the real glory days of Commonwealth Games back when Australia was real good at them. I thought we do it. No, we do okay in Commonwealth Games because the Americans aren't there. Well, it used to definitely be true, but then the UK started putting money into it. Yeah. And then we're like, no. Oh, shit. Yeah, you're right.

The 90s into the early 2000s were a really good year for us with athletics, swimming. Oh, yeah. Fuck, we were good. I mean, we've always been pretty average at basketball. No, I just saw the world rankings for the men's. We're third in the world. Yeah. UK is 41st.

Wow. Someone on the Planet Broadcasting Great Mates group posted it. They said, they said, oh, they're in English. guy and he's like, oh, I've just been getting into basketball. And now I realize that we're really awful at it. There's no reason not to get into it. It's a great game. Yeah, it's pretty good.

And top 41. Pretty good. That's pretty good. Yeah, it's not bad. I think, and as well, wouldn't it be fun to be British and be an underdog in something? Great point. They should try it. Yeah, give it a go.

Yeah. And just looking up here, the women's team are currently ranked number two, Australians. All right. Yeah, Australian women's basketball has always been great. The Opals, have they had an Olympic gold yet? But they've been real close. The men's are always out of the medals, but the women's team wins medals, most Olympics, I think. Yeah, I definitely remember silver in Athens.

So anyway, first over... Is this an episode about basketball, sorry, Jess? God, I wish. No, I don't. I love Cathy Freeman so much. So first ever Aboriginal Commonwealth Games gold medalist, and she's 16 years old. What were you doing when you were 16, Jess, winning Commonwealth Awards? Oh, bloody giving her a go.

Let's run and doing a high jump. In a car? In a car? Not in a car. I'm old school. So that was 1990. That was a pretty big year for Kathy. She also won the 200 metres at the Australian National Championships

and represented Australia at the World Junior Athletic Championships in Bulgaria, placing fifth in the 200 metres and fifth in the 4 by 100 as well. That same year, she was named Young Australian of the Year, only the second Aboriginal youth to be recognised for the distinction. The first was Mark Ella in 1982. In her speech, Cathy said she ran for Australians and in particular, the Aboriginal people. Her mother, Cecilia, said in an interview,

that it meant an awful lot to young Aboriginal people to see Cathy be named Young Australian of the Year. She said, I think it will make them stand up and say, if she can do it, I can too. And Kathy herself talks about feeling quite self-conscious and shy about the colour of her skin as she was growing up. She remembers being confused by why people didn't smile back at her in the street. And she recalls winning a race as a 10-year-old and not being given the trophy,

apparently because she was black. Didn't give her the trophy. What the fuck? Yeah. This is in the 70s. This is not that long ago. It's completely fucked. And I think it's like a great opportunity and very important to talk about it because

I think something that particularly old white people struggle to understand is, how important representation is. You know, that we throw around the phrase, you can't be what you can't see. But as white people, we can't really understand that because we're everywhere. And that's sort of, I'm generalising there as well. It's like white cis people or white able-bodied people.

When you, you don't fit that mould, you don't see yourself represented anywhere. You're not in books or film or anything like that. And we're obviously getting a lot better at that, but it's still pretty average. So I think it's huge because Cathy's, of course, not the first Aboriginal person

to do something impressive or of note, but she's this young, strong, talented woman. She's driven and focused. And she's not just setting an example for young Indigenous kids, but throughout her whole career, she's being celebrated and cheered on by all Australians,

which is incredibly important for the young Indigenous kids to see. So it's massive. And it gets bigger, and bigger and bigger as her career progresses. So 1990 is also a difficult year for the family because Kathy's older sister Anne-Marie passed away. In every docker or interview I've seen, Kathy talks about how much her sister inspired her. She credits Anne-Marie with being the reason she is who she is. Growing up with her gave Kathy a great appreciation for what she could do

and to appreciate the things that you've been given. And there's a nice part in a documentary that came out last year, it's called Freeman, where her mum, Cecilia, says, she ran for her sister. That's what drove her to succeed. So it's pretty amazing too. The next couple of years were busy for Kathy. She competed in her second world junior championships in Seoul and South Korea. She competed only in the 200 metres, winning the silver medal. And also in 92, she participated in her first Olympic Games in Barcelona. Sorry, Jess, Barcelona. I'm so sorry. I always butcher that one. She made it to the second heat in the 400 metres, which at the time was looking like it was

going to be her specialty event and finished in seventh place as part of the women's 4 by 100 relay team. So she kind of continues to do the 200 and the 4 by 100 throughout her career, but 400's really her like her specialty. Her breakout year happened in 1994 when she entered into the world's elite for the first time. And what I mean by that is she took 1.3 seconds from her 400 metre personal birth. achieving 50.04 seconds. She set all-time personal bests in the 100 metres.

100 metres, her PV was 11.24 and her 200 metres best was 22.25, which is very fast. One Mississippi, two Mississippi, three Mississippi. She's already done the first quarter. Four Mississippi, five Mississippi. We know the six to eight seconds are a lot. Last to 7-8-9, Mississippi, 10, Mississippi. And that goes all the way through to 22.78 Mississippies. Yeah.

And she's done. She's done. It's over, done. And I'm still trying to, you know, go through the States of America on the starting line, which is my pre-game routine. It's a little superstition of mine. Really? Because I'll do the periodic table.

Competing at the 1994 Commonwealth Games in Canada, she once again ran as part of the 4 by 100 relay winning silver. The team had originally finished first, but were later disqualified and knocked back to silver after Freeman obstructed the Nigerian runner. So they got knocked back. I thought like if you get, if you're disqualified for anything, you're out, but they just got knocked back to silver. Very interesting.

What does she do to obstruct? I'm not sure. Yeah, I'm not 100% sure on that. It just said that she obstructed them. I'm not entirely sure how. I wonder if it was on. It depends on the rules. of each race, but I know, I know, like, when I used to watch horse racing a bit, they,

if there was a protest, it would, it wouldn't necessarily rule out the horse who infringed. It would just, they'd go, they'd sort of figure out where in the field that they should be shuffled to instead. Yeah, interesting. Not sure. Like, if you, if you step out of your lane in the four by 100, you're usually disqualified. I don't, but I don't, I've never really seen it that they just drop back a notch. but I'm absolutely not an expert here.

I don't know why I'm fighting with the information I have. I'm like, I don't know. Well, as long as it was helpful that I brought up a vague memory of horse racing. And I'm talking about when I did into school, 4 by 100 real, oh? I assume similar rules to Olympics. Similar rules. Commonwealth Games, whatever. She won both gold in both the 200 metre and 400 metre,

the first woman to do so in the Commonwealth Games. Yeah, right. She's got gold in two and four, but she caused controversy within the Australian Commonwealth team with her post-race celebration by carrying both the Australian flag and the Aboriginal flag. So I remember vaguely there was controversy about that. I thought that was in Sydney. Where was that?

This is in 94 in Canada. It just seems like such a bizarre thing to get upset about. I know. It was seen as an act of defiance and improper to associate the Aboriginal flag and the Australian flag together. Very, very strange. Can you guess the age and skin colour of the men who are protesting this? Oh, do you remember any of the names?

No, it was the... Was Dick Pound involved? What was his name? One of them was the... He was like the head of the Commonwealth team. I don't know. But it was kind of harding. I was very annoyed.

watching it. But then there was like Vox Pops done by, you know, the news interviewing just regular Australians who are all going, why don't see the big deal? Makes a lot of it's like, she should have both. So that was, I was like, okay, at least, at least it's not everybody. But the media, of course, picked it up. Kathy was being interviewed one time, like as in, you know those kind of interviews, I say in inverted commas when somebody's just trying to walk somewhere and there's just media all around them? Like, Cathy, Kathy, Kathy, answer these questions. Kathy, thanks for coming to our interview. I'm going to the shots.

I'm trying to get to the car. Yeah. But she said, with all due respect, I don't care. I'm here to run and that's all I'm going to do. And that is exactly what she did. All throughout her career, her running career, all she wanted to do was run. She would do state comps and things that she probably didn't have to do anymore because she just loved to run and she loved to race.

In 1996, she ran the stall gift for international listeners or Aussies who aren't familiar. The stall gift is held in a town. called Stahl. It's about 240Ks west-northwest of Melbourne. It's been held in all but five years since 1878. It's a very old and very famous and prestigious foot race. It's run on grass and athletes are handicapped according to form and ability and start off at varying marks along the track. So when she went to run it, she was starting 42 metres behind the rest of the runners. She actually started in Melbourne. She's 42 metres back of a 400-meter race. She watched some of the other competitors on the train while she was running to the...

She had to start three weeks early. Yeah, it was incredible. An amazing achievement. The race is on YouTube. It is actually an incredible watch. So 200 metres in, she's still quite far behind the rest of the races. It looks like she can't make up the distance. But then she just closes the gap.

It's so subtle and quick and she's just suddenly right behind. them and then she's passing them and one of the other runners Lewis elbows her but Kathy doesn't even flinch and just keeps going and in like the last 50 meters she just overtakes them all and wins with a 42 meter handicap she wins. I've seen that race a few times it's so fun to watch someone come just swoop a field like that well it just looks like they're on a travel later yeah it's incredible. She has an amazing running style and she's obviously very, very quick. By the 1996 Olympics, Cathy was seen as the biggest challenger to French runner Marie José Perik, who Kathy described as the sort of woman who struck fear in the hearts of most athletes.

Kind of like you to Ellie or whoever. Larissa. Larissa. She was this statuesque, striking, powerful woman. She was an very intimidating athlete and one that Kathy was determined to beat. And just to paint you a picture, Perek is 5'10 or 1.8 metres tall. She's lean but very, very muscular.

A classic sprinter body, but with extra definition. She's just... Sorry, Jess, did you just cut out for a second there? Were you describing me or... Just a little joke there. She sounds like she's built for the race. Yeah, she's this incredible, yeah, really statuess, amazing.

Kathy is 5 foot 5, 20 centimetres shorter, also very lean, just much smaller and kind of unassuming. She's still very, like, great muscle definition. But I feel like if you just saw Kathy Freeman walking down the street and you didn't know she was Kathy Freeman, you wouldn't think she was the elite athlete that she is. Yeah. Whereas I feel like if you saw Perrick, you'd be like,

oh yeah. Yeah. I'm not sure what sport you do, but you're incredible at it. So at the 95 World Championships a year prior, Kathy had run the wrong race in her coach's words. She'd started too fast. She'd run out of steam. And in the last 100 metres,

she'd fallen from second place to about fifth. So she was determined not to make that same mistake again. Perrick had run a time of 48.86. So Kathy Freeman wrote a big note for herself that said 48.6. That's what she was going to aim for. She goes, all right, 95. did 48.86, I'm going to do 48.6. So at the 400-meter final, Kathy's on her tail and Perrette was challenged in a way that she hadn't been for a very long time. And while Kathy didn't beat her,

she came in second and wiped a full second of her own personal best and pushed Perrick to an Olympic record of 48.65. Wow, that'd have been an awesome race to watch live. The race is amazing. I've seen it. And there's such a lot. There's such a lot of, a height difference in them and peric's stride is so long because she's got such long legs but Kathy is sort of like long legs short torso so she's kind of they they look size wise so different to each other but she's really like she's so so close to her and they're both really pushing it's amazing to watch and Kathy says that Perrick was very inspiring she said she gave me permission to be bold with my goals which is really nice they race literally yeah Perik went up

There's a, I grant you permission for you. Kathy said, thank you. Kathy did eventually beat Perrick at a Grand Prix race in Belgium. Car racing, yeah. Yes. Yeah, yeah. She got to do something in the off-season. She's got into the F-1 car.

Chalms it to race. How crazy is this? Over the next four years between 96 and 2000, Kathy wins 41 out of 42 races. Oh. And the one that she lost was only due to injury. 41 out of 42 races. She's unstoppable.

That is a hot streak. Yeah. By 1998, she's one of the most famous people in Australia. She's awarded Australian of the Year, I believe the only person to be both young Australian and Australian of the Year. Oh, I hope she gets old Australian of the year down the track. Yeah, that'd be good, wouldn't it? Get the trifecta.

Elderly Australian of the Year. The pressure was already being put on her about the upcoming 2000 Olympics. Newspaper headlines said, hope of a nation rests on Freeman's shoulders. Bit of pressure. Yeah. I was a joke before when I said the whole country was on her back. It was so much pressure.

The pressure was insane. By 99, she was the first woman ever to win back-to-back world championships in the 400 meters. And meanwhile, Perrick had been struggling with ill health for a few years but made a comeback just in time for the 2000 Olympics. Oh, she's back. She's back. And this is what this has all been leading up to, the two.

2000 Olympic Games. So September 15, 2000, the opening ceremony. Oh, tell me more. If people want to more in depth, look at that. Yeah, I've done a whole report. Nearly six years ago. Wow. Shout out to the horse whispers out there. Doing good job. Yes. Remember that? Good memory. Yeah, I did a whole thing on the opening ceremony. It was a pretty formative event in my childhood. So it was very close to my heart. For the first time in recent Olympic history, the opening ceremony concluded with the lighting of the Olympic Cauldron. And while Tina Arena and the Sydney Children's Choir and the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra performed the flame, we see Australian Olympic gold medalist Herb Elliott with

the torch bringing it towards the stadium. Then to celebrate 100 years of women's participation in the Olympics, we see the torch passed to a series of Australian champions. And the crowd is going absolutely wild because they don't know who it's going to be. And these are like, cream of the crop, these are like, big stars in Australian sport. And I talked about this on the opening ceremony episode, but it's worth mentioning again. So first off is Betty Cuthbert, a four-time gold medal runner, who had MS, so it was being pushed in a wheelchair by Raylene Boyle, three-time silver medalist. Betty, also a fantastic name. Betty, incredible. They passed it on to Dawn Fraser,

four gold and four silver medals and one of Australia's most famous swimmers. Next is Shirley Strickland, who won more Olympic medals than any other Australian in running sports. She got three bronze, three gold and one silver. Then it's handed to Shane Gould, a swimmer who won three gold, a silver and a bronze, all at the 72 Olympics. Amazing. She did one Olympics and retired at 17. What a way to do it?

Then Debbie Flintoff King, who runs through the athletes who are gathered in the middle of the stadium, and Debbie runs the torch to the base of a long set of stairs that lead to the cauldron where Kathy Freeman is standing. So it's a pretty big honour that she's been chosen to light the cauldron, especially as they sort of celebrate these Australian legends of sport. It's kind of like them saying, here's another legend, which is pretty sick. Yes, they're literally passing the torch. Yeah.

Oh, I love that symbolism. Yeah, they must have been thinking about that, but that is amazing because you're like talking about the pressure on her. Now they're going, we're putting you already amongst this group of famous Australian gold medal winners. Yeah. You aren't that yet, but we expect to look back on this and see you as fitting in their company, which is how it played out. But geez, it's just another chunk of pressure on her back.

Yeah, absolutely. Sometimes athletes don't even go to the opening ceremony because they're still in training or their events coming up so they don't want to even go out, let alone the rehearsals, the pressure of this, like imagine. It's not just a party. You're doing a job out there. Yeah, the closing ceremony probably has a bit more of a relief kind of party feel for them. But this one, especially if you're one of the first events to happen,

you might be performing. You might be competing the next day. La la. Yeah, you're probably not going to go. You probably do it your vocal warm-ups or something. Warming up the pipes, you know, getting ready out there. When you said Tina Arena sang the flame, is that covering the cheap trick song or is that a different song?

It's a different one. It's a different song. Yeah, they write originals for the opening ceremony, surely. Fuck, that would have been funny, though. So, yeah, as it's announced it's Kathy Freeman, the crowd goes absolutely bat-shit, as does 10-year-old Jess watching at home, loses her little mind. 10-year-old Dave, head in a bucket because I had gastro that night. I was cheering.

I was cheering from within my bucket. Yeah. Oh, Kathy, do it for me. Bag it's off. Do it for me, go they? Matt, what was a 110-year-old you up to that night? I was probably wearing a top hat somewhere. Yeah, throwing up in it.

I remember I was at a house party that night. And it was pretty loose. Yeah. I imagine I wouldn't, I can't remember it super well, but I remember there was a fight there. And, yeah. The fight at the party. At the party.

Oh. Everyone in top hat, you know, a pretty sophisticated party. As far as 15-year-olds or whatever, we're fighting. Everyone had their fists up like this. Put up your ducs. I challenge you to a duel. Yeah, we're all in our 140s, 150s. Demanding your satisfaction.

That's right. A lot of, yeah, a lot of gloves were thrown under the ground. Yeah, gauntlets. Throw it down. So, yeah, a huge moment, a lot of pressure. She runs up the stairs. steps into the middle of a pool of water where she bends down and lights a ring of fire around herself.

And Johnny Cash came out at this point. The cauldron then rose out of the water above her head and it was transported up a long waterfall where it finally rested on a tall silver pedestal above the stadium and that's where it stayed for the entire Olympics. So before she'd even run a race, she was the star of the Olympics. But with that came pressure and not only on her, but anyone who might be a threat to her medal chances. Anyone like Marie-Jose-Parek, perhaps?

Oh dear. Upon her arrival in Sydney, she was met with insane media attention and pressure. She claimed that a man gained access to her apartment building and verbally abused her. Jeez. Although this was denied by management of the apartments. She said the pressure from the media

was like nothing she'd experienced before and that the only pressure athletes like her should have to deal with is the pressure of the competition. Are they saying that she made up the first? fact that a man came and yelled at her. Or isn't that fucking ridiculous? There wasn't abuse. They were praising her.

I heard it. I heard it. They were saying, go Marie. Go, Marie. Go. That is such a strange thing. I know. It's very odd.

And about 24 hours before the 400 media competition began, Perrek left Sydney. The media, of course, were very kind about it. Oh, she left Sydney. Was she handicapping herself? She running from Melbourne? I'm going to start from Melbourne. I'll see you at the finish line.

No, they claimed she knew she couldn't beat Kathy, so she chickened out. Literally, one newspaper headline said, Madame Wazelle le chicken. Oh, ridiculous. And even in interviews in this documentary that happened from last year, so almost 20 years later, people being interviewed kind of like, yeah, she just couldn't hack it. And it's like, okay, she hasn't run or she hasn't competed for four years

due to ill health. And I'm not sure what sort of health issues she was happening, but she was unwell. And so then she comes back and she's treated this way and she's already pretty vulnerable and the psychology of sport is incredibly important and she hasn't got that sort of thick skin because she hasn't been competing for four years

and she's been pretty unwell. She's been treated incredibly badly. Do you blame her for backing out? I wouldn't, I don't blame her. Isn't she already an Olympic gold medalist? I mean, what has she got to prove to these people? Exactly. But people like, oh, she just wanted to go out on top.

She knew she couldn't win the race. So, you know, just go out while you're a gold medalist. And it's like, she's a human being. Yeah, you spend four years coming back. I doubt you're just going to pull out the last second. Exactly. Yeah. It's fucking crazy.

What was it? So I missed it. What was her reasoning for pulling out? Well, she didn't really give a reason, but years later she was quoted as saying the 400 meters in Sydney was not a race against Kathy Freeman. It was a race against an entire nation which had its problems. I was only prepared for a 400 meter race. Right.

So it wasn't like an injury or something. It was. No. It was the, but she was basically handed out of it by the media. Yeah. That is. Because the media wanted Kathy to win. They didn't want, they didn't want Perek to win.

And so they were assholes to her. And then even now kind of go, p. Weak. It's like, nah. It's insane. Yeah. As we discovered last week with the Steve Bartman incident, sport can drive people absolutely wild.

Yeah. Yeah, that's true. People act very irrationally. And I'm talking about the media here, not her. the way that people and, you know, the public, people breaking into her house to, you know, to put her off, that's just not okay. Yeah, exactly right. And then, and then that sort of being downplayed, like, nah, nah, nah, nah.

But even as we're seeing more recently, and I mean, this will date this podcast a little bit, but with Naomi Osaka, you know, saying she doesn't want to do media appearances, and the media be going absolutely fucking crazy about that, as if that's the most important part of tennis. And it's like, no, they're people. You know, sports their job, but they're a human being. So, yeah, I definitely feel for Maria to say, correct, I've probably been saying her name wrong this entire time.

It's so funny. I don't remember her at all. No, I know. Me either. I don't remember that storyline or anything. No. Storyline, but, you know. But it wasn't really shown to us because it was just all about Kathy.

I mean, it was in, yeah, I don't know. But you were saying front pages of the page, was it, you know, sat corner, a chicken and so I just don't remember any of that, which feels like that was obviously a big story at the time. Yeah, but I really wasn't reading the paper at 10, so I probably didn't see a lot of that. And I was very focused on my studies, obviously, so. Very focused.

It comes down to Monday, 25th of September, 2000, 23 TV cameras, which doesn't seem like that much, but at the time they're like 23 cameras, several hundred journalists. I've got 23 cameras on me right now. Go-pros. Imagine taking a smartphone back to the year 2000 and blowing everyone's minds. Fucking crazy. This goes in my pocket.

They wouldn't know what to do. What's a pocket? Look at you like some sort of alien. Pocket in your pants. What are you going on? You're crazy. Surely you need some sort of suitcase to take that around with. It was over 110,000 people in the stands,

millions of people tuning in around the world. It said in one news report, billions, and I was like, I don't, that can't be billions, but a lot of people. Trillions. Churley. To watch the race that was called the Race of Our Lives. Like sands of the hourglass. This is the race of our lives.

As the 400-meter women's finalist walked out onto the track. The crowd is deafening. It is so loud in the stadium. Kathy said her main concern was controlling her emotions. She said, I became, I become very switched on and aggressive. I don't have done it before in a race where I've just really gone too hard, too early and not had the strength to come home in the last 100. So she and her coach Peter Fortune, incredible name. Oh my goodness. Is that a real name? Yeah, I'd want him. I'd want him to coach me. What's all right? Depending what his middle name is. Is it good fortune? or Peter Bad fortune?

Because that changes everything. It's Peter Miss Fortune. They had a plan which he'd written down on a little piece of paper. Here's that plan. If his middle name was Weilov, then I'm involved. Peter Weill of Fortune. Matt, I'm trying to tell you how to win a 400 metre race. I should be listening.

Stick to this plan and you'll win. I've written on a little bit of paper. Is this on a scrap of paper? Yeah. I hope it's in a museum. now that's scrap. So here's a plan. If anybody out there wants to win 400 metres, here's what you do.

Okay. Fast start for 50 metres, no longer. Okay. Then you move from very fast to fast relaxed. Okay. Great. I think of that all the time. That's my natural state.

You do that until the 200 metre point. Then you pick up on the bend a little to make sure of a position because the bend, you guys, it's slower. So you don't want to slow down too much. You pick up on the bend. Pick up on the bend. Then from 120 metres to go, you go hard and you hold form until the finish line. That is how you win a 400 metre.

That's how I would have done it too. Yeah, agree. Step 4, celebrate. Celebrate. I wasn't good at like the 2 or 400 metres because I didn't know how to like not go 100%. I was like, I'm running or I'm not. What are you on from me? That's why 100 metres was my event.

So, at the starting blocks, she took off her track suit and revealed that underneath she was wearing a green, gold and silver Nike Swift suit, that famous suit. These days you call it a morph suit. It's called a swift suit at the time. They'd been developing it for a really long time. And they weren't even sure if she was going to wear it for the race. Like one of the Nike executives is interviewed in the documentary. And when she took off a jumper, he was like, she's wearing it.

That's cool. What a reveal. Did he say that to his friend in the crowd? Look, she's wearing it. He's like, what? Andy Sergis ended up wearing one of those when he portrayed Schmeagle in the Lord of the Rings. For extra speed.

Extra speed. Had balls on it extra as well. She didn't run with balls on it, though. No, that would have slowed down the aerodynamics. Yeah. Too much drag on them balls. Problem I often face when I'm running. US sprinter Michael Johnson,

whose race was up after Kathy's, said that they were supposed to stay in that little walkway underneath the stadium until they're allotted race time. But all eight runners of his race came out just to watch Kathy's race. Oh, sick. It was this huge event. Just the atmosphere would have been electric. Michael Johnson, I was wondering if that was around his time.

He was the guy with the golden shoes. Twinkle toes you might call it. His race was up next. And I think I talk about it a bit later, but his race was delayed by ages because of the celebration. spoilers. From the very beginning of the race, the second her feet leave the blocks, everything is going to plan.

She describes it as feeling like she's barely making contact with the ground. Oh, that doesn't sound good. She's floating. Is that legal? Is that legal? Come back, come back, Cathy. Get down. She's actually on a segue.

She went 400 metres up. But she didn't fasten any others. She did it at 11 seconds. So, wow. Her body feels good. She feels strong. And her coach said she looked so relaxed that looked like she was jogging down the track. So everything's going well.

As the run has come around the bend, Kathy is in third position. People watching journalists, coaches, everyone has a moment where they think it's all over. She hasn't done it. They've come around the last bend and she's like slipping behind. Kathy, however, is in complete control. She talks about reading other people and paying attention to how they're running and how they're competing.

And with 120 metres to go, she's waiting. She's waiting for someone to challenge, someone to push. She's just sitting back and waiting. She talks about how Lorraine Graham from Jamaica is leading, but Kathy says she could tell Lorraine didn't think she could win it. So with 80 minutes to go, 80 minutes, 80 meters to go. She's really waiting back at this point. She's really...

80 minutes. 80 meters to go, Kathy strikes. In the doco, she says, My ancestors were the first people to walk on this land. It's a really powerful force. Those girls were always going to have to come up against my ancestors. She's really pulling from her connection. 80 meters to go, watching it looks like it's just in the space of a few strides.

She's pulled out in front. It's so quick how she just sort of goes, oh, okay, none of you are going to push, I will. So she continues to power through, almost like she's gliding. She's so fast and she crosses the finish line at a time of 49.1,1 seconds. Lorraine Graham, behind her at 49.58. She's fucking done it! Yes, Kathy. Huge surprise for you guys, I'm sure.

Most people listening had no idea based on Matt's answer to the question at the start. I had no clue this is where we were going. How about at the start? I really built up the story. You beat Matt saying what colour medal it is. So, oh, when Cathy Freeman won a beep, medal, could be anything. Could be anything.

Yes. Well, no, she meddles, though. She meddles, she meddler. What one is it? Which one? Kathy Freeman was only the second Australian Aboriginal Olympic champion. The first was Nova Paris, who had won for hockey four years earlier in Atlanta.

She was only the second Aboriginal Australia. Isn't that crazy? And this is in 2000. After the race, Freeman took a victory lap carrying both the Aboriginal and Australian flags. And yeah, like I said before, the victory lap took so long that it delayed the next race by several minutes.

But no one cared because it was this huge monumental moment in not only Australian sporting history but also just a big cultural moment for Australians as well. So absolutely massive. And yeah, it's definitely, worth watching some of her races. There'll be links in the description of this episode because

she's a really, really amazing runner. She didn't compete in 2001. In 2002, she returned to the track to compete as a member of Australia's victorious four by 400 metre relay at the Commonwealth Games. And it was during this year that Kathy noticed that the drive to win, the real fire within her. It wasn't there anymore. So she sort of decided it was it was time to walk away. She didn't have the drive. Yeah, right. And in 2003, she announced her retirement from racing. She was 30 years old. Oh my goodness. Have I missed my opportunity? No. Okay. I'm going to say yes. You're done. Wait, what opportunity you mean? To do what? To you set the world record for the highest jump in a car?

No, you have not. We have not missed the opportunity at all. Thank you. So there you go. I believe in you. I haven't really mentioned much about her personal life, but just briefly, since retiring from athletics, she's become involved in a range of community and charitable activities. She was an ambassador of the Australian Indigenous Education Foundation until 2012.

Between 99 and 2003, she was married to Alexander Sandy Bodecker, incredible name, Sandy Bodecker. He was a Nike executive. but yeah, they split up in 2003. In 2007, she founded the Cathy Freeman Foundation, and the Foundation works with four remote Indigenous communities to close the gap in education between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australian children by offering incentives for kids to attend school,

and they've had a lot, a massive impact in those communities as well. In 2009, she married Stockbroker James Merch, and they have one child together, a daughter named Ruby, who was born in 2011. And finally, just a couple of, I guess, like her awards, recognitions, obviously, like I mentioned before, Australian of the year in 1998. She won the Australian Sports Medal in 2000. She was given an Order of Australia medal in 2001.

She received the Olympic Order. She won the Deadly Awards 2003 for Female Sports Person of the Year. she was inducted into the Sport Australia Hall of Fame in 2005 and the Queensland Sport Hall of Fame in 2009. And so, yeah, her main kind of thing now is working with the Kathy Freeman Foundation and working with Indigenous communities, you know, closing that gap with kids to be better educated, which is absolutely massive.

Did you say earlier you mentioned that in one of the races, she closed the gap? Was that intentional? It wasn't intentional. No. I just didn't know how else to, I guess, describe what she had done there. But no, but yes, it was intentional and clever. Like we talked about it last week's episode, that famous not quite winning Olympic anthem put a gap in them. That was in my head all weekend. Go you, good thing. Is that one?

Yeah. It's going to be in there for days again now. It might have been even called go you good thing. Go you good thing. Put a gap in then. Go you good thing. Go. Go.

It's in there now. But yeah, that is my report on Kathy Freeman. Fantastic. Great work. Great Australian. So glad to get a bit of a refresher on that. A lot of stuff I didn't remember. It's kind of a shame that the whole thing with Perrick.

What a bummer that is. Yeah. I wonder what Kathy Freeman thinks about her not being there. Would it have been, you know, if she beat Perrick, that would have been an even greater moment, perhaps. It didn't feel like it affected it. I mean, but yeah, it's just such a shame. She talked a little bit about it.

And yeah, it was that sort of thing that there was even a clip. And I mean, it's a documentary about Kathy Freeman. So obviously it's going to be favorable towards her. but when it's talking about, you know, Perrick and her experience with the media sort of goes to a press conference with Kathy Freeman as well. And she says, like, you know, she's just there to have a good time and she doesn't want too much pressure. And then she says, I hope you're treating Marie with the respect that she is due.

Right. So they had a lot of respect for each other. Well, Kathy definitely had a lot of respect for, I think maybe after that incident, Perrek, I don't know how she felt about Cathy Freeman afterwards. In an interview, there was something like, what would you say to Kathy Freeman now? And she was like nothing.

But it's not Cathy Freeman's fault that the Australian media were hounding her so much, you know. So it's a bit tricky there. But yeah, she sort of talks about it like it would have been great. It was sort of what she was working towards, because she's going, if I want to be the best, I have to beat the best. Yeah.

And she was working towards per X, you know, times and working towards beating her. And she didn't get to. And she's like, and now that race never happened and it will never happen. Right. Yeah. You don't think they'll organise a rematch? Oh, that'd be good. 25 year anniversary.

That'd be so good. In the Masters comp, that'd be pretty sick. It is like, I mean, it's like the media was so full under both of them. But one of them in such a. negative way. But I imagine both would have made it harder though. Like, of course. The pressure on Cathy Freeman to win would have been, you know, a lot of people would have crumpled under that, I'd say. Absolutely. Not that obviously the negative stuff would have been worse. I don't think anyone was yelling positive things at Kathy after breaking into her house, but maybe they were. Well, according

to management they were. Yeah, they actually just left her flowers and, um, said, asked her if she needed anything. So they were very nice about it. Anyway, but yeah, that is my report. Well, now it's time for everyone's favorite section of the show, the fact to quote or question section. But really, it's more of a whole second half of the episode where we thank our great supporters.

And, you know, we let our listeners get to know us a little bit better because some of our great... Exactly. Some of our great supporters get to ask us a question, give us a fact or tell us a quote. in this section called Fact Quote a Question, which has a little jingle that goes, something a little like this. Fact quote or question. And he never forgets the ding, which is important.

Now, the way this works is you get involved at the Sydney-Shineberg level of our Patreon. And you can do that by going to patreon.com.com or do go on pod.com. and once you're in there, you sign up to the Sydney-Shineberg level, there's a bunch of different levels. Dave, what are some of the other levels and rewards or things you can get for being a supporter? Well, honestly, there's quite a few. We put out three bonus episodes per month. We put out an episode of Frasing the Bar, our Brendan Fraser themed podcast.

We put out a bonus mini report every single month. And also another episode, sometimes it's a quiz, sometimes it's a little Q&A, all sorts of stuff in there. And also you get tickets to shows and live streams before anyone else does. You get discounts on those things as well. You can be in our Facebook group, which is just for Patreon supporters, a very lovely place on the internet. And we put out a newsletter, yeah, all sorts of stuff.

And also many, many shoutouts, which you're about to hear a few of. And, yeah, and all of that goes towards keeping this show running. Our great supporters, yeah, the reason we do this bloody show. So we really, really appreciate everyone. That's the only way that we're able to talk about stuff from the Sydney Olympics six years on. It's the only way. I'll never stop talking about the Sydney Olympics. I love your enthusiasm for it, Jess.

It's... Fucking love it. Because honestly, it was a huge time in Aussie culture. So, awesome. Yeah, absolutely it was. So, for this first part, it's the fact, quote, a question section where people get to to give us a fact or a quote or a question. They also get to give themselves a title.

And I read it out on the show for the first time. So sometimes they message. with me. Let's see if they've done it here. First one up, we've got Jacob Giron or Giron, perhaps, who's given himself the title of lead detective on the case of Matt's Orban-Obbin-Lox.

Oh, okay. I think it's a pretty easy case. Genetics. No, I reckon that's a full task force to get into that mystery. I like how he said Aubin. I never know what colour hair to say. I just generally I say

red, but it has sort of dulled over the years. My beard hair is still bright red, but my head hair. Not dull, it's not dull. Hey, it's darkened. It's darkened. It's got a bit nasty. It is Auburn. It is a bit Auburn. But Auburn feels good.

I like Auburn. But the beard really throws people off because it is very red. Yeah, flaming. I'm starting to understand why we needed someone dedicated to cracking open this case. Yeah. Yeah, I thought it was hoping and shut and I was wrong. So Jacob asked the question. question, if you could have any celebrity on the pod, who would it be?

Kathy Freeman. Oh, that would be awesome, actually. Okay, who's a good celebrity? Yeah, and I wonder, should we be thinking of ones we've had on in the past with a story or? Dolly Parton. Oh, yeah, great. I would love to have a chat to Dolly Parton. That would be good. Marie Curie, so we could ask, did you invent penicillin?

Did you? Was it you? Tell me. The celebrity, Mari Curie. That's the nerds answer to this question. Sorry about that. I'm trying to think of a celebrity. I'm going to quickly Google Celebrity. Oh, okay, great.

You can't even think of a celebrity. Celebrity. Think of a famous person, a Kardashian. Yeah, Matt knows them all, I'm sure. Kendall? Kendall. That's quite good. Okay.

That's quite good, that is. So, on the Celebrity Wikipedia page, the first picture is of Andy Warhol. Okay, Andy Warhol. What'd you have in mind? Absolutely, I would. Oh, because of his, he coined the phrase 15 minutes of fame, that makes sense. Did he?

David Letterman's there. He'd be great to have on. What phrase did he coin? It doesn't have any phrases coined by him, LeBron James. Oh, Kim Kardashian's there, Jess. Yeah, she's a celebrity. Paris Hilton. They've got the House of Windsor.

There are all the photos I've got on the... Of those, I'll choose David Letterman. please. Okay. I'll take LeBron. Great. Great. And Jess, who are you taking from that list?

Oh, from that list? Sorry. No, she already picked Dolly. Don't make her take it back. Dolly. It's got to be Dolly. But yeah, Kathy Freeman, I'd love to hear the inside scoop. Thank you so much for that question, Jacob.

The next one comes from Carolyn Slater, who's given herself the title of sausage roll maker, but willing to give pies a crack for Dave's sake. Thank you so much. I've always been more of a roll man myself. Well, I wish you were there yesterday when there's a fantastic bakery near where I work. And I went down, they sell out every day. So you've got to get there at a certain time.

They should make more stuff. Honestly, I get furious sometimes. I've been there at 1155 a.m., not even midday, and they're sold out of pies. Unbelievable. That's ridiculous. Are they making three pies a day? I think so. And I'm trying to buy them all.

Yesterday, I'm sent down to buy three pies, one for myself. two for colleagues. I get there. There's only two pies and one sausage roll left. I come back. Did you fall on your roll? Oh, I have to be like, oh, which one do you want? No, I'll have anything.

You'll take the sausage roll. No worries. Just hand it to them really quickly. Okay. Not following you, fine. That was always my Friday tuck shop was a sausage roll with sauce and a strawberry big M. Yes.

That's a good combo. Yes, Matt. You were not. Kindred spirits. So we've only got to Carolyn's title, but she's also offered us a quote. And here it is. Carolyn writes,

this is a quote from artist Lisa Kongdon, who is an amazing illustrator from the United States. It consists of four statements that you may have read in other contexts or phrased differently by other people. I like these a lot. Thanks, Carolyn. All right, here we go. Number one.

You cannot and will not please everyone. That is a fact of life. Number two, by taking care of your own needs, you will sometimes disappoint or even anger other people. Number three, how other people react to your choice is not your responsibility. And number four, the greatest responsibility you have is to your own well-being and happiness.

Disagree with all of those. My happiness, very much the responsibility of other people. Yeah. No, those are all good things to remember, but very hard to do so. Yeah. I like them too. I feel like I'd put a fifth one in there going, still care about other people a bit. It is like four ways to make it all about you.

But it is, you know, being a bit facetious there, but, you know. They do sound like some good things to think about, though. Lisa Kongdon. Familiar with her work? No. Great name. Condon. Are we?

Kong. C-O-N-G-D-O-N. I'm on board now. I thought it was one letter away from condom, but we're back in the game. It's two letters away. Exactly. Two letters, two steps. It's fine, Lisa.

I'll allow it. Very bright and colourful stuff coming up. I'm enjoying what I'm seeing. I'm all about big, colourful art. Then you would love Andy Warhol. Yeah, I like some of this stuff. It looks like good wrapping paper designs. Oh.

You know? Or like rugs or something like that. Okay. Man, that is not a compliment to an artist, is it? I take both of those back. It looks great. I'd have a rug of that. I reckon wrapping paper's more offensive.

I'd rip that open. No, yeah, there's a big, yeah, I like that sort of stuff, good stuff. Love your work there. Lisa Kongdon, if you are listening. Thank you so much for that quote. Carolyn, next one comes from Braden Douglas. It's given himself the title of Brevity Boy. Ooh, this sounds like a snappy one coming up.

Braden's offered us a quote. And that quote is, to make up for that half-hour long submarine fact. Oh, you get, remember that submarine fact? It was quite a mini report in itself. Who could forget? I think I've repressed it. I do not remember it at all.

It was about camouflage. Anyway, Brayden is making up for that long one with a short one here today. And that is Brevity is the soul of wit. You know who said that? False staff. Lisa Condon. Shakespeare. Yeah, I think it's Jack Falstaff.

Oh, who's that? Is that right? character. I was not weird actually. No, I'm thinking of brevity is. Brevity is. Now, that is what it is. That's good.

That is good. Brevity is. Can I be quoted as that? Yes. Can I put that on your team store? No, I'm thinking of the other, the false stuff quote, discretion is the better part of Vela. Oh, yeah.

Fantastic. So old with. Dave, are you admitting you fucked up? Yeah. Fuck here I am. It is from Hamlet. to scene two. Who could forget?

You apparently. Yeah, you could forget. You just did. Fuck it in front of everyone. Dave, did you think we'd forgotten what happened 30 seconds earlier? Look, I was making fun of myself there. I'll be honest. Okay. Well, that's good stuff. Let me be brief.

All right. And finally, we've got Vincenzo. Bonadonna. Vinny. Who's given himself the title of I'm actually that Italian greyhound that Jess knows. Shout out to all the puppers.

Vincenzo. My former neighbour who I miss every day. Not dead, they just moved. Oh, to the farm? Yeah. Do you dog owners still, is this still a thing where you say dogos and puppers? I don't personally, but a lot of people do, yes.

Oh, I'm still waiting it out. I might get a good time. dog once that's over. Dave says Papa. Dave says Papa. Don't you, Dave. I think I say pup. You just say pup. My pup. You just say pup. You call all dogs pup and I like that very much. But sometimes that doesn't go so well at the park when I say, oh, what's your pup's name? And they look at me and go, it's not a pup. It's five years old. And I'm like, yeah, but I'm

saying what's your dog's name, mate? Come on. Fucking hell. It's kind of like, you know, even though we're adults now, we're always our parents' children. That's right. The kids. Yeah. Exactly. They still see us as there. My children are not actually goats. They sound like every time I hear more about people at the dog park, I think, geez, this, they sound like fun, don't they?

You do meet some people where you're like, oh, I hope we don't run into you that often. And then other people, you're like, you're the best. Unfortunately, you don't get a license to get a dog. Unfortunately, only cool people, in my opinion, should get them. Then I would not qualify. No, you're all right. You wouldn't correct me on how old your dog is. No, I'd just tell you.

You'd say how old your pup, but I'd say this age and you go, cool. Nice. Cool, cool, cool, cool, cool, cool. Whatever. This week, we rounded out the big three, the fact, quote or question again. Vincenzo has given us a fact here. And it reads thusly, I'd like to share a podcast with y'all. Oh, I hope I'm pronouncing that right.

I don't like podcasts. Not for me. No, thank you. A friend of mine who is a. musician started a podcast called The Sing Along Podcast. It's run by Casey from the band Second Echo. I live in Las Vegas. This is still Vincent.

No, Vincenzo talking not me. I live in Las Vegas and the podcast has introduced me to good artists in the local scene. And I want to share it with all the people in this network. If you want to check it out, I give it a big recommendation. Thank you, three, for being a great reason to be excited each Wednesday morning. Keep up the fantastic work. and thank you for letting me share with y'all. That's nice.

On you, Vincenzo. That's lovely. What a fact. I did not know that fact before. And what was the podcast called? The Sing-a-Long podcast. Good title. Sing-a-long, yeah, the Sing-a-Long podcast.

Yeah, I like that a lot. All right. They're the facts, the quotes, and the questions. Now, we'd like to thank a few of our other great Patron supporters. Normally, Jess comes up with a game to do with the game. the topic we just had. I was thinking of coming up with their new Olympic sports, like a car hijack. I love it.

What their gold medalists in? Yeah. Fantastic. All right. Well, may I kick it off? Yes. I would love to thank firstly from London in Great Britain, a place we really love getting to.

Hopefully we can do so again one day. I'd love to thank Kristen. Kristen Thawley. Oh. Oh. Kristen is a gold medalist in something parkour. Cup of tea. Dog parkour.

Did he say dog? Does that mean the dogs do the parkour or you do parkour on the dog? What you do is you do parkour in a dog costume. That's even better. Thus limiting some of your movement. I love that. It was really cute. Love that very much.

And congratulations on the gold medal, Kristen. Huge. I'd also love to thank from Lutz in Florida in the United States. Marcus Smith, Lutz. Made me think of Lionel Hutz. Dave, can you do anything with that? Okay, what about advanced cobbling? So shoe repair.

Gold medal and shoe repair. Advanced cobbling. What about extreme cobbling? It's, yeah, it's in the speed. Okay, advanced speed. cobbling. That's, I mean, that's the kind of thing that is, you know, you get accolades for, but it's also a handy skill to have at home.

Oh, for sure, absolutely. You can cobble together anything. Or is it just shoes? Couble a pair out of anything. Thank you so much, Marcus. And finally for me, I'd love to thank from Address Unknown, Return to Sender. It's Sarah Carbar. Ooh, the Fortress of the Moles, perhaps.

Could be. Can only assume. Cabo. Cabo. Cabo. I reckon Sarah Caboff. Oh, Cabo. She's a lot of that option.

Is a world champion digger. Just good at digging holes. Big holes or quick holes? Lots of holes. Well, there's a couple of different events within, it's sort of like, you know, being like, oh, she's good at athletics. Like what event? So within digging, there's either like how fast, how wide. Wow.

Look at how long. Is that a matter of perspective? That's actually more ditching, Dave. Yeah. Yeah, ditching is in a different, it's a different event. Yeah. But you're getting it. Gold medal in ditching.

I like it. Do not make plans with that person. I'll ditch anything. Can I thank some people as well? I love that so much. I would love to thank from Auckland where Cathy won her first Commonwealth gold medal. Recently named the most livable city in the world.

Was it? Damn, we had that title for a bit, don't we? Yeah. We've split down the list. Are we eighths? Yeah, a little bit. No, eight or ninth, yeah. Yeah.

What? Just because we went into several lockdowns. Adelaide's number three, I think. Fuck off. Yeah. It's so bored. I'm sorry, I get told off Bag of down Adelaide. I was just there.

It's beautiful. I think it's the kind of award, you know, the massive cities of the world never win this because they got so much traffic and pollution, all these sort of things. It's the, it's for like the slightly smaller big cities is the ones who win it. So it always felt like Sydney hasn't been up there that high in Australia for a while because it's probably because it's so big and that sort of stuff. That's where Melbourne comes up.

Melbourne will start slipping down. Adelaide and Brisbane come up. I think that's how it'll go. Who cares? We're talking about Auckland. And from Auckland, I would love to thank Ellen Gibbs. What about gold medal for feet archery?

Feet archery. Farttery. Fartry. No, not to be confused with fart chery, please. Different sport. We have to fart arrows into a... You have to fart very accurately. Yeah, but you put a little shoot, poop shoot in your butt, like a straw sort of device.

Yeah. And you have to give it all you got. Gotta eat a lot of beans. Well, I'll tick that off. Dave would be your master. I had a half a can for breakfast. I'm going for the brown medal. It's a callback to a phrasing the bar episode from a little while back.

That's funny. Which also, actually, that riff about the brown metal came about from a discussion on the Barcelona Olympics. I don't remember that. You were, we were, we were, um... Oh, is this when I was like 15 minutes late? Yeah, we were talking shit while you were on your way. I can't remember what movie was that day or Jess.

I think it was the one where he played his own twin. Yeah. Mrs. Winterbourne? Oh, fantastic. Great work. That was it. Yeah. With Ricky Lake.

Oh, yeah. Anyway, thank you to Ellen Gibbs. I would also love to thank from Bakersfield in California. No, that's different. Love to thank. Oh, Ashley C. Baker from Baker's field. What? Is that nominative determinism?

Yes, I was going to say she's a gold medalist in nominative determinism. Brilliant. You both went there. I wasn't there, so gold medals to you as well. I'm slowly reclining. I'm on my bed and I'm almost in lying position now. This is a real relaxed segment of the show. It's okay.

We're getting there. Jess and I are on desks at home, but you've got your microphone. You've just gone handheld this whole. That's bold. You need a Madonna headset, Mike. That's what you need. Oh, that would have been fantastic. Yes, can we get those?

That's sick. That's all I need. I've got a standing desk at home now. If I could have a Madonna mic, I will be unstoppable. You go for Jess. Yeah, I could do the podcast. I'll get a little treadmill underneath my standing desk. Oh, my God.

I'm training. I'm training for the Olympics. So Ashley C. Baker, we're going for, she's a gold medalist in nominative determinism. Yeah. I like it. I like it a lot. Great.

Alex C. Baelik. Alex C. Baker. Alex Dubeaker. Ashley. Ashley. It's in front of you, you fuckhead. Damn it. Finally for me, I would love to thank from San Diego.

Aaron Stossal. What about gold medal in fastest time to stock an entire vending machine? Holy shit. It's completely empty. It's completely empty and you've got drinks, you've got snacks, you've got those weird little nut things that no one wants to buy all in there. Wow. What do you think it'd be the hardest thing to stack into a vending machine? Sex robot. Great point. Great point.

I imagine it made it happen somewhere. Chuck Japan, probably. They got everything in vending machines. It's amazing. Yeah, I remember a friend came back from their early 20s like, there's beer in vending machines in Japan. Couldn't believe it. Everyone's like, what? So excited to tell me.

He came home to tell you. Yeah, cut his trip short. Came home earlier, got to tell you. Dave, would you like to thank some people also? Oh, fantastic. I was just trying to count it was up to me yet. Thank you so much to all the people so far, but let's keep it going from Basilden in Great Britain.

I love that, Basilden. Sean Benson. Sean Benson. Sean Benson. Benson. Benson and Hedges. He's a gold medalist at chain smoking. It was an event in the 70s and then they went, oh, this is bad.

So it's not there anymore. It has been replaced by skateboarding, which is now. Equally as dangerous. They were a big. And gnarly. Yeah, I think they were a big cricket sponsor in the 90s, Benson and Hedges. That's all I associated with, Benson and Hedges Cup or something. Oh.

Yeah. I did know that, there you go. Well, you're not as old as the wind. I create my own. Thank you, Sean. From Epsom in Victoria, I would like to thank Rebecca Fisher. Rebecca Fisher.

Well, there's an obvious one there. She is a Bechud merch collector. Yes. A gold medal in collecting Beck Judd. That's probably the one we're all thinking. Yes. Just for someone who might not know what sort of merch Beck Jud has, what's her latest line got?

Well, you would know better than me. Did she make news when she was like selling T-shirt saying, complaining about lockdown or something? Yeah. Lockdown in her fucking mansion. Oh, no. With a pool and a tennis court and, oh no. I mean, I'm stuck in my gigantic house.

I do want to get locked down in that house. I'd get locked down in that house tomorrow. And we come out of lockdown tomorrow. Please put me back in. It's all relative, right? If you're used to being able to be in there and anywhere else, then that would be a pain. Matt, don't sympathise.

It seemed like it wasn't quite reading the room at the time where everyone's locked down in their little places when you're going. Yes. Anyway, good on her. I'm in my one-bedroom apartment. Yeah, nah. Well, still, a gold medal must go to Rebecca Fisher

for collecting all that merchandise, and I assume putting it in a bin. Thank you. Rebecca, taking it away from everyone. And finally, I would like to thank from, I don't know, this place, Juan Yasser in the Australian Capital Territory, Garth Van Dorn. Oh, that's a fantastic name.

And if he are in the end, Garth Van Dorn's name gave me a Garth Van Horn. And I'm looking at it with, quite small font here, Matt, and the R and the end seemed to run together. So I at first thought it was going to be Garth Van Doom. And I thought that was so good. That's the coolest name I've heard. Garth Van Doom.

Should we get Garth to change his name, do you reckon? I reckon. Dave, if you ever do a sequel to your book, One Death, Two Murderers, you should get Garth Van Doom in there. Oh, that's going to be the bad guy. Because I think people did request it, I'm sure, they want. want you to write a new story for a Patreon bonus episode. Well, what have I told you that I was clearing out stuff recently?

And I found not a sequel, but another book that a young David Warnocky wrote. This one in grade three called Crusher. Wait, who's David Warnie? Hang on a second. That was my pen name is David Warnocky. They'll never guess. They'll never guess. Oh, that's exciting.

Wow, there's another one. When was the first one written? Oh, that was grade six. So this is three years worse than that. Can you imagine? Wow, three years worse. I was going to be nice and say three years earlier, but three years worse is probably quite accurate.

I'd love you to write an update though, Dave. You've got to write Garth Van Doom into the story. Garth Van Doom. Please, someone remind me of that. I need to remember that name. Garth Van Doom, Garth Van Dorn. All right, he is the gold Olympic gold medalist in. What are we thinking?

Okay. Oh yeah. I thought you were working towards something there, but you were inviting help. What about truck conversions? Oh, okay. So he converts trucks into moving homes. Oh, love that. Wow, truck.

Tiny homes? At first I was thinking like Transformers, but I thought that might have been difficult. He converts trucks into killer robots. So depending on how much your budget is, he does one or the other. I love that. Like, everyone goes to the Olympics and everyone's got these beautiful tiny homes, but Garth Van Dorns just come along with Optimus Prime. And they're like, give that man the medal.

He didn't, I mean, it's not quite all we were going for, but it is very impressive. That's very creative. And honestly, you haven't broken any rules. So here you go. Yeah. Nobody wrote into the rulebook that it couldn't be a transformer. So you got us what I do, Calais. But we will write it out in for next year.

Your robot looks like it could kill us if we don't give you the gold medal. So we're going to get a thing. It's looking at us with its red eyes. Your robot is pointing a gun. That's awesome. Congratulations, Garth. Well, that leaves us with nothing else to do, but thank some of our great long-term supporters.

We've opened up the Triptitch Club a little while back for supporters who are on board from the shout-out level for three straight years. We invite them into the Triptich Club. It's a beautiful little spot. It's both in your mind, but it's a real place as well in my heart. And in it, there's booths, there's a bar, there's like a spa area where you can get massages. Oh, yeah. There's like a volleyball field.

What else is in there just? Were you thinking foosball or full volleyball field? Full volleyball field. And foosball as well. There's a helipad. Yeah, if you want to fly in. And yeah, so anything you can imagine. Anything we can imagine so far.

Not that much, but anything you can imagine is. Transformers. And so if you support us for that period, you're in and you're in for life. I'm standing on the door. I've got the guest list in my hot little hand. I'm ready to tick your names off. As you're welcomed in, Dave, no Jess. No, Dave will hype you up.

and then Jess will hype Dave up because he needs every hype man needs a hype woman or something like that. Jess, you've also, you normally come up with a special cocktail. Yes, well, to go with the colour scheme of the Australian Olympic team and also Kathy's Swift suit, everything is gold and yellow. So drink-wise, it will be Maduri-based cocktails. Love it. Food-wise, you're thinking broccoli, mango. Peas, lemon.

A bowl of peas. Bowl of peas, if you want it. Yeah, so just anything green and yellow I've got covered with you. Yeah, just for the confused listeners, what just said, yellow and gold, there's also green in there as well. Did I say yellow and gold? I really need to pee and it's affecting my brain. You're thinking everything in yellow. Just need to pee.

You get yellow on the mine. Yeah. All right, quickly day. who's the band? Let's get Jester that toilet. We've got Tina Arena covering the music of Cheap Trick. Oh, fantastic. Oh, great stuff. I can't remember that.

Will she do change? Are they dream police? No, I always get confused with those old bands. Oh, but I thought it'd just be right in your wheelhouse. No, this is not in my wheelhouse. Cheap Trick. People also ask what's Cheap Trick's biggest hit? I want you to want me.

Oh, yep. Remember that one? And the flame. I think it was covered by a scar band for, or a pop scar band for, um. Letters to Cleo. Oh, right. What was the movie? Ten things I hate about you.

Love that. I think it was Letters to Cleo. Please don't at me if I'm wrong. Just don't. I can't handle it. She needs to know. No, don't. There's quite a few inducties this week.

So I think we're going to get, we're going to hit her with a real great pace. Are you ready, Dave, to, um. Dave, there's like 16. So I'll, let's do one each. We'll back and forth. Okay, thanks so. I appreciate that a lot. Back and forth.

All right. First up from Rollins in Wyoming in the United States is Jacob Vallow. Oh, keep rolling, rolling, rolling, rolling. Yeah. Yes. I was going to say, Vallow. That's good. Get Vallow and keep rolling, rolling, rolling.

From Flugaville in Texas, the United States, it's John Paul Mabachu. Well, I'm all about you, and I want to get to know you a little better. Come on here. Incredible. From London in Great Britain, it's Alexander Jan Muhammad. Ah, Jahadmad at Hello. Like you had me a hello. Is that kind of something?

Yes, we've got so many. From Rhodes in New South Wales, Australia, it's Kayla Atkins. Well, I'm on the Atkins diet of you. Yeah, if you're a fine. I'm going to need Jeff. I'm going to fire. From address unknown, return to sender. It's Alistair McGregor.

Alice Dare You. Hold on, hold on. Some sort of dare, yeah, yeah. Yeah, it's good. Alistair wins. Who dares wins. Who Alistair wins? Yes, there it is.

Let me try. Who Alistair wins? From Drew Roe in Cornwell, Great Britain. That's Nick Lean. Lean on me, Nick Lean. Yes, God, you're good tonight. Come on in. From Everett in Washington, I think, in the United States,

it's Richard Compo. Oh, you've got all the compo tickets you want tonight, my friend. Yeah, bring a friend if you want. From Perth in Western Australia, it's Jessica Bannerzac. Or Bannas Jack. And I am Bannasack about you. Okay, you can have to explain that one. Like bananas, I'm going to answer me.

Love it. I didn't get it, but I was just there for you. Thank you. That's all you have to do, Dave. From Hampton East in Victoria, Australia, it's Adam Tregear. Thank God your Trigier. Yes. Woo! Get your ass in Trigier. Yes. All right. That one made more sense.

From Shardom. Thank God you're here. Thank God you're here. You got that, right? I got it. I got it. It was amazing. It was amazing. will get the reference to a 15-year-old Australian comedy,

but from Chardon in Ohio, United States. It's Glenn Mitchell. Well, shard on me and come on on Glenn Mitchell. I do shard on. Fuck. Shard on me. Honestly. Was that meant to be part of me?

Because it sounds like, like shit. Shut on me. Shut on me. Okay, Dave was better. No, Jess, you have been at a 99% hit. This week, I've got to say, you're on fire. Thank you so much. From Red Lion in Pennsylvania, the United States, it's Luke Harbour.

Oh, I'd be Red Lion if I didn't say I was excited to see you. Yes, yes. From Yokine in Western Australia, it's Andrew Martin. Something about your kind. What about, your too kind? Yes, you're too kind, Andrew Martin. Yeah, there it is. I don't think that is where it is, but we're getting there.

I love this next place, Clarenstown. You know, my uncle uses that as a shorthand for the seabomb, Clarence Hunt. These Clarenstowns, oh, Clarenstown in New South Wales, Australia. It's Joanna Wade. You Anna know Clarence. Something like you ain't no Clarence. Or we've been wading through some people tonight, but I am stoked to have you hear more than anyone so far, something like that.

You Joanna made my day. Yes, yes, there it is. Delete the rest. Love that. From Kingsford in New South Wales, Australia. It's Eric S. Lee. And I am. Something on King?

Yeah, okay. Okay, yep. The King, you are driving the King's Ford. He's car. Wow. You're a chauffeur to the King. Of course he is. Of course he got a chauffeur.

From Perth in. Oh, wait, let me just double check. Oh, no. No, it's from Perth in Great Britain, in Scotland. It's Christopher Skilling. Wow. You have got the skills, my friend. You've got the skills.

Yes. Christopher Skilling. Always upskilling. Yeah, always upskilling. We've lost momentum. Let's hit this last one hard. We're from Pierre in South Dakota and the United States. It's Alan Harstad.

Go on. You used to do this so quick. Like, okay, you have a go then. It's not so hard, stad. Alan's the easiest stad. He's the best. Good on you. Welcome in, my man.

Yes, Alan. The beauty of it used to be, Dave didn't think, and he'd say something awful. You guys are now trying to be too good at it. Okay, that was like 16 of them. That was hard. You do lose a bit of the momentum. And I'll give you notes off pod like normal, so we don't have to do it here. They get berated.

What were you thinking? You embarrassed me out there tonight. Well, that brings us to the end of the episode. What a fun time we've had, hopefully. Hopefully we've had some fun here. I mean, at least I've had fun. I've had a mildly good time. Well, I enjoyed your report.

I enjoyed you reading out those names, Matt. And I think it's safe to say that Jess and I get the gold medal for those shout-outs at the end. Oh, big time. Yeah. That was an endurance, right? Thanks so much to all the names we're. read out in the second half of the show. Honestly, keep the show running.

You're the best. Love you all individually and uniquely. And if people want to join that list of fantastic names, you can go to patreon.com slash do go onpod or just do go onpod.com. We can also find links to our Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, our email, do go onpod.com, our YouTube channel. And we should also say that the episodes we filmed live in Melbourne back in April and May, March and April, I should say, are available at sOSPresents.com.

And there's a link in the description of this episode and you get to see and hear stuff that people didn't hear on the normal episodes as well as a little bit of bonus content at the end of each of those. A lot of fun. Big shout out to great listener and friend of the show, Vincent Chen, for editing that package together. Yeah, really good stuff. You made us look good, Vinny.

We appreciate it. Or as good as you could. Love you, Vinny. Yeah. You did good stuff with what you were giving. Comparatively good to us. Yeah. We are dog shit people.

So, well done. But yeah, we'll be back next week with another episode. But until then, we'll say thanks for listening and I'll say goodbye. Later. Bye. Don't forget to sign up to our tour mailing list so we know where in the world you are and we can come and tell you when we're coming there. Wherever we go, we always hear.

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