Do Go On - 344 - Abebe Bikila and the 1960 Rome Olympics

Episode Date: May 25, 2022

This week we look at the historic 1960 Rome Olympics, as well as the incredible life of Ethiopian runner Abebe Bikila - who seemingly came from no where to win the Olympic marathon barefoot.Support the show and get rewards like bonus episodes: dogoonpod.com or patreon.com/DoGoOnPod Submit a topic idea directly to the hat: dogoonpod.com/suggest-a-topic/ Check out our new merch! : https://do-go-on-podcast.creator-spring.com/ 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://olympics.com/en/athletes/abebe-bikila https://www.olympics.com.au/games/rome-1960/https://www.bangkokpost.com/sports/1047557/trailblazer-bikila-opened-the-way-for-african-marathon-runners https://www.thoughtco.com/1960-olympics-in-rome-1779605 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1960_Summer_Olympics#Highlights https://www.britannica.com/biography/Abebe-Bikila http://www.ethiopians.com/abebe.htm Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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 Serenjai 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. And welcome to another episode of Do Go On. My name is Dave Warnocky and, as always, I'm here with Matt Stewart and Jess Perkins.

Hello, David, hello Matt. Hello, Jess and hello Dave. Hello, Jess and Jess's cat. I don't have a cat. My cat is dead. How dare you? I always bring it up. I love to bring up people's dead pets.

Yeah, you always, you're like, hey, Jess, how's Archie? Your bird that died when you were 17. Dave the Pet Cemetery, Warnackie. I finally got the nickname. It makes sense now. I just love to break the eyes. Okay. Do you want to break the ass on this show by explaining to new listeners how it all works?

Well, thank you new listener for tuning in to the show where we take it in terms of a report on a topic, often suggested to us by one of the show's listeners. Oh, sometimes it's by many of them. Yes. Because we have heaps. If you're wondering. If you're worried about us. You're not the only one.

Yeah, we have, there's heaps. to people listening right now. Yeah. Pretty cool, huh? Four, five, six. Easily. I don't even know. It could even be double figures.

Could be a million. One of them is called Terry. Definitely. Good-a-Terry. Hey, Terry. We go away. We do a bit of research. Bring it back to the group and Terry.

And we will start with a question to get us on the topic. It's my turn to do a reports. Jess and Matt, my question for you is a bebebebekela, one of the gold medal of the 1960 Olympics for what event? I jump. A baby bekela. What a fantastic name. Rhythmic gymnastics.

Right off the bat. Okay, you were closer in the first. So it's track and field. It's athletics, yes. Marathon. It is the marathon. Correct. You fucking piece of shit.

I'm like, what would be noteworthy? Oh, this guy jumped. Who cares? This guy ran for ages. Now I'm listening for ages. And he also did a bit of a jump. What? Into my heart.

Okay. This topic was. suggested by just one person, Shake. Terry. Obviously, Terry. Every topic is always suggested by Terry, but he actually asked us to stop shouting him out. Sorry, Terry. He's like, please, leave me alone. I'm trying to go about my life. Yeah, I'm trying to drive my bus. And you keep saying my name and I go, oh, is someone talking to me? Oh, no. It's just the podcast I love. So a big shout out to Shake Shrikantia from Denver, Colorado. And when you tell us why we should do the topic, we can tell us why we do the

topic and there's a link on our website if you want to suggest a topic anyone can do that and under the bit where you say why should we do this topic sheik has written because dave really wants to do it and his reports are great when he's passionate about the topic and he's right i've put this up for the vote about four times oh really but it's a personal choice at the moment the patron supporters are voting for jess and matt's topics at the moment oh so this is one that no one wanted but i did and shake said all right dave yeah i'll suggest it I'll indulge you. Let's not forget Terry.

It's also clever from Shake. If you want a shout out, suggest a topic that you think Dave wants to do anyway. Yeah. No, that's great. But I like it when those, because I've done a few topics that have ended up being killer reports. I mean, let's call them what they are.

But, you know, it was a personal, it was just one I chose. Because you're like, this is a cool story and I want to tell it. That's right. That's what this totally is. He's come second a few times about Bebea Keeler. But probably not at the Olympics. Or did he? No.

I have no idea. He did not. Oh, we could have come first, third, fourth, fifth, sixth, seven, eight. DNF. Did not finish. Also an option. Yeah. And DNR.

What is that? Do not resuscitate. Okay. He really didn't finish. Yeah. So who knows? These are all possibilities. These are all possibilities.

It's exciting, isn't it? Let me tell you about Abebe Bakila and the 1960 Olympics. Oh. Because I should say, for a while there, I was absolutely nerding out on the Olympics because one of our quiz show topics a few weeks ago at the Melbourne Comedy Festival was the Olympics. And I was, there's so many amazing stories of athletes. And like this is little tidbits of stuff that happened over 100. We've done quite a few Olympic ones as well.

I love the Olympics. I love it too. The 2000 Olympics opening ceremony. Do you know what's so funny is that at, because I'm playing like mixed basketball at the moment. and one of our players has been away for a couple weeks and we saw her last night. We were like, oh, where you been? She's like, I just did Sydney.

And then we all just started talking about the Sydney Olympics and how good those Olympics were? And I was like, how good was the opening ceremony? She was like, oh, best in the world, best ever. And I was like, I've found my people. It was amazing that they were waiting for someone to bring up Sydney. Yeah. I actually have a story about Sydney.

They once hosted the Olympics. Yeah, we know. And they've done nothing since. We're all a similar age and we all remember it. Put that tiny city on the map. Yeah, finally. So, and yeah, I've been one to talk about Abebe Fras. So let's do it.

Abebe Bacila was born on August 7th, 1932, in the town of Jato, about 130 kilometers away from the Ethiopian capital, Addis Ababa. August 7, 1932, also happened to be the day of the Los Angeles Olympic Marathon. So he was born on the day of an Olympic marathon. That's nice. Wow. Possibly a sign of his future greatness. Was that written down in the recent? sources you found or were you just like, let's see what else happened on the day he was born?

I believe on Olympics.org. They love that fact. Yeah, okay. Dave, just for fun. Can you say their name and where they're from just altogether? Abebe Bekela from Jato near the Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa. Addis Ababa. And what was his name again?

Abebebe Bekela. Abebe Bekela who was from near... Say that again. Addis, Aberba. None of it's going in, but I love it. Every time you say it, and then it just vanishes straight away. He's going to say it a bit, I reckon throughout this. And there are many names on this episode that I will have an attempt at.

Oh, yes. I will say, because the marathon has people from all over the world competing in it. I'm going to say a lot of athletes' names on this. Googleed a few, having a stab at the others. We're always doing our best. I think that's the thing to remember. We're trying to do it as respectfully as we possibly can, and sometimes we butcher it. Yes.

What a beautiful name though. Just one more time. A bebebe bechila. I love it. Me too. A bebebekela. Oof, that's good. So good.

I'm going to have a go at his parents now. His mother was... They're dogs. Yeah. What were they thinking? They should have encouraged him. He was clearly talented. No, his mother was a Wudanesh Beniberu.

And his father was Demisei, who was a shepherd. Great. Working with sheep and cattle. Yeah, we know what shepherds do. Yeah, they don't worry with cattle. Shepard. Just, you know. It would be a cow erd if they work with cows.

Which is what you do, Dave, I assume, based on your cowardice. You're having to go at me, Dan? Can I get something for cowards? That was fantastic. That was very good. Was that a pun, Dave? Yeah, that's a pun. That's a pun.

Yes, you did a pun. Respect. I've never been able to do puns. Not on purpose. Coward. Coward. Coward. It's funny.

Yeah, shepherd, shepp, coward. Yeah, it's a bit of fun. I'm having fun with words. That's something Dave did you mention at the top. That's a big part of this show. We have fun with words. Fun with words. Just getting us to repeat the name of the topic many times.

Sorry, who is this about again? Abebe Bekela. Well done. Oh my God, I love that name. So just for some context, which gives even more significance to this already significant story, we'll quickly talk about the history of Bekela's home nation of Ethiopia, which according to Britannica is one of the world's oldest countries, having existed for millennia.

And sort of the boundaries have changed over time, but they've sort of had the idea of a country there for a long, long time. During the so-called Scramble for Africa, beginning in 1881, seven Western European powers invaded, annexed and colonized most of Africa. What a real shitty time. Oh, my God, so awful. And I mean nearly all of it. Ethiopia and Liberia were the only African countries

to secure sovereignty from European colonial powers, with Ethiopia defeating Italy in the Battle of Adwold. in 1896. Wow. So they fought for their freedom and won. They kicked Italy out. Get out of here, Italy. Yeah, get out of here, Italy.

Get out of here, Italy. Leave the pizza, though. That's delicious. Yeah. Thank you. Thank you. Okay. All right.

Now goodbye. Now goodbye. Chow. Chow. Chow. Aravidurchy. Fuckos. Arriverdirtch, fuckos.

Is this translating? Yeah. This all changed, though, when in 1935, Ethiopia was invaded and occupied by fascist Italy. So they came back, who merged it with similarly possessed Eritrea and Somaliland to become Italian East Africa. During the second Italo-Ethopian War,

so they had a bit of fighting around this in 1935, which lasted until 1937, when he was just three years old, Abebe Bakilis family was forced to move to the remote town of Goro. The family eventually moved back to Jato, where they had a farm. In 1941, so he's only three years old at this time, but the family has to move.

Italy has come and occupied their country. It's a pretty bad time. But in 1941, Ethiopia was liberated from Italy by the British Army and local resistance fighters. Cool. This is a bit of a hot take. I reckon war is no good. But is it good for anything?

And if so, what? Dave, absolutely nothing. But I think it's great that countries back then, and now to some degree alike. I want a bit of that over there, so I'm just going to take it. I'm going to take it. I'm going to walk in, I'm going to kick a door down, and I'm going to say, give me. Mine now. Give me.

Nah, but it's ours. Nah. Beautiful time. Beautiful time. How you? Beautiful way that we, uh, that we, you know, go about our lives. Hmm. Give me this.

No. Go on. All right. Anyway, just a hot take there from me. Just a hot take. Not a fan of war myself. And this whole Italian side of things may come back in the story later. Okay.

So he's brought that up for a reason. That's interesting. Yeah, he got into Vespa riding. World champion Vesper rider. It's one of the best. That's how we've won the marathon. Vom! I'm afraid it doesn't say anything in the rules about not using a Vespa.

Fuck. He's got us. He's smart, this guy. Yeah, that's a... changed the rules after that. Close that loophole. Wheels don't count as feet. When he was a boy,

Abebe played Gina, which is a traditional field hockey game, popular in the Ethiopian highlands, with a goalposts are sometimes miles apart. Oh, wow. I reckon I could score a goal, then. I could hit that target. I reckon you could still miss.

Oh, I hit the post. Fuck. I always think hitting the post should be worth double points. Yeah. It's harder to do. It be really hard to do it on purpose, you know? So when it happens by accident, you're like, just give him some points. Or they should go to the player and say, did you do that on purpose?

Because if you did, that'll be 10 points. But if you didn't, that's one. Be honest. Yeah. Yeah. And they'd say, I was an accident. Hey, for your honesty, here's a bonus nine. Yeah.

Do you remember that famous scene in the champions or the Mighty Ducks? as it was also known. Yeah. When Gordon Bombay, yes. The coach played by, Emilio Westervez, was still bitter about his game where he,

he missed, he hit the post. Am I remembering this right? I don't know. And he said, just a couple of inches to the right, and it would have been a goal. My whole life would be different.

But then Charlie played by the guy from Dawson's Creek. Yes. Joshua Jackson said, what happens if it went a couple of inches to the left, then it would have missed altogether. And Gordon Bombay said, never thought about it like that. Isn't that beautiful? Fucking hell.

Gordon Bombay, big, big shot guy, rocks up in a limo. Limo with a suit. And he learned something from a 12-year-old boy. This neighborhood boy. Wow. I like the cut of your gym, Pacey. You're all right, kid. You're all right.

I guess I never thought about that. But also, it's pretty funny to be like, Like, I was a reasonably good hockey player as a child, and I missed a goal one time. And if I hadn't, my life would be completely different. You've turned up in a limo. Yeah. I think you're all right. I don't remember that movie barely at all, but why is he complained?

Did you, as an 11-year-old, put a lot of money on that game? Yeah, that's true. Some bad people are hunting. No, you're fine. I mean, I'm going off a very vague memory. That's possibly not how it happened. There's something like that, I reckon. He was quite bitter about it.

Yeah. Whatever. I can't believe I remembered his name Gordon Bombay. Yeah. Oh, you don't forget a name like Gordon Bombay. It's a great name. Almost as good as the name of the guy we're talking about, which is Matt. Don't.

A be bebe. A bebe? Bacila. Da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-ha-ha. Bekila. Anyway, sorry, you're talking about Italy. And the hockey. Oh yeah, you play in the Highlands at very high altitude, he's running long distances.

Yeah, just for fun as a child. Because the sets of goalposts are far away from each other, not just far away from. No, no, they are Miles Abutton. And his Vespa broke down. He is the goalkeeper, so he's running from one side or the other. I've got to keep this ball out. That sounds like a sick game. Yeah.

Like a fully extreme Highlands game, right? Is that what you're saying? It's up in the mountains? Yeah. Wow. Amazing. But honestly, there's not much info. on his early life, but in 1952 at the 8th of 20, he moved to the capital of Addis Ababa

and joined the fifth infantry regiment of the Imperial Guard, also called the Kiba Zab Agna. These were the bodyguards who protected Ethiopian Emperor Hiley Salasi, the first, who was emperor of Ethiopia from 1930 to 1974. That's a long reign. So over four decades. And a very integral person in the history of Ethiopia in the 20th century. Cool. So he reigned from when?

1930 to 1974. Right. So he was there when Italy came in. So he was in exile for a little bit of that? Yeah, came in. They took over for a bit and then he's back on when they're out. Yep. His full title in office was,

By the conquering lion of the tribe of Judah, his imperial majesty, Halle Salasi the first, King of Kings, Lord of Lords, elect of God. Oh, beautiful name for a boy or a girl. Yeah. Incredible. Pop that in a business card.

Yeah. Oh, that's nice. What do you break it down? What does that read if you're doing an initialism or whatever? Bickle Ot Oge. Hem, Heves, Kikok, Loll, Eog. I like the Loll bit. Yeah, that's pretty good.

Lord of Lords. What is that? That's not an initialism. What's that? You taught me this one of our early episodes. Acronym, that's it. He's also a key figure in Rastafari, a religion that developed in Jamaica during the 1930s,

with many followers regarding the emperor as the second coming of Jesus and Jha incarnate. Wow. And he didn't even follow the movement. Really? We don't follow when you are the reincarnate. You think Jesus considers himself a Christian? Yeah. He was a Jew.

Actually, it's the same thing here. He's important to the religion because Jamaican political activist and orator Marcus Garvey had made a prophecy. He said, look to Africa, where a black king shall be crowned, he shall be the redeemer. And this was swiftly followed by the ascension of Halle-Salassi as emperor of Ethiopia. So many people in Jamaica thought he was the second coming. Wow. That makes sense. That's cool.

Yeah. And this is a quote from a great Rastafari website. I found, I think it's pronounced wikipedia.org. Okay, cool. Which must be a Jamaican word, but I don't know it. But he's seen as a god by many in Jamaica. when he visited the country of Jamaica in 1966, this is what happened.

Quick fact, 66. That's the year that the Chicago Bulls entered the NBA. Wow. Yeah. And the Saints won there, one and only premiership in the NFL. Got it in. And Hallie Salasi visited Jamaica. Yes.

Approximately 100,000 Rastafari from all over Jamaica descended on the airport in Kingston to greet him. Spliffs and celluses were openly smoked, causing a, quote, haze of gunger smoke to drift through the air. Okay. What's a chalice? I'm not sure. Is it the thing that a priest rocks around in?

Oh. On the chain? Oh, wow. I don't know. I wish I didn't ask that. It seems weird to put that in the same sentence as spliffs. Yeah, I thought, yeah, because chalice is like a cup as well. Yeah.

But they're smoking them. Yeah, it's like a cup. Unless it's like, you know, like one of those cocktails that you light on fire. Oh, yeah. Like a chalice of Zambuca. Oh. Nothing better. A bit of hot Zambuca.

Firm disagree. There's a lot of things better. Almost anything. As with many leaders who are in power for decades and develop a cult of personality around them, he has been criticised by human rights groups for suppressing his people. Okay. So, loved by some, not loved by others. Yeah, right.

But anyway, our man, a Bebebe Bekela, was in the Imperial Guard protecting the Emperor. And he would run 20 kilometres of 12 miles from the hills of Salulta to Addis Ababa and back every day. Just to go to work. So 40Ks a day he's running. Yep. Fuck me. Yeah, so he'd be like marathon. Yeah.

Where are we running to? Work or? Where's the challenge? We're going to do eight and a half hours in between or? So I'll get, you know, I'll do the marathon and then, yeah, what do you want me to do then? I'll be ready to do a solid eight to nine hours. Yeah. And then what, another marathon?

No, no, that's it. Just one marathon? Oh. Okay. Just one marathon? Feels a bit pointless, but. That feels so boring. How'd you get home from the marathon?

Like, so he's doing a half marathon to work, half marathon back, essentially, give or take a couple of kilometres. So it would be like if he's run to work, forgotten something, pop time to grab it. Come back in. Come back in. That's crazy. That's nothing. It's not crazy. know people can run long distance.

I'm just not one of them. I'm not built for it. It's impressive. It's amazing. I'm impressed. Good. And I'm not easily impressed. Yeah.

If Matt's impressed, boy howdy. Yeah. You've said something pretty cool. Got your attention? So he's running to work every day and his endurance was noticed by Oni Niscannon, a Swedish coach employed by the Ethiopian government to train the Imperial Guard. Wow. What an interesting job.

Yeah. Cool. And Nis-Cannon. started training bekela for the marathon. He identified him and said, I reckon that you'd be great for this event. When Abebe was 24, so he only started training as a runner

at the age of 24. That's old. For Olympians. Yeah, for sure. Yeah, that's, you're ancient. A lot of people are retiring by that age. Yeah, exactly. Especially like gymnasts at that age.

It's like, oh my God. Congrats on your last, your 10th Olympics or something. It's also fun to think like he's just taking it up. Yeah. Even though he's been running a marathon, every day. I'll give it a go. Yeah.

I'll try this thing that I already do. But now, you're going to start a stopwatcher. It's like if somebody was like, I'm going to train you up to talk into a microphone. We'd be like, I guess, I'm sure, I guess. If you think I could. No, I'll try.

I mean, my technique is awful. That same year in 1956, he entered his first marathon event, the Ethiopian Armed Forces Championship, where he finished second to Wami Baratou. It's first ever marathon. Came second. That's pretty great.

Pretty good. 1956. See, my dad was born. It was the year of the Melbourne Olympics. Yes. That's true. And also the year that TV came to Australia. That's true too, because of the Olympics.

Ah, that makes sense. Not a coincidence. Pretty sure that was why, yeah. And after this, he did a couple more marathons, but not all the time. He didn't go pro, didn't go full time. Okay. He still got his day job. That's right, which he obviously runs too, but so he's kind of.

a training. But in July 1960, this is a few years later, four years later, Abebe won his first marathon in the capital of Addis Ababa. A month later, he won again in the capital with a time of two hours, 21 minutes, 23 seconds, which was faster than the existing Olympic record held by Amil Zatopec, another incredible runner. I did a mini report on for our Olympic special way back in episode 41. Episode 41 and I remember that, I mean, you don't forget a name like a meal's at apec i suppose but like you don't remember anything i know i was like oh yeah milzateapec so he's the guy that uh trained like in boots out in the snow and all sorts of things yes why did we we did that episode leading up to one of the olympics i guess the one that was

yeah with the rio games i guess so and he's also the one that he won the 5 000 meters and then the 10 000 meters and then on a whim decided to end the marathon that's right he's first ever marathon and won and set this Olympic record but now abbebe is Faster than, it's not world record time, but he's faster than the Olympic record. A baby is faster than the Olympic record. A bebe. And it's a pretty small event on the world scale. You know, it's just in the Ethiopian capital with local people running.

And now he's faster than the Olympic record. Yeah, wow. His coach, Niscannon, entered Abebe Bekela and Abebe Wakirah, which is another Ethiopian man, in the marathon at the 1960 Rome Olympics that would be run on September 10th. It's a great way to travel, isn't it? Running. It's free. You don't have to tap on your Mikey.

Incidental exercise? Yeah. Fantastic. Plenty great. You mean being an Olympian? Yeah. You just see the world every four years. Every four years you'd go somewhere.

It might not be your first choice of places to visit. And sure, you don't get to do anything touristy. And for most people, as we've already discussed, their career is over pretty quickly. Yeah, but you rack up some frequent fly miles. in that time, don't you? That's why you're smart to do one of those sports he could do as an old person, like the horse riding. You know, that Australian guy has just done it since before we were born?

Or like shooting. Yeah. You know, as long as your eyes don't go. We get some decent specs. Yeah. Okay, so what should we get into? Horse shooting. And we could be in the mast.

They're massive. Yeah. I can hit that target. Do you? A bit of practice, you'd be right? Don't let it move. Can you hold that horse still? Hold your horses.

That's where that's saying. Hold your horses, bang. For shooting. Okay. So let's talk about the Rome Olympics held from August 25th to September 11, 1960. Beautiful time to be in Rome. September 11, Jess?

Oh my God. 1960. It was just a date then. Yeah, the final date of the... And end of August, early September, beautiful time to be in Europe. Good weather. It's time to be in Rome.

Sunny, gorgeous. Not too hot. Oh, heaven. Oh, heaven. This is the first time the Italian capital hosted the games. They'd actually been awarded the 1908 Summer Olympics, but following the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 1906, they had no choice to decline and to pass the honour onto London.

Wow. Wow. I think I had Mount Vesuvius as like way... The big eruption is hundreds of years earlier. This is another eruption. Yep. But it did damage and they actually had to spend a lot of the money's treasured. the country's treasury on fixing up the country. And they went, we can't afford to build all these stadiums. We've got to help our people.

So London had to take over. We can't have to build some houses and buildings and other stuff that got ruined. Probably more important at the end of the day. But it is the Olympics. You'll get the Olympics again. And they did. They did. They obviously sorted that out.

And then we're like, all right, now we've sorted out our country. Let's go takeover Africa. What a beautiful mindset. Beautiful mindset. A more than 5,000 athletes from 83 nations competed in Rome with 44 nations winning medals. For the second successive games, the Soviet Union topped the medal table with 43 gold won.

Its fierce rival, the United States was second on the table, with Australia finishing fifth with eight gold medals. Not bad. Hey? Pretty good. Yeah, I don't know why that Australia. I mean, I do know why it is because we sport obsessed and put too much money to it, but Australia has often done, you know, for a small population.

Yeah, that's true. It does well. We are a very small population compared to so many other countries that are much smaller than us in land size. We're very spread out anyway. But yeah, you're right. We're sports mad. Yeah.

We love it. Italy really got around the games and they built a brand new Olympic stadium that could hold 100,000 people, but also converted mega. Magnificent ancient buildings for other competitions. I was going to say, why build a new stadium when you've got the Coliseum? Yeah. Just chuck some, you know, a retractable roof on the top. Yeah, put some seats in.

Fantastic. Clean up a bit of that rubble, a bit dusty in there. A couple of beer taps. Come on. There you go. Yeah, a few corporate boxes. Oh, okay, you think the people who originally built the Coliseum were like, oh, I hope one day this isn't getting used.

Yeah. Come on. Use it or lose it. Use it. What a waste of a resource. Yeah, come on. You've got a beautiful resource. Gymnastics and wrestling were held in the Basilica of Maxentius,

which had staged the same events 2,000 years earlier. That's what I'm talking about. That's cool. Come on, your Rome. You got basilicas coming out your fucking wasoo. What's a basilica? I've heard that word before. I mean, the Pope, are they going to use the Vatican?

Surely we could turn that into some sort of pool. Yeah. Come on. Yeah. There's a bunch of ruins around. Knock them down. Put in a pool. Imagine a 50 meter Olympic size pool full of holy water.

Oh my God. Baptism's on mass. Yeah. Everybody jump in. Baptised. Thorpe, I didn't know you were Christian. I'm not Christian. You are now.

Gotcha. Gotcha. Gotcha. And that's how we get more Christians. That's how we get them. That's how we get them. Catholics. We need more.

of them more and more. I say that as a, as a, well, you know, a baptized Catholic, agnostic. Anyway. Agnostic, like that. Yeah. That means you. That means I don't really care. But it means you're open.

I guess so, yeah. But it also means I don't care. You know, I'm kind of like, you believe whatever you want to believe. Something's out there, but you don't know what it is. Yeah, I guess so. I'm not an atheist where I'm like, you're an idiot for thinking. I don't think atheists are all like, you're an idiot for believing anything. But I'm not like, there is no God.

fool, I'm just like, nah, whatever. Who knows? I'll find out when I'm dead. Why not I? Or I won't find out because there's nothing. It's exciting. Yeah. And the system will be, you die and they go, yeah, you've got nothing. It's all over. Anyway, you're dead for real now. So they do, which is nice? Yeah, just so that I die knowing.

Yeah. Because it'd be cruel to die without knowing that there's nothing after death. Yeah. And that's what God thinks. God's like, I gotta let him know that there's nothing. God to let him know. I don't exist. I don't exist. Just letting you know, I don't exist. Hey, it's me, God.

I don't exist and good night forever. Or God's like, all right, I do exist, but there's no afterlife. I blew the budget on this planet. I blew the budget on the life. What do you expect after this? You want an afterlife? Yeah. And you want it to be better than this?

Did you guys see those sexy mag pies in Dublin? Oh, my gosh. It cost a bit of cash? That took me two centuries. Be okay, you want an afterlife. You saw that bird. Come on. You should have been in the early version.

They were like four bit. Very blurry. It took ages. It just didn't have the right kind of genusiqueque about it. Got Pixar involved. And yeah, they look lifelike. Yeah, incredible. Anyway, weird tangent.

Sorry about that. The 1960 Olympics were the first to be fully covered by television. And this transformed the games into a truly world. wide phenomenon. Phenomenon. Taped footage of the Games was flown to New York. So they didn't have satellites at the time. So taped footage of the games was flown to New York City at the end of each day

and broadcast on CBS Television in the United States. Eurovision provided live television broadcasts throughout Europe. So it was seen by millions and it was a massive, massive Olympics. These are some of the highlights. In boxing, the Light Heavyweight Division's gold medal went to an 18. year old then unknown Cassius Clay. Oh. For many, this was, of course, a glimpse into the greatness of a man that would later be called

the greatest. Muhammad Ali. Cool. The light heavy weight. I like the rules in boxing. Yeah. Easy to follow. Heavy, but not that heavy.

Yeah. For a heavy weight, you're pretty light. He's gone from a great, I think Cassius Clay is a great name. And he's just upgraded somehow. Yeah. You're changing your name from Cassius Clay? What could possibly top it? Muhammad Ali.

Okay. Fucking hell, mate. Fucking hell. Fucking hell. Save some for the rest of us. I like the idea of Muhammad Ali coming to you to, like, run this by someone. Doing a bit of spitballing. All right, these are on the short ones.

What do you reckon? Be honest. Cassius, you're changing your name. You're crazy. Phil Smith. Next. Tracy Pecker. A little bit better.

That's good. Muhammad Ali. Oh my. Fuck it. No. Tracy Pecker, fuck off. So he won the gold medal, which is very, very cool. American swimmer Jeff Farrell won two gold medals in swimming.

He underwent an emergency appendectomy six days before the Olympic trials. And then won two gold medals. Yeah. What's an appendectomy? Taking out your appendix. Oh, yeah. It's a penis enlargement. It's a penis enlargement.

surgery. So actually, he had more drag in the water and he still won. Help us steering. The head of the team went, are you sure you couldn't get this dick surgery after it? He's like, he's only got availability six days before the game. You know what surgeons are like? You've got to book in months. Sorry about this. American swimmer Chris von Salza. Incredible.

Yes. Won four medals and women swimming, three of them gold. Very good. Well done. Chris von Salza. Don't even bother mentioning the other one. And you didn't Who cares? It wasn't gold It may as well be a piece of shit

Yeah Oh you've got some gold And some piece of shit It was a medal made out of shit Yeah Silver First loser Get out of my face

Sticking with the Americans The US basketball team Took its fifth consecutive gold medal The squad Which starred Future Hall of Famers Oscar Robertson

Jerry Lucas Walt Bellamy And Jerry West Whose silhouette is still The NBA logo Jerry West. So funny that I was talking to you off just before we started about a guy who's in winning time as being characterised as this angry man.

He's like, that's not me at all. That was Jerry West. Oh. No. Yeah. Really? And he's sometimes known as Mr. Silhouette, I believe, because he's the silhouette on the NBA logo. His other nicknames include Mr. Clutch, which I love.

And also, Zeke from Cabin Creek. Okay. For the Creek near his birthplace in Shillian West Virginia. Zeke could not be further from Jerry West though, could it? I just thought that was the nickname. Zeke from Cabin Creek. It's long for a nickname. Well, it's kind of like the Larry Bird one and came later.

What was his? The Hick from St. Lick or something like that. So good. His portrayal in this show is also pretty funny. Like just real... Helping himself to other people. Bulls eskies. Like that?

We talked about the Michael Jordan episode. Yeah, no, it just seems he's very grumpy and glum and, yeah. That's not the Larry Bird, I know. But now that I know that Jerry West is like, that's not who I am at all, I'm like, can I believe any of this? Yeah. It also had a brief episode about, this is a HBO show, people don't know, about the Lakers in the 70s and 80s.

but they did an episode, like the start of one of the episodes, was a flashback to Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, changing his name to Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, talking of great name changes. I can't ever remember what his original name was, but Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. It was a Tracy Pecker. Yes.

He changed his name from Tracy Pecker. A good choice, I think. Do you want me to... Sorry, you're looking at me like that. No, we thought you were mid-sentence. Sorry, I thought you were mid-story, but... I mean, his name's Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. What else do you need?

I don't know. I think that's maybe my favourite all-time name. What's amazing name? I know people will be yelling at there. iPods, if I don't say that he was born, Ferdinand Lewis Alcindor Jr., which is also pretty good. Ferdinand, a very strong first name. But he's like, it would have been the same story.

Hey, Ferdinand, what's up? Just upgrading my name. What are you talking about? You can't up pray from Ferdinandall Lewis, Alcindor Jr. Well, let me lay Kareem Abdul-Jabbar on you. Fucking hell. Fucking hell, mate. What are we fucking.

Holy fuckin. Holy fuck, I'm sweating. A brain orgasm. Oh, in my pants. I jeezed everywhere. Fucking out. Fucking out. So the US basketball team won with Oscar Robertson and Zeke from Kevin Creek.

At the time, this was considered by many to be the best basketball team ever assembled. Oh, wow. That was before the monsters were put together. Hard to be. Possible. What reference. According to Britannica, the decathlon featured a tightly contested battle between Raffer Johnson of the United States and Yang

Chuang Kuang of Taiwan. Close friends who had both attended the University of California at LA at Los Angeles and trained under the same coach. Raffa Johnson later became an actor. He won. Oh, wow. Which is cool. He was in the James Bond movie Licensed to Kill.

Wow. There has not been a dud name this whole thing. No, incredible. Even Jerry West is fantastic. I think we've just gotten shit at names. Yeah. Names suck now. Have we run out?

We must have. Jeez, I've got the most boring name. Yeah, you do. But I'm feeling inspired. Yeah. I can just change my name. What are you going to make it? Muhammad Kareem Jabbar?

Fuck it out. Just combine two great names. That's good. Somehow I've combined two great names and made it worse. You're really more of a vanilla name like Matt. Yeah, I guess you've got to pull it off as well. A boring beige name. Well, we're going to bring things back home now

There's an Australian name Australia's own Herb Elliott Love Herb's a good name Good name I won the men's 1500 metre sprint In one of the most dominating performances In Olympic history He won by 2.6 seconds

Which meant he was over 20 metres ahead As he crossed the line And broke the world record Wow 20 metres 2.6 seconds That is so long That's crazy

So long Also for Australia Dawn Fraser won a second gold medal for the 100 metre freestyle. How, Dawn. How, Dawn. And Murray Rose, a name that you sometimes mention Matt, when you're trying to think of someone else, went back to back in the 400 metre freestyle.

Ah, awesome. Yeah, I get him and Lionel Rose confused. It's another great Aussie sports person. Britain's Don Thompson had prepared for the 50 kilometres walk by exercising in his bathroom in Kent, filled with heaters and boiling kettles. That's amazing. Electricity billed through the roof.

Well, it paid off when he won the gold medal. But it's a 50K walk. I'm assuming he's also doing some walking training. He's probably just on the spot because obviously Rome is a lot hotter than Kent. Yeah. So he wants to have the endurance for when he's getting hot and sweaty. So he's just walking on the spot with kettles and boilers. That's so good.

What was his name again? Don Thompson. That feels like it shouldn't be good, but that's a great name as well. Don Thompson. You don't get that many Don's anymore. No. But I'm not naming a little boy, Don. Don.

Come on, Don, pop your shoes on. Come on, Donnie. Donnie. Yeah, Donny's not as good. That sucks. I like Don't like Don't like Donnie. Don't really like Donald. Oh, yeah.

I was trying to think of what Don is short for. Donald. No, I don't like it. Don. Don. But it probably depends on the stern that Don Thompson. Yeah. It's like Don Johnson was someone, was he?

An actor or something? That's another good name. You just like the on-on-on. Yeah, I think that's what it is. What about the name on-on? Pretty good. Do I keep Stuart? On-on-on-Stuett.

No, that doesn't work. On-on-Thompson. Yeah, there it is. What about Don-on-on-on-thompson? Don-on-on-on-thompson. I love it. I think I like it. And is it all one word or is your middle name on-on?

Well, I was thinking my middle name was on-on-on-on-on-thom-on-thom-thom. But then there's no guarantee people would say it. Maybe I've got to just bring it up to the front, Don on-on-on. First name Don-on-on-on-on-on-thompson. On-on-on-don-thompson. What about Don-on-on-on-don-on-thompson? Don-on-on-on-on-ton-on-thompson? Oh, yeah, on-on-don-on-on-thompson.

Yeah? Jesus, there's options here. I remember I feel like that T-8 is in the wrong. Don on on, Don on, Don onson. Oh, yeah. Don on, what about Donomson? Don on. So your first name is Don on-on-on-on-on.

Your name Don-on. Yes. surname Don-on-on-on-on-don-on-don-on-on-don-on-on-on-on-on-on-on-on-law. I love it. I love it. Oh, my God. All right, I'm going to make a few calls. Fucking hell.

That's all I can say. Deed poll? Yeah. For sure. It's the man who used to identify as Matt Stewart. Now, Don-on-on-don, don-on, on. Don Omson. Don Omson. Did I start up?

We think you might have. We're not sure. Did you? Are you okay if I just read that back to you, Mr. Don Omson? I'd love you too. That's like creating a new password and there's not that thing where you have to type it out again to make sure you've got the right thing. First time I got it right. Don't make me repeat it. Now let me log in.

What the fuck? Not every highlight of the 1960 games was a victory. Oh. Finish. How can you have a highlight of a failure? Well, let me tell you about Finland's Villo Yulonan, a field shooter who shot a bullseye on the wrong target. Oh, wow. And in doing so, he dropped from second to fourth.

Oh, that's not fair. Aiming for a target in front, accidentally shot the bullseye of the one next door. Were they aiming for the wrong? one or was it just a weird fluke? Just a bad shot. Wow. A bad, good shot? Yeah.

It was a fluke, wasn't it? It was a fluke. Yeah. That it was a bullseye. So people applauded and then went, oh, actually. So we dropped from second to four. For Mr. Metal. Annie Gordon Bombayed it later.

If I was only one target bullseye crossed, my whole life would have been different. But if you, if you're one target to the left, it would have been even more impressive. Yeah. You two targets are off. Never thought about that. and the games wasn't without its controversies according to Thoughtco unfortunately there was a ruling problem

on the 100 metre freestyle swim for the men's event John Devet who was from Australia and Lance Larson Oh my God right? Very good from the United States

had been neck and neck during the last segment of the race though they both finished at about the same time most of the audience the sports reporters and the swimmers themselves believed Larson from the United States

had won. However the three judges ruled that Devit from Australia had won, even though official times show a faster time for Larsen than for DeVitt. What? The ruling held. What? That's so weird.

So including the guy who technically won, he's like, I didn't win. He touched before me. Sorry, you win, but I'm second. Well, the Olympics is all about great sportsmanship, which you're showing, so let's upgrade him to gold. Wow, that's very odd. The gold medal for honesty. That would really take away some of the excitement of winning gold.

wouldn't it? Well, you're like, I didn't win this. And I'm trying to say I didn't win it. And there's minutes of deliberation. Yeah, and you're like, Larsen, congratulations, man. How do they get to it unanimously when everyone else disagreed? And then, I don't know, he gets up and he's like, Moonlight, you won Best Picture. And the official time?

Yeah. Sure, you'd go off that. You'd go off the time, you would think. The ruling held. It's like that you have judges for ones that are, you know, up for debate. It's like, oh, who did the fanciest dive? That's way of judges. Not for who touched the wall first.

Yeah, fanciest dive. Who touched the wall best? Yeah, that's right. Not first, best. Graceful. Who touched the wall with a bit of flair? Yeah, a bit of panache. Who made the wall feel something?

Yeah. Who made us feel something in the way that they touched the wall? Oh, definitely Larson. Yeah. Well, I have to stop down and mention Wilma Rudolph, an American runner with an incredible story. Born in St. Bethlehem, Tennessee in 1940, she was the 20th of 22 children.

Nope. From her father, Ed Rudolph's two marriages. That's so many children. I mean, does a question come to mind? Do they know what's cool, isn't it? But also, Ed, fucking hell. Fucking hell.

Fucking hell. How much sex do you actually need? Do you what I mean? 22 is too many times. Save some for the rest of us. You've had sex 22 times. Must be naked. Oh my God.

get anything done. Rudolf, so Wilma Rudolph, the 20th child, suffered from several early childhood illnesses, including pneumonia and scarlet fever, and she contracted infantile paralysis caused by the polio virus at the age of five. Wow.

She recovered from polio, but lost strength in her left leg and foot. Physically disabled from much of her early life and told by a doctor that she would never walk again, Rudolph wore a leg brace until she was 12 years old. She also could not walk without an orthoped shoe until she was 11, but she was determined to compete and began playing basketball.

She later became a high school all-star being nominated as an All-American in basketball during high school. Wow. So she wants to compete. One day apparently a mum came out into the backyard and found her playing basketball. It was like, how are you doing this? Wow. And then she was just super determined.

She then turned to track and field events and began running. And at the age of 16, remember, this is only four years after taking off the leg brace. still in high school she competed in the 1956 Olympic Games and won a bronze medal in the 4 by 100 Relo Wow It's a real forest gump kind of thing It's amazing It's taken off the leg brace

I was holding her back You're right Wow who knows I mean like This is also in a time where their medical knowledge Wasn't as it is now So it's very interesting to be like She had these disabilities

But then was able to run faster than most people in the country. That's amazing. And she improved on that even. The next Olympics, which is, of course, Rome 1960. She had her eyeset on gold and she did not go home disappointed. She won three gold medals and broke three world records and then 100 meters, 200 meters and four by 100 meters where she ran the all important anchor leg of the race. Wow.

Is the anchor leg the last leg? Yeah, when you bring it home. Yeah. You hand it to Usain Bolt and say, please. please catch up for the rest of it. It's such an interesting thing that it's like, if you're all running as fast as you can, it shouldn't matter which order it is,

but it does. It does. It's psychological and there's other things at play as well. But yeah, it's really interesting. So it should just average out of your four best times. I would always run second or fourth, always on the straights. Anchor.

Actually, that's true. Where you're starting on the track probably. Oh yeah, some would be better at running on a bend than others or something? Or you have your fast. us on the straight or something. There'd be a logic of this. Yeah, they definitely is.

Because Usain Bolt can achieve a higher speed than anyone else. So if there is, like, if the other teams have gotten a bit ahead, you've got your strongest runner at the end to, as the one who's most probable to shorten that distance or take over. Usain Bolt is so good. He has to know how good he has to be. Yeah, that's right. He's not going to go flat out first because he might not need to do that.

So if he's fourth, he assesses the situation and goes, All right, 20 meters behind, no worries. I'll go at 90%. Yeah, I'll just go for a light jog. Yeah, that's right. A few steps, done. Incredible. Rudolph became the first American woman

to win three Olympic gold medals in track and field at the same Olympics. Her performance also earned her the title of the fastest woman in the world. That's amazing. She became a superstar in the USA and her Olympic success, quote, gave a tremendous boost to women's track

in the United States. She was one of the first role models for black and female athletes. and is regarded as a civil rights and women's rights pioneer. She retired from competition in 1961 and became an educator and coach and established the Wilma Rudolph Foundation, a non-profit organisation based in Indianapolis that trained youth athletes. Wow.

So yeah, I came across that, I just had to share that, told you would never walk again, and then within four years, you were one of the fastest people and then the fastest woman in the world. Incredible. Yeah, a lot of people, me included, I'd say, would be like, all right, I take the doctor's word for it. Well, yeah, I think that's what I was sort of getting at before. I wasn't being like, I didn't mean to be sort of pandering or patronising to somebody who was told they had disabilities.

What I'm thinking was like, was her injuries or her illnesses mismanaged or the fact that she could take off the leg brace and a few years later was competing in the Olympics is wild. Yeah. Pretty amazing. Super amazing. As a medical person, I'll field this one. Yeah, I want you. You also, you wonder, did the leg brace work so well? Yeah, I guess that's absolutely an option too, isn't it?

It's, yeah, really fascinating. And so cool, it was just so determined. So cool. I just don't, I admire that in other people because I just don't have that killer instinct. I just don't care enough to try all that hard, you know? And to prove everyone wrong. Yeah, nah, I'm like, yeah, you're probably right. Yeah, I'm like, yeah, it's really hard to just be like,

Yeah, you're right. I should stop doing this. All right, I guess I will never walk again. Thank you, Doctor. Yeah. Amazing. What a cool story. What a cool person.

So amazing. And we'll be back with more Olympics after these messages. So a lot happened to the 1960 Olympics. For many, though, there is no more enduring story than that of Abebe Bakila. He's the guy we're talking about it way back in the episode. A bit of a detour there, but it just blew.

Every Olympics is basically like that. these amazing things. But this one was especially famous because it produced lots of superstars because it was on TV for the first time. Yeah, yeah. People around the world were able to connect with so many different athletes. So Bekela turned up at the event and despite his recent great time, remember he'd broken the Olympic record.

Yeah. He was certainly not a favourite. 69 participants from 35 nations competed and Pekela really flew under the radar. How many participants? Sorry? Yeah, how many were there? 69. Nice.

In fact, some doubted that this unknown from Ethiopia could have possibly recorded a faster time than the great Emil Satepec. They'd never heard of him. Some thought that he was bluffing. He'd made up the time. I love the idea of I've never heard of you. You mustn't be real. How do you first hear of people?

Yeah. Normally it's after having never heard of them. Yeah, yeah, usually. At some point in your life, you'd never heard of Brad Pitt. Yeah. Now you can't remember a time where you didn't know. who Brad Pitt was. And how many gold medals

does he won? Probably a couple. I don't know that much about him. Oh, my God. Unfortunately, because he is so good looking, he doesn't often win awards like gold medals because people don't see his talent. They think he's just beautiful.

But they don't realize he's also a great runner. An amazing runner. He's so quick, but also graceful. That's the thing. It's not just about the speed. A lot of people just focus on speed of running. They're like, who crosses the finish line first? whatever.

Who makes me feel something in the way that they run? Brad Pitt. Who tells me a story in the way that they run? Brad Pitt. That's right. They really should be a medal for a hottest runner. Yeah. Yeah. I'd give it a Brad Pitt.

Every time. Every time. Yeah. Unless Shervo was in there. Shervo? Yeah. Oh yeah, Shervo's taken it out of a Brad Pitt. He runs with a certain grace.

And he also had one of those adamdectomies. to his dick The week of competing Adam Dectomies This is a strange Matt Shervington If you haven't seen him run To yourself a favour

Adam Dick Dictomy I think is Is that what they call it? Add some dick to me That's the Dick augmentation Add some dick to me Why does augmentation

Make it big or small Just augments it Okay Yeah I think it's right there in the name Really isn't it Yeah A bit of a silly question

On your part then That's a thing It's all right if you feel like a fool. And I do. So, Bekela's flying under the radar or running under the radar. Returning runners from the 1956 marathons, the previous Olympic event, included gold medalist, Elaine Mumon from France, silver medalist, Fran Gaila Mikhailik from Yugoslavia,

and the fourth place finisher, Lee Chang-Hoon of South Korea. Every single name has been great. Incredible. So Elaine Maimon, he's the returning champion. Yeah. You think that people think he's... Yeah. like, well, he's won it before.

He's proven to us. He's capable of this. And I have to mention his first child was a daughter named Olymp. Born one day before her father won the 1956 Olympic Marathon in Melbourne. Isn't that cool? Olymp. Olymp. It's one of those things I imagine in France.

It sounds beautiful. It's a bit, though, like getting the, like, a tattoo saying you're an Olympic champion or something before you've won. Like naming your daughter a limp before you've won something. Brian Lara, the cricketer, West Indian cricketer, had named his kid Sydney after making a big double hundred at the SCG. I think that's beautiful. How do we feel about naming your children after career milestones you had? That's like, I don't know if it's putting pressure on them

or making their name a bit about you. But I guess what is, you know, everyone's named after family and shit. That's making. But apparently, I think Brian Lara tells us this story. story as a, you know, with a bit of a joke, like, I don't know if Brian Lauer's and sportsman's nice, but, you know, whatever. But apparently he goes, I'm just glad I didn't make those runs in Lahore. Oh.

Brian. Oh, my God. And Sydney's watching that going, fucking out, Dad. Dad, come on. Shut up. Of course, he would have been bound to use any name of a place where he made, Donald's entry. That's exactly it. That was the agreement he and his wife had.

Sorry, honey. I know you wanted to name her after your grandmother, but... But I did a couple of runs. A couple of runs. So I think that matters. A limp. A limp's a nice name, I guess. It does sound like a limp as well.

A limp. Yes, but in France it would have been in France. It would sound beautiful in French. Olim. Beautiful. So there's a hot field of returning runners, but Sergei Pop. Another great name. From the Soviet Union was seen as the favorite, as he was the world. record holder having run the marathon in two hours, 15 minutes and 17 seconds.

And that's fast. That's like the fastest that anyone's ever done it, which is fast. Pretty fast. Pretty quick. Quite quick. I assume I could do quicker, but this was a while again. I've definitely done things that have taken me less than two hours, 15 minutes. That's for sure.

Yeah. I've done things faster than that. I could run to work quicker than that. Do you reckon? Depending on where I was working, I suppose. Down the road? Yeah. From home.

I've brushed my teeth quicker than that. Yeah? Yeah. That's quick. I've watched a movie that went for two hours. Not many modern movies. I tell you that. Geez, they go for a while these days.

Bring back the 90-minute flick. So the rates took place on Saturday, September 10th, and fearing that the burning sun might lead to severe dehydration problems for the athletes, organizers scheduled the marathon to be run mostly at night. Oh, no. To guide the runners, the city had to be lit up. by torches. Pretty cool.

Just putting some fucking floodlights. What are you doing? Like dolphin torches or like flaming torches. Flaming torches. Flaming torches. I want to run to torchlight. Hmm. Romantic.

Well, actually, yeah. But it's no time to feel amorous. That's not a time to get a stiffy. Especially if you've just had the op. Yeah. Shervo. Very distracting. A uniquely for an Olympic marathon,

the race neither started nor finished in the main stadium. Ending instead of the arch of Constantine outside the Coliseum. And then what? They were going to get a bus back or something. Yeah. Come on. Pretty cool that.

Finish at the stadium. But at the Coliseum, that's pretty cool. I guess. Yeah. Finish at the place where they should have been having events. Yeah. Bloody out. Yeah, that's right.

They should have run through the Coliseum. That would be sick. That'd be sick. In Rome, Abebe had purchased new running shoes, but they did not fit well and gave him blisters. so he decided to run the entire 26-mile race barefoot. Okay. What?

A lot of the course was on old Roman cobblestones. Oh my God. Your ankles. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, he did it. Wow. The course twice passed Piazza de Porta Capina,

where the obelisk of Axum was then located. This obelisk dates back to the fourth century in the city of Axum in Ethiopia. Oh wow. It had been looted by Italy in 1937 and taken back to Rome. Classic. So you can see how this monument has cultural and political significance for an Ethiopian runner running past it. And you said that was where it was then. It was eventually returned to Ethiopia in 2005.

Oh, that's so long ago. After decades of back and forth. Yeah. That took ages. But you can see how he's running in a country. The English lifetime had taken over his country and had looted one of their famous monument. and he's running past it. Rome's like,

we don't have enough famous monuments of our own. We're going to steal some. When the runners passed the obelisk the first time, Abebe was rear of the lead pack. So still in the race, but not winning. A Bebe and his coach, Oni Iscanon decided that he should make his final move

a little more than one kilometre from the finish line. Yeah. So stay over the pack right up to the end and then smoke them. You don't need to be in front position for two and a bit hours. Yeah, you're running in this. zip stream kind of right you sort of that's where in racing is that where you want to be sort of boxed in not boxed in you don't want to be boxed in you want to be tucked in so you're not doing the hard work at the front of the pack it's like in like bike racing where they always like

rotated don't they yeah because they do have a bit of aerodynamics going on there yeah or horse race is the same it's like rarely does the lead horse win a long race unless it's buddy mine power. And obviously, exceptions can be made. So, the plan is 1K from the finish line, step it up.

It was at this point that the course passed the obelisk of Axum for a second time. When Bekela reached the obelisk, he was running even with Radi Ben Abdesolam of Morocco.

With the final part of the track lit by Italian soldiers holding torches, a bit more symbolism there. Oh, God. Bekela successfully pulled away and won the event by 200 meters.

Wow. Whoa. Immediately after crossing the finish line, Abebe began to touch his toes and run on the spot, and later said he could have easily run another 10 to 15 kilometers. Wow. So a lot in the tank. Could have probably done it a lot quicker then.

Because it's holding back to the last K. Just gone for it. One by 200 meters. That's crazy. Martin power sort of levels. Especially when your neck and neck. Just imagine this at one kilometer, they're neck and neck. Yeah.

And over that last K, he pulls 200 meters away. That's wild. That'd be demoralizing. Oh, yeah. Because the whole time you're like, I got him. Yeah, you'd be thinking, all right, I'm going to step it up into my turbo. And your turbo is, hey, come back. Come back.

How am I going backwards? After the race bekela told reporters who asked him why he'd run without shoes, he said, I wanted the world to know that my country, Ethiopia, has always won with determination and heroism. Badass. So barefoot, he had become Olympic champion and set a new world record in the process shaving just under a second off Sergei Popov's time. Wow.

A Bebe clocked in at two hours, 15 minutes, 16.2 seconds. And he'd beaten Abdesolum from Morocco by 25 seconds. Oh, that's so... This is barefoot on cobblestone. Yeah. And then he's like at the end just sort of stretching and jumping around.

Running on spot. Fuck, that would be... That's how you get into my head is do that and then look comfortable. Apparently, people who are watching on were amazed at how fresh he looked. Wow. They couldn't believe that everyone else was pulling up, looking like they're about to die. Yeah. And he's just like, oh yeah.

Looking like they'd just run a marathon. Yeah. And he looks like he just strolled to the shops. Wow. He's going, well, is there any other events on? Yeah, he's warmed up. Yeah. In third place was New Zealander Barry McGee.

Great name. Barry McGee. Fantastic. And here's Wikipedia page, obviously the rest of firing website, something I haven't seen before, which is a quotes section attributed to Barry McGee. These are some of the quotes from Barry McGee, the 1960 bronze medalist for the marathon. His quotes are, anyone can run 20 miles. It's the next six that count.

Another quote is train don't strain. Okay. Another one is... That's about catching the train. Another one is the back straight is where boys become men. Okay. All right, Barry. And then it says...

Takes that long. Start it when I was only 17. This is the full quote, including the lead up. This is what it says. Here's one of Barry's favorites. And it's one of his 12 commandments. Go straight to bed after training when you're sick. So still train when you're quite unwell.

But then the secret is, as soon as you've done training, off to bed. Don't shower. Get in bed sweaty. Get in bed. And the only reason you get out of bed, more training. I like how he's taking the classic Ten Commandments. Twelve. And I'm going to chuck a couple more in there.

I mean, when he's full of that much wisdom, like Barry McGee, Train, Don't Strain. Ten's not enough. I've got a lot of wisdom to share. I loved it. I was just impressed that he had a quotes. Yeah, you don't see that. I'm expecting them to be really inspiring. Yeah.

To make the cut. Megaeisms. He was the bloody Irish guy of New Zealand. He was the Irish guy of New Zealand. He was that quotable Irish guy. Oscar Wild. I was like, Jason Byrne. It's the Oscar Wilde of New Zealand.

So Abebe returned home to Ethiopia, a national hero. He was Ethiopian. Europe's first ever Olympic medalist. Cool. And he'd won gold on the soil of the country that in his lifetime had invaded and occupied his country. Yeah, that sweetens it a little bit, doesn't it? Love it. In fact, he was the first ever black African gold medalist at all.

So it was a big deal, and he was greeted by a large crowd, many dignitaries and the commander of the Imperial Guard. Before being paraded. His former boss? It is? Yeah. Before being paraded through the streets in front of thousands before being presented to the emperor himself, Halle, Celessi. who awarded him the star of Ethiopia and also gave him a little raise

promoted him to a rank equivalent of corporal. Oh. Nice. Wow, I mean, that seems fitting. Over the next few years, he won marathons in Greece, Slovakia and Japan. He came fifth at the Boston Marathon in 1963, which was the only time in his competitive career

that he completed an international marathon without being the winner. Wow. Apparently, I think the issue was it was really, really cold. old. And he was not used to that. Yeah, that's fair enough. But just that fact alone is crazy. That's the only time in his entire career that he's run at an international race and not won.

Yeah, that's amazing. That's very cool. Yeah. He probably maybe just, he stopped off at O'Flarities or something. Yeah. Had a few too many pints of Guinness. I mean, that's what I would have done. Yeah.

I'd have concentrated on the race. We know. Oh, the route goes straight past O'Farlities. Well, when you're in the neighbourhood. That'd be rude not to. I like to picture that when he finished the Rome Olympic marathon and all those Italian troops were standing at the end,

he crossed the finish line in a fly kick. Just taking him. I did some stretches. What else we got? His eyes were then set on the 1964 Olympic marathon in Tokyo. Abebe was the favourite to do what until that point no one had ever done before when back-to-back medals, gold medals, in the marathon. In fact, no, people had heard of him now.

Yeah. So now they're like, no, now we'll believe him again. We expect this. In fact, no one had ever won more than one medal of any kind of the marathon. Wow. No one had ever had a bronze or the next year, done a silver or anything like that. That's interesting. Yeah, it's like the peak was only short.

Yeah, a short peak in every four years. it's such a long event. Yeah. And that's a long time four years. It's a long time to be running

and doing such intense activity on your body and how old is he at this point? So he won the first gold medal at 28.

Wow. Now he's trying to back it up at 32. And that's old. Yeah. Well, you get in the over 28.

I can't. Oh my God. And imagine being 32. It was so long ago. And running you know, 40Ks. Unbelievable.

No. I mean, maybe when I was, you know, 30. Yeah, of course. 32. So it's the favourite to win, however, about six weeks before the Olympics, a bebe began to feel pain while training. Oh, a baby. It became apparent that he had himself acute appendicitis.

Oh, my God. Why is it so common for them too? They're going to have to enlarge his pain. Just five weeks before the Olympics, he had. surgery to remove his appendix, throwing serious doubt on his gold medal defence. Unrelated to the appendicitis, of course. Yeah. Oh, no, so five weeks before.

Oh, that's sad. It's a sad end of the report. But he was back... Thanks so much for telling it, Dave. He was back on his feet in a few days and left the hospital within a week. He ran home from the hospital, discharged himself. Ran home. Did the surgery himself.

And you better believe he lined up for the marathon on October 21. Wow. He was still the favourite. mostly because people were just like, you know, he's a fan favorite and everything now. Yeah. But he was racing against three men that had since broken his world record in the four years. So he's no longer the fastest ever recorded time. There was Toro Teresawa of Japan.

Oh my God. Incredible. Leonard Adelan of the United States. And Basil Heatley. Oh, of where? Let us guess. Upper Shropshire. Basil.

Basil Heatley from Shropshire. He was representing. Great Britain. You don't say. Basil Hately. That was going to be one of the most English names of it. Hello, I'm Basil Eately. Oh, Basil Hately from Kenilworth.

I trained by running around my estate. Oh, I did. Kenilworth, love it. Basil. Basil Hately. Basil Eatley. I see. I see.

Basil Heidley. How do you do? It's near Birmingham, kind of. I practice running with a book on my head and a cup of tea. Never dropped a drop. Tudelu. Basil Hittley. We've really changed Basil.

But I think it's because we don't know. No. So we're like... One of the two kinds of English. No. That Basil Hittley is imposter. On the real basil. No.

I say... I'm Basil Heightly. I do declare. Hello, Basil Eakley. No, he's from the south. I do declare. I've got the vipers. So what we need to know is that those three men in order have broken the world record

and they're all racing. Yeah, right. Against a Bebe. So he's got a lot of challenges. A Bebebe began the race right behind the pack until about the 10 kilometre or 6 mile mark when he slowly increased his pace. He began to pull the wall.

and left the others in the dust. He did lead the rest of the race. Dey! Abebe entered the Olympic Stadium alone to the cheers of 75,000 spectators. The crowd had been listening on the radio and anticipated his triumphant entrance. They all knew, here he comes.

Oh my God! He finished with the time of two hours, 12 minutes, 11 seconds, which was four minutes and eight seconds ahead of silver medalist Basil Heapley. Four minutes. Four minutes. By the time Heatley entered the stadium,

Abebe had regained. his breath and was doing calisthenics and stretches. Oh my God, he's such a... What's calisthenics again? What does it like? It's a bit like gymnastics. Gymnastics. He just jumped in on another...

Yeah, he's just doing something else. Yeah. He's like, you got a spare spot? He picked up the pole vault and had a crack. Again, he didn't look tired at all. Four minutes and eight seconds ahead of Basil. And he'd also claimed, reclaimed the world record, cutting a minute 44 seconds off the world record.

A minute 44. smashed it. Holy shit. The fact that he's entered the stadium alone is pretty crazy and then the fact that he's crossed the line, everybody cheers. Everybody has time to calm down. And now we're bored because we're waiting for the others.

Like what he's grabbed the flag from someone in the crowd. He's done a full lap at the stadium. Then Basil comes in. People have gone home. Who cares, Basil? No, good effort, Basil. Well done. Yeah, good job.

Yeah, oh yeah, you're an Olympian. Oh, yeah, I guess. Third came in two weeks later. I hope they gave daylight the silver medal because Basil Hately certainly didn't deserve it. Did I mention that Abebe was running in shoes this time? Okay, so that makes a difference. That's an advantage.

That is interesting. So he only ever did two races without shoes. He won his first gold medal and then follow up race he ran without shoes again. Okay. But then he started wearing. I'll put, I'll pop my shoes back on. Yes, he was wearing pumas or possibly Adidas. Adidas.

Adidas. Just so the Americans don't lose their fucking minds. People flipped out last time I said Adidas. Yeah, it's because we're in a different country. We say it differently. There's a scene in winning time where Magic Johnson's being corded by all these shoe manufacturers to make shoes for them. Oh, yeah.

And this guy, like, just working for himself who couldn't even ever. get an appointment is trying to go hey i'm starting up this company called nike um why don't you come on board with us we want you to you're the guy you'll get shares and that sort of stuff and he ended up going with um added ass or one of the other companies and they flash on the screen what is what is it would have been worth billions wow oh wow but how like at the time it would feel like a completely reckless decision it's crazy isn't it it's like people who you know said they sold their shares at apple or something and what they could have made now. It's like, well, you made the decision that was right at the time.

Converse is who he went with. Ah, okay. Well, I mean... And they were a really cool basketball shoe back then. Adidas sponsored the games in Rome. I just looked it up, providing shoes for all participants in the running event. So that's why he was wearing Adidas when he won. Again, he was Ethiopia's only gold medalist, meaning he'd now won both medals his country had ever won.

Wow. And he returned home to another hero's welcome. The emperor promoted him to the commissioned officer rank equivalent of a lieutenant. He was also presented with a car, a white Volkswagen Beetle. Nice. That's his gift. I give you a car. Yeah, I'd take that.

Thanks very much. I've always wanted a V-dub. He's like, a little beetle. He's not getting to work a lot easier. Not quicker, about the same amount of time. Yeah. I'm pretty zippy. But, you know, days when it's raining.

Yeah. Or I just want to sleep in. It's nice to have the option. He continued to run. between Olympics, winning more marathons across the world. But in 1967, he injured his hamstring at a marathon in Spain, which was the first of many leg injuries. Ow.

Because what is he now? 35 years old. In July 1968, he travelled to Germany for treatment for circulatory ailments in his legs. The German government refused to accept payment for the medical services. Oh, that's nice. He's such a hero around the world. Oh, that's nice. Your money's not good here, mate.

Hey, hey, it's on us. A baby, we love you. Yeah. Your money's not good here, a baby. Really went for it. That was great. The machine says it's declined. It says nine.

Intent eye contact with me as you did it. Oh, I loved it. The German language is an intense language. You've got to go all in. They said, look, if you can't come up with the money, we will have to break your legs and undo the good work we've done. He rejoined the Ethiopian team for training ahead of the 1968 Mexico City Olympics, and it was discovered that he had a broken left fibula.

The doctor advised him to stay off it until race day. He entered the marathon, but sadly had to pull out after 10 miles because of the broken fibula. And the event was won by... Is that what a fibular is? Yes, down in your... It's in your calf. You're fibular and you're dynabular.

I'm not getting out of bed. No way. I guess I won't eat today. I'm starving today. If I've got a broken leg, I'm done for... If I've got a broken leg, shoot me like a horse. I am done. I'll never recover.

Pull up the sheet. Take me off life support. Doctor, you aren't on like, okay, put me on life support and turn it off. Pull the plug. I'm done. Yeah, you're... You're reaching trying to pull out all the plugs. Jesse, you're very much alive.

Your legs just in a car. This is just a normal doctor's surgery. How do you kill me then? Tell me how to kill me. So he had to pull out at the 10 mile mark and the event was won by a baby's countryman, fellow Ethiopian Mammo Wald. Oh, that's good.

Great name. Wald was very gracious and after the event said Bekela would have won the race if not for his injury. Which, when you look at the time, he's like maybe his time was eight minutes. lower than a bebe at the previous Olympics. Wow. So you go,

that's just sportsmanship and that's, you know, and especially being on the same team and stuff, you'd be disappointed for your friend, but obviously a bit stoked for yourself. Yeah. You know? There's a little asterisk next to your win. Yeah.

Yeah. Just knowing that you probably wouldn't have won that. Yeah, but I mean, it's, yeah, isn't that funny? Because that's, that's always going to be true, right? There's always someone who hasn't taken up running who would have been quicker. Oh, there's so many factors in every win and loss and whatever. Yeah, it's sort of silly to think that way.

Despite the disappointment of not completing the race, when Abebe returned home to Ethiopia, he was still greeted with a hero's welcome and promoted to the rank of captain. Oh, he just keeps getting promotions. Yeah. Every time he goes to an Olympics, he gets a promotion. This is great.

Come back. Sadly, this was to be the last marathon he ever ran because on March 22nd, 1969, tragedy struck. No. A baby. A baby lost control of his Volkswagen beetle and it overturned, trapping him inside.

At first the accident left him a quadriplegic. Paralyzed from the neck down and he never walked again. Oh no. Which for someone who's made their life from running, must be... Extra, yeah. Very hard to take. Totally.

It would be for anybody. But yeah, you're right. When your entire life has been running and, and professional sports. That's what you're known for. Just that little bit, that salt in the already big wound. A week after the accident, Abebe was transferred to Stoke Mandeville Hospital in England

where he spent eight months receiving treatment. He was visited by Queen Elizabeth II. Wow. And received Get Well cards from all over the world. She could have just sent a card? She could have, but he's very famous at this point. Where is she the queen of? Where?

Yeah. It's easy to name a country that she's not the queen of. Okay. Go on. I thought you would name a country and I'd tell you. Oh, okay. Mozambique. I think it's pronounced Mozambic way.

Damn it. The good news he was able to regain movement in his arms and began training in Paralympic sports like archery and table tennis. What? Wow. This is a quote from him. Men of success meet with tragedy. It was with the will of God that I won the Olympics

and it's with the will of God that I met with my accident. I accepted those victories as a, accept this tragedy. I have to accept both circumstances of facts of life and live happily. That is sick. Wow. That's a great outlook. And absolutely true. He participated in a games for disabled people in Norway.

And although he was invited as a guest, he beat a field of 16 in cross-country sled dog racing. What? This is a man. He'd never seen a dog in his life. He's from Ethiopia, racing against people in Norway. in sled dog racing. And he won and he proved his proving his strength and determination as an athlete.

Wow. That's ridiculous. Abebe was invited to the next Olympics in 1972 in Munich as a special guest and received a standing ovation during the opening ceremony. Oh man, that's nice. Good stuff. I love him in Germany. Is there a reason for that in particular?

They love him everywhere. I think he's just very. I think he's just loved. I think he's just loved. I'm like, the car's German. Yeah. Surgery was free in Germany. I think he's just, yeah, very well loved.

Sadly, all good things must come to an end. I really mean that I'm super bummed for this guy because he seemed like an absolute legend. A year after the 1972 Olympics, Abebe suffered cerebral hemorrhage, a complication related to his accident four years earlier. When he died, he was just 41. Oh, yeah, wow.

He was buried with full military honours. His state funeral was attended by an estimated it's 65,000 people, including the Emperor Heli Salese, who proclaimed a day of mourning for the country's national hero. In Ethiopia, he's still a national hero, and a stadium in the capital, Addis Ababa, is named in his honour. Oh, that's nice. And his legacy really lives on.

He was the first, but certainly not the last East African long-distance running champion. Abebe inspired the next generation, bringing to the forefront the now accepted relationship between endurance and high-altitude training in all kinds of sports. Yeah. Because he'd been running his whole life naturally. He's only 24 when he started training. Before that, he'd been basically preparing himself. Six of the next 14 male marathon champions after him

would be also from East Africa, either fellow Ethiopians or from neighbouring countries like Kenya and Uganda. Yeah, wow. So he sort of was a trailblazer in that way? Totally trailblazer and inspired the generations after him. That's cool. Yeah, so it's not a coincidence. He made it seem like it was a thing

an achievable thing or whatever. That's right, yep. Wow. He was survived by his wife, Uebda, three sons and a daughter. Wow. So, I mean, packed a lot into a short life.

For sure. Do you what I mean? And it's, yeah, really sad that he died so young. But, I mean, even to have that sort of outlook that he had was lovely that, you know, the victories and the tragedies

are all part of life and you have to accept them equally. That's amazing. Wow, what a story. You can see why I've wanted to do it for a. Yeah. It's just an amazing life. I'm embarrassed that I didn't,

that I didn't know his story at all. When he's such a, a legend. Such a legend. Wow, did you, is that, you didn't know either? No. And you were around then,

so I guess I don't feel too bad. Yeah, I'm sure you're watching TV. I watched him run. You're holding a torch in Italy? Yes. As a one-quarter Swiss attack. They let you have the honour.

Yeah. Yeah, no, I don't, I mean, I don't know much about marathon running in general. I don't think I could, is Steve Montagetti? Was he a marathon go? Like I know a couple of the Australian ones from when I was a kid. Ballarat. John D. Castella. So they're the two that are, they're probably the only two marathon runners I could name.

Okay. He was the mustache one. Right. I think he was just before Steve Montagetty is he won a, I don't know, some sort of a medal. Some sort of a medal. But, you know, I can't remember. He probably won a gold in the Commonwealth.

I don't know how we went in the Olympics. Yeah, okay, yeah. Because the East African runners have been so dominant. Yeah. Since, obviously, 9060. Are you saying that a factor of that is the high altitude? I believe high altitude and body type does. Isn't that fascinating?

Because he was a very, he's quite short and very slim. I think he only weighed 55 kilos of a baby. Wow. And long distance runners do tend to be that sort of, They're bean poles. They're very lean, whereas like sprinters will be a bit, a bit more musly in the legs in particular. That's sort of power.

Yeah. Whereas long distance runners, yeah, they tend to be very, very lean. Very lean. He definitely. Isn't that fascinating that just your body type can make you like better at a certain type of sport than another? Yeah, that's right. It's amazing.

I guess it's obvious with basketball. You're taller. It's an advantage. But yeah, for running. But I guess also you get skinnier by running marathons. Yeah. And you work on different, you work on bulking up to be a sprinter. Yeah.

They do more weights and stuff, I suppose. Yeah. I've just looked up Robert DeCestell. He won Commonwealth Gold in 82 and 86 and the 83 World Championship Marathon. Yeah, right. Helsinki. Cool. Yeah, fascinating.

What a story. Yeah, the marathon is such a, because it's kind of long history, right? It's like, what's it? It's named after somewhere in Greece or something. Is that that one? Yeah. Yes, a guy delivering a message of a victory, I think, to marathon. Yeah, so it's got quite a long history, and that's why it's that specific distance and stuff.

But, yeah, I just, I mean, I've got friends who've started doing a few occasionally, and I'm like, the 10 to 15K is like my peak. I just feel like it'd be, even doing a half one. Yeah, it's a lot. But it's like, and that's, again, I guess where it sort of comes into your body type and your different capabilities and stuff. You won't run for a while and then to start getting back into running, you'll start with a 5K. Whereas I need to work up to a 5k. It takes me ages to get to a 5K. Yeah, I guess I'm sort of more of a naturally got a, like a, just a slim.

Yeah. Slim legs and whatever, lanky. Whereas sprinting is power. Yeah. Yeah, which I don't really have. Yeah, it's really interesting. I find it really fascinating. Yeah, the origin of marathon.

from the legend of Philippides, who was a Greek messenger after the scene of a victory over the Persians in 490 BC. The modern race is based on the tradition that a messenger, Philippides, ran from Marathon to Athens and the distance was 22 miles. Okay, there you go. Right. From Marathon. From Marathon to Athens to say, hey, we won. But the original account from Herodotus says that you may have run 150 miles, so who knows. Okay.

That's quite a difference. A lot more. Were you in school and stuff, were you more of a short distance run-up? Yeah, sprinter, 100 metres. That's why, and you, like, do, like, famously have, do, like, a ton on leg press. Yeah, I can, I haven't done it for a long time,

but I could leg press a ton, yes. You know, they say, like, You're ever trapped, like, under rubble? Yeah, it would just be able to leg press your way out of it. People tell stories about mothers lifting cars off their children, not me. No. Leg press enough of children. Help, help, my baby's stuck.

Let me just get in position. Have you got a leg press? You guys got something I can lean on that for a second, please? Yeah, it's exactly like, yeah, my very few regrets in my life, but one would be if I could go back and tell my 20-year-old self to start lifting weights, it's going to be a lot, yeah, stop trying to be a long-distance runner. You're not. So don't stop doing it.

It hurts and it's bad. for you. Do something else. You can lift stuff. You're strong. Oh, okay. Start saving babies. Imagine the babies you could have saved.

I know. So many babies are dead because of me. So many. Yeah. Anyway. It's good that you own it. When you die and God says, look, there's no afterlife, luckily for you,

because you killed a lot of babies. Well, you didn't kill them. But you didn't not kill them. You didn't save them either. You didn't save them. Well, you could have. Anyway, that's it. No-night.

No-night. No-no. I'm not real. Okay, God. Bye. Wait, God, what? Yeah. That's how it gets you.

He does a bit of a prank on you. Because you die sort of going, hang on a second. Dead. Damn it. Yeah, he's good. Dave, does that bring us everyone's favorite section of the show? I believe it does. Now we're through all the formalities.

What a fantastic report. I really did enjoy it. I loved all those little stories in the story as well. Yeah, a lot of fun. We went on a journey. A lot of story. A be a story. Abebe.

Abebe. So good. All right. Well, this brings us to everyone's favorite section of the show where we thank a lot of our great supporters. Without whom, this show would not exist. If you want to get involved, you can go to dogoonpod.com or patreon.com slash dugompod. These links are in the show notes. And you can sign up on all sorts of different levels.

There's different rewards for different levels. Dave, do you have any examples there? Hey, we put out three bonus episodes. for our Patreon supporters ears only. And those three episodes over the years are really added up now. There's close to 150 for you to listen to right now if you support us at that level.

So lots of stuff there. And also you can be part of the Facebook Patreon group, a lovely corner of the internet, possibly the only lovely corner of the internet. We'll tell you about shows before anyone else. You get discounts, tickets, and also you get to vote for topics. So you really steer the show.

And also, you get to power your life and the satisfaction that you get from helping us out. Yeah. Power your life through. Power your life with that. That's like, talk about like renewable energy. Yeah, you'll never pay an electricity bill again.

And the first thing we like to do is a section we call the fact quote or question section, which has a little jingle, goes something like this, I think. Fact quote or question. Always remembers the ding. And on this one, if you sign up on the Sydney-Shaunberg level, you get to give us a fact, a quote or a question or a suggestion or a brag or whatever you like really. You also get to give yourself a title. I don't read these out until I read them out.

I'll tell you that for nothing. And that's just in case I mispronounce anything. I'm so defensive about it. I've never read it before. I've never read them, okay? I haven't practiced this a lot in my bedroom earlier. I can't read. Doing my best.

All right. So the first one this week comes from Sam Cash. You also get to give yourself a title, and Sam's title is Brigadier General of the sausage submarine of the sky. Brigadier. Brigadier General of the sausage submarine of the sky. Love that. I love what Brigadier General Cash. Do you think a sausage submarine would be a euphemism for a dick?

Maybe. Yeah, a submarine of the sky, there's a lot going on there. It's got beautiful stuff. It's my skydick. It's my skydick. I don't know if this is this like have we called the like a blimp or something a sausage submarine of the sky in the past? We should have. If we didn't, that was a missed opportunity.

As always, these titles, I never know if they're referring to something we've said. But often, you know, there's a clue in the fact quota question that he's offered. And Sam is offering us a fact this week. Great. And it reads, I wouldn't dream of calling this a fun fact. I'll leave that to Jess. But... Thank you, Sam.

It's my decision to make. During World War I... Yes, here we go. German zeplans were used for precise bombing runs. The gas-filled crafts were up to 240 metres long. The amount of resources required to produce them had a huge impact on the country. To produce the helium gas bladders, the Germans found the best material with the least amount of gas leakage was cow guts. The very same cow guts used for sausage casing.

Ah, so it's all making sense. During the heart of the Zeppelin construction, the production of sausages was outlawed in Germany and occupied parts of Austria, Poland and France. Each Zeppelin used approximately 250,000 cows or 30 million potential sausages. Fuck. Love the pod, keep up the amazing work,

and catch you guys when you make it to the States. Cheers. Cheers to you, Sam Cash. 250,000 cows. It's got to be a better way. What would all those cowards be doing now for work? They've got cows to tend. Thank you very much for that great fat.

I just wanted to call back to that good joke-up earlier. Very clever observation. I just wanted to bring that back so people remember, God, she's clever. The only problem is, Jess, a lot of people skip the first half of the show and come straight to everyone's favourite section so they won't get the call back. That's true. Well, go back and if you've got time, listen to the actual episode. Yeah, listen to the preamble.

I think you'll like it. I think you'll find it interesting and informative. even fun. Yeah, it's not everyone's favourite, but it's still pretty good. It's pretty good. Thank you, Sam, Brigadier General.

The next one comes from Saraj Pyrrhus. And I caught up with Saraj a couple times during the festival. Always a pleasure. He's one of our great supporters. What a guy. What a guy. What a guy.

And he got, I don't, have I talked about it on the pod before how I, one of my favorite drinks as a kid, or if I'm ever out at a country bakery, I always get the Portello. Oh, yes. Portello and a,

Nanish tart. Yeah. It's sort of like my nostalgia meal at a country bakery. And he found a beer that is a portello beer. So he came and dropped off a four pack of them at my show. That's good. I haven't tried them yet, but I'm really excited to. Anyway, Saraj, aka bingo enthusiast and ungrateful child.

Okay. Saraj is offering a brag. Let's see if this sheds any light on that. that title. I think it's all pretty self-explanatory. That's true. Love's bingo

is a piece of shit. Saraj's brag is following Michelle Brazier's challenge slash advice on the Fast and the Furious episode I saw Hong Kong, Haba Haba Ring a Ding ding ding, reform the live pods and the quiz shows. Oh, remember, yeah, Michelle said go see them all.

That's right. That is such great effort. Nobody would have thought of that if Michelle hadn't said Thank you so much, Michelle, for putting that in Saraget's head. So Saraj says, I'm calling bingo. I don't have a sick brother, but my mum just got back from hospital. When can I expect Michelle to tell my mum to fuck off? P.S, my mum's fine.

PPS. I didn't make up the big things bingo myself. That was posted by Matt. Huh. So, yeah, Saraj in the Facebook group, he did a big thing bingo card where he took photos in front of all. these big things around Australia. Does he mean that I posted it?

I have no recollection of that. You don't remember anything, though. You're an old man. That's true. I've got an old brain. We love Saraj. Saraj is just an absolute delight. It was a pleasure seeing you in the front row at the Comedy Festival, my friend.

Cheers, Saraj. All right, the next one comes from Paul Meller. Paul is giving himself the title, Just a Bloke, Walking His Dog, while listening to Dogo, I love Paul's, he posts photos on Twitter of his walks, I've said this before. He lives in some lovely spot in England. They're always just these lovely shots of the forest or something. Oh, that's nice.

Very nice. Paul has a question, writing, so I'm on holiday at the moment, taking two weeks off work. I hope you're enjoying yourself, Paul. This week, my family and I've travelled to the Cotswolds and are living in a country cottage and enjoying some well-earned downtime. That sounds so amazing. It got me things.

thinking, I could really get used to this. Other than some organised day trips, I'm just really enjoying going for a walk with the dog and no pressures, treating ourselves to some nice food and a few cheeky beers of an evening. Wake up whenever we feel like at the next day and repeat. Almost sounds like a brag now. But I guess my question is, what do you like to do most on holidays? Keep up the great work. Just listen to the Island of Dr. Moreau live episode.

Very, very funny report, Jess. That's a good question, but I think, I feel like you've, I don't know what my answer would have been, but I feel like my answer now is whatever you just said. Yeah. That sounds so good. Oh, man. You've also asked that question at a time when I am quite burnt out. Yeah.

Just hearing about Paul's holiday, I felt my body physically relax. That made me feel good too. Yeah. Dave, sorry, you were going to answer. You had something locked and loaded. Oh, I love it. love just to walk around. Yeah, have a little explore.

Yeah, long walk and I also love to go to the local supermarket, see what they've got that we don't have. Yeah, that's true. Love that. Yeah, I love a walk as well. I like, I don't know, I think I used to sort of like being a classic tourist more, you know, and like seeing things and you've come all this way, you're going to be out and about, you've got to be doing stuff, but now I am very busy in my life, so when I have a break,

I like to just do it as little as possible. I love to be on a beach, walk on a beach, sit by a fire. Like I like to be able to put my feet up a little bit and not have to like check my emails. Having a fresh air. Yeah, not have a deadline for a little bit. It's nice. Totally with you. I used to think that I'd be so bored on those beach holidays.

You do nothing. I want to go out and do things. And then I part of the, when I won that trip to Mexico with Taco Bill, it was part of it was in the Mexico city, seeing stuff, big city. one of the biggest ones in the world. And then the other part was going to Lume on the beach at a resort. And I loved doing nothing. I think a bit of a mix is ideal. Yeah, it was fantastic.

Just at a resort, like, you know, you go to the beach. You sit by the pool. See things, do stuff. And you're still feeling good because you don't have that sort of pressures of work stuff to do or whatever. You don't have to be rushing home, you know, by a certain time. That's nice. But you've got to have an element of just being a bit of a piece of shit. get some sleep wake up whenever you want nice visit the breakfast buffet yes that's what i love doing

on holidays breakfast buffets yeah he loves the breakfast buffet pandemic has really killed them a little bit remember that tiny banana in uh in Thailand it was a tiny little banana i don't remember that at all yeah there's a photo on our instagram you want to see it i think i rarely get to have holidays where there is a breakfast buffet available but i yeah you're not in dave's tax bracket that's true When you travel like Dave travels, there's a bloody breakfast buffet. They call it the buffet bracket. No, it's a Buffett. Warren Buffett.

Yeah, Ian Warren Buffett. Thank you very much, Paul. Great question. Geez, that did make me dream a little bit. Yeah, I just felt much more relaxed. And finally, Nathan Swap, okay, a connoisseur of victory pastries. Pastries. Pastries.

I thought it was going to be pasties. Oh, anyway. A connoisseur of victory pastries. It's probably good to remind them that you don't read them before you read them. I love pastries. Nathan's also got a question, which is, the Hubble. The Hubble. The Humble croissant is often considered French,

but its origins lay in Vienna, Austria. A predominant myth is that croissants were baked after the failed Ottoman siege of Vienna in 1683. The Christian forces made the pastries in the shape of the Ottoman crescent moon. However, this remains a myth as no origins can be confirmed. So my question for everyone is what pastry or bake good would you want to celebrate a victory over your mortal enemy? And we always, and as Paul did, or love a, if you're asking a question in this section, answer. And Nathan answers saying, my answer is either a nice cake donut or a big load.

loaf of banana bread. She's that a really rubber into your enemies. A big loaf of banana bread. I want something that you can have with like a cup of tea or a coffee or something. Fantastic. That's nice.

I love a chocolate cake. I make these ginger cookies that are, I love them very much. Mmm. I do love croissants. So does my dog and I always say it's because he's French. But now that I know they're not,

they might not be French. Maybe the dog's not French. Oh my God. Austrian? Is the Austrian bulldog? I'll still love him. I'm just, I just confused.

Yeah, I mean, I just mentioned Nenish Tarts. Do they count as a baked? A pasty. I love a pasty sauce. Yes. And then a Nanish Tart and a bottle of Portello.

Oh my God, yes. Yeah, that's victory. That's victory. If I'm at that country bakery with you. Yeah. If I'm at that country bakery with you, what's Portello? Like, what's,

it's just, It's like a soft drink that's, you know. What sort of flavouring is it? It's meant to be like pork, like grapes. Okay. I mean, I don't think it tastes like any. It's just colours and chemicals. Because I'd be going for like a Pasciona.

Ooh. Or a Paco. Oh, Kirk's. And I'd go a parsley as well and then a lemon tart. Oh, yeah. Delish. That's a... Or a Big M.

Fantastic. Or a Kiwa Valley strawberry, depending on where we are. Yeah, whatever. Or Nippies iced coffee if it's available. Love a Nippies. My victory meal is meat pie, chocolate nippies, watch it all down with a jelly slice. I've never. I don't, I mean, I like to think I don't hold grudges, but ever since nippies...

Yeah, didn't want to give us free nippies. Yeah, the... Well, it wasn't free. It was going to be a sponsorship thing. Yeah, but they were going to give us nippies. We've never talked about that on the air. We would probably explain that we nearly had a nippy sponsorship deal. Yeah, it all went sour.

One at Nippies wanted to do it, and there was this conversation that was happening, and then the big boss at Nipi said, no. You may not. We will not be associated with them. I don't think I've had a nippy's since. Every time I give blood and I have the option of nippies, I'm like, I want it, but it doesn't taste as good as it would have. No, not as sweet.

And we would have given them the biggest wrap. Would have been the best. Yeah, we're big Nippies fans. Biggest plug. All I had to do was send us a couple of nippies. That's all we wanted. Well, we show them. We'll never talk about them on this podcast.

They miss their shot. We'll never talk about how much we love their products. Not once. Nope. The beautiful big straws. Yes, good-sized straw. Anyway, what are we doing? I got lost thinking about nippies and victory pastries.

The other thing we like to do on the show is thank a few of our other great supporters. Just you normally have a bit of a game to do with the topic. We just explored. Do we give them an event that they... Oh yeah. They meddling? They don't have to get gold. Stop meddling in my events.

So they could get a poo medal. They could get a poo medal. Okay. They're probably on the podium, I guess. All right. Well, if I may kick us off... Pudium. Yes.

Now is that a pun, Dave. It is, and it sucks. So please continue. Go on. Please continue. New show title. If I could kick us off, I'd love to think,

ooh, it looks like from address unknown. can only assume deep from within the fortress of the Moles is where they reside. I'd love to thank Richard Clouton or Cloughton. Richard Clouton. It could be Clofton. Clofton. Oh, that's good. I mean, if we knew where they were from, we could have a better guess.

It's Irish, it could be Clofton, I guess. I could be completely wrong. Let's say Clouton. Richard Clouton has a bit of a feel of like a real gentleman's sport. You know, like I'm thinking track and field. I'm thinking shopport? Javelin. Javelin.

Javelin, what kind of medal? Silver. Silver. Silver medal and javelin. Love that. Yeah. Silver medal and javelin. Well done, Richard.

Cloughton or Cloughton or Cloughton. Nailed it. Let's just call him Dickie C. Dickie C. I'd also love to thank from Watsonia North here in Victoria, Australia. Jill Welch. Jill Welch. Welch.

Welch. That says swimmer to me. Me too. Squelch. Butterfly. Butterfly. That's a tough one. Madam Butterfly.

Before Susie O'Neill. And after. Wow. Susie O'Neill had a brief interlude. As Madam Butterfly. That's Madam Butterfly. But Jill, either side. Wow.

That's a legacy, Jill. Yeah. The Jill Welch sandwich sandwich. And with a legacy like that, we're going golds all the way through. Yeah. Gold, gold, gold, gold, gold, gold, gold, gold. Gold, gold, gold, gold. then platinum.

I invented a new medal. Yeah, because they were like, Jill, it's embarrassing how much you're winning by. Yeah. We've got to give other people a go. And so rather than adding one at the bottom, we're going to add one to the top. Love it. And finally for me, also from Address Unknown, also assuming from deep within the fortress of the moles, it is a one-nameer, Stefan or Stefan.

Stefan. Or Stefan. It's hard to know without more information. The passion does not give a lot away, but that's why they are so good at being undercover in the hide-and-seek Olympics. Yes. Yeah. So.

And Stefan hid originally at the, was it the... Atlanta Olympics? Yeah, I think so. In the toilet there? Never found. Yeah. Still haven't been found. It's the longest reigning champion.

That's right. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, we hope Stefan's okay. Yeah, I think Stefan disappeared. I'd give the gold medal to his widow. Who's still calling themselves the wife, but holding on the hope. But the media does keep saying widow, she does not like it.

And I mean, Stefan, by supporting our show, sort of suggests. Alive. Alive and well. And Stefan, well done. An order to have you. Thank you so much. I love calling Atlanta Olympics. That's what Roan HG is running jokes.

at Sydney, they'd go Atlanta, oh yeah, the toilet. What an awful Olympics. May I thank some people as well? I'd love it if you could. Thank you so much. I would love to thank from Greenway in the Australian-Caboard of Territory here in Australia, Kate, Beath. Kate, Beath is a great name.

K-B. That sounds, Kate Beath, that sounds to me like a gymnast that, like, specialises in The Vault. Oh, okay. Kate Beath. Yeah, Kate Beath. I feel like Kate Beath is a gold medalist in the Commonwealth Games and a silver medalist in the Olympics. Fucking hell, you'd take that, wouldn't you?

I'd take that. I'd take that. I'd take that. Any day of the way. I'd love to have been good at gymnastics. Or anything, again, would love that. Kate Beath. Well done, Kate Beath.

What a pleasure to have you. I would also love to thank from Bickley in Western Australia, Karina Smeets. Smeets. Smeets. Smeets in Lane 1. I'm thinking 400 meters. Okay.

And the 4 by 400. That's what I reckon. What leg of the race? Anchor. Really bringing it home. Which is an important leg as we were discussing. Yeah. I mean, in the 400, there's no, there's no, you know, because you just don't 400.

But the 4 by 400, yeah, anchor. In the Solvement, you are your own anchor? You are your own anchor. Isn't that beautiful? You only have you to rely on. Your own anchor. That's a nice lesson. Oh, that's beautiful.

Thank you, Karina Smeats. And finally, for me, I'd love to thank from Werribee in Victoria. A bunch of Aussies for me today. Benjamin Kleinberg. Benjamin Kleinberg. That's a really fun name. I'm getting like a winter Olympic vibe. Yes.

Like, you know, like a long distance speed skate. Like 5,000 metres. Yeah, okay, yeah. Great. Endurance. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And like a bit of a, I feel like Australia. that he's getting more and more involved in the Winter Olympics.

Yeah. And he's really sort of like a pioneer of his sport, which is very cool. Like the next generations, we'll see Benjamin Kleinberg is a real legend of the game. Thank you so much, Benjamin Kleinberg. Hey, I would like to thank now from San Juan Capistrano in California. It is Craig and Becca Cousins.

Okay, so like a doubles event. Great. I feel like is it only equestrian that both men and women compete? At the same event. Yeah, or I was thinking like figure skating. Oh, okay, a little bit of a Torval and Dean. Yeah. Mix tennis. Do they have that at the Olympics?

Were you asking for real answers? Because you're thinking Summer Olympics. I was thinking of Summer, but yes, you're absolutely right for the... I guess so. I can't think of other things. Yeah, because other like the water sports. and stuff are male and female, I believe. So we could go equestrian.

But then I kind of want them to both be on the horse at the same time. Oh, can we, yeah, I mean, we don't have to be restricted by... True, you made up the hide and seek Olympics. What? It's supposed to be a secret. So yeah, you can make something up or you can go with equestrian or a winter sport. What about a snow equestrian? Okay.

So are you on horses or are you on ski doos? Or snow leopards. Yeah, what are you riding? All three. You're on ski doze pulled by a snow leopard and it's a race. But also a judged event for how beautiful you look. While you do it? Exactly.

Wow, that's ski-do. That has beautiful braids. You get in a time and then an average score out of ten and then you add them together and whoever's got the highest score. There's a swimsuit section. No, no, that doesn't work. There's a swimsuit section That ski do looks beautiful in a bikini

A lot of high beams on Let me tell you I just like saying ski do It's your time minus your score out of ten Right Okay yeah yeah That's um That's bonkers

If I could be honest But thank you Craig and Becker cousins And sorry for this I will say that they're the only people That do it in the world So they are automatic gold medalists Yeah Wow.

That's clever. And they challenge people to contest them. On their skidoo's. I would like to think now from unknown location. Can I think we've got another mole fortress dweller. We've got a bit to work with the name, though. Oscar Terry Young. Oh, Terry.

Terry. Great to have you on board, Terry. Always good to have you on board, Terry. Obviously, we were shouting out to you before and you don't like. Dave was saying you don't really like us shouting. Mainly because your first name is Oscar. Yeah. Give me the wrong name.

O-T-Y. What's O-T-Y, the Olympian of? The Olympian of freshest food fighter. Okay. Amazing. Again, is it, like, judged on accuracy of throwing the food, but also how fresh and good the food is? Yeah, that's right.

So done of these rotten tomato stuff. You've got to cook your own food fresh, and then you have the food for it. So it's hot. Yeah, and the judges come in then and eat the food. So it's hot food that you're throwing. So you're burning people. What if I've made a soup?

It's multifaceted. I really hope you haven't made a soup. You know how I'm, my soups are always too hot. I know, that's why you'll never make it in this event. They're far too hot my soups. But they, we will. No, so yeah, so it's multifaceted.

There's the cooking. There's the accuracy and there's the taste. The quality of the food. Wow. Yeah, that's a lot. Yeah, no soups allowed. Sorry, Jess. Okay, well, I'm out.

Yeah. That feels like a very much anti-Jess rule. It was. You burned a lot of people. I don't know how to control temperatures of soups. Literally and figuratively. Oscar Terry Young, though. Yeah.

Fantastic fresh food fighter. So what sort of metal position I'll be looking at? Cake. Cake metal. Nice. But then it is put on a... table with real medals and the judges have to identify which one is cake. I've been watching a bit of is it cake lately.

Is it cake? Great question. And Oscar Terry Young can answer. And your final shout out there, David? Final shout out. Another mole fortress dweller, unknown location of Shauna Utper. Uttber. Shona Utper.

Horse drawerer. So, yeah. So while the equestrian event is on, Shauna draw, well, Shauna is very good at it too, but I mean the whole field draws the horses and the best drawing wins. Wins what?

Wins a medal and Shawna won the gold-plated medal. Yep. Which is what they, I mean, all the gold medals are just gold-plated. But Shauna likes to be honest about it. I don't really think it was a gold medal.

Sean says it's only gold-plated. Right. And everyone's like, yeah, I mean, that's all gold medals, isn't it? And she says, I don't know. And that thrilling conversation was, of course, worth repeating. Yeah. Well, it's one of the most famous interviews Bruce McIvaney ever did. I mean, they're all gold-plated, Sean.

Well, I didn't know that, so. Okay. Well, good, good to know, I suppose. Thank you, Sean. Oscar, Craig and Becca, Benjamin, Karina, Kate, Stefan, Jill and Richard. And the last thing we like to do is welcome members into the Triptage Club. Only one this week. Okay.

So the Triptage Club is a place you get entry into, lifetime entry, if you support us on the shoutout level or above, for three straight years. And once you come in, you enter the club, I'm standing on the door, I'm the door man. I've got the door list. I pull up the Velvet Road. welcome you in. Dave's on stage insider, so is everyone else has been welcomed in before, and they're cheering you on.

Dave is hyping you up, the crowd's chanting your name. Dave gives you a little tickle, a little ego tickle. Not a physical one. By doing some sort of a weak pun on your name or your city of origin, and then Jess sort of builds up Dave.

Yeah, I will not be touching the patrons. And Jess, you normally have a cocktail named after the episode as well? Yeah, well, actually, what I have now is everything is Olympic themed and I've got a food for each

Olympic, like I've got the Olympic rings laid out on the table but in food. Yeah, it's beautiful. Yeah, so it's really nice actually.

And they're all soup. It's all soup. Five different coloured soup. I got green soup. Yeah. You know, I've got all the soups. Black soup.

I've got black soup. It's not good. No, it's very burnt. It's very bad soup. But, It hits the color markers. Yeah. Visually beautiful.

Don't eat it. Don't eat it. Maybe it's the red one. That's okay. It's tomato. But it's too hot. I will warn you. It's the edible one, but it's far too hot.

You've got to give it quite a bit of time to cool off. It's a very hot soup. It's a hot soup. Dave, you normally book a band as well? Yes, we are so fortunate to have booked. I've been... In contact with these guys for months, they managed to sort of give me the run around, I'll be honest. But I've been able to lock them in this week.

That is the band Marathon. Oh, that's convenient. Performing their hit songs, some lovely parting gifts, and I don't have a dancing problem. Yeah. Very defensive marathon. I don't have a dancing problem. I'm fully in control of my dancing. That's from their 2005 self-piled.

So Marathon will play the after party. grab yourself some soup get ready to say Do not eat it Whatever you do Let it cool for at least three hours It's so hot Oh my God

And probably avoid the blue and black suits Don't either bloom black And Looking forward to hearing marathon But before we get to that Let's welcome in This week's new inductee To the Triptage Club

From Surrey Hills Here in Victoria Australia It's Sam Cross Oh I was cross But now I'm happy Sam Cross Go on Matt Find a floor in that.

That was perfect. That was fantastic, Dave. Thank you. I returned to form. Finally. Jess felt so strongly about it. She didn't even hype you up. Didn't need to.

I just went straight for his main criticiser. And I... You defended me. Yeah. Defended Your Honor. So welcome in. Sam. Make yourself at home.

Enjoy the soup. Don't eat it. Please don't eat. You've got to give it quite a bit of time. So much time. I'd get something else in the meantime. Before we go, Jess. Is there anything we need to tell people?

That you can suggest a topic in the show notes or also at our website, do go onpod.com. You can find us at do go on pod on all social media and you can contact us at do go on pod at gmail.com. Dave, I think that's all we've got to on for. Absolutely love it. And I'll just add on to the end of that with suggesting a topic. Oh, okay.

I forgot something. No, I'm just going to say. No, it's fine. Just fucking tell them about the socials as well because I probably fucked that up, didn't I? Because I'm an idiot. No, I just want to say, if you're from a part of the world

that we don't often report on. I don't think we've ever done an Ethiopian-based story before. You've got a local story or a hero or something. We'd love to know about it. We'd love to expand our horizons. And so, yeah, that'll be really cool. Do you think?

I'm not talking to you. All right, Dave, boot this baby home. Hey, we'll be back next week with another episode. And until then, also thank you so much. And goodbye. Later. Bye. Your money's not good here, a baby.

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