Halford & Brough in the Morning - The Best Of Halford And Brough 7/30/24
Episode Date: July 30, 2024Jason & Josh look back at the previous day in sports including a couple gold medals for Canada, they discuss the top Canadian athletes in the 2000's and chat with CBC's Devin Heroux to shine some ligh...t onto the greatness of Summer McIntosh in the pool and the high expectations of her moving forward. This podcast is produced by Andy Cole and Greg Balloch. The views and opinions expressed in this podcast are those of the hosts and guests and do not necessarily reflect the position of Rogers Media Inc. or any affiliate.
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You're listening to the best of Halford and Brough.
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It is Halford & Brough we got four guests today big show
starting at 6 30 it's going to be zach warden we're going to talk blue jays they made a couple
trades again yesterday it's been an active deadline for the team so far and uh the actual
deadline at three o'clock today today yeah yes okay all right so who's left kikuchi
kikuchi got traded right reportedly or is that official i believe it's a done deal yeah the
astros put it out first i think all right okay first we thought it was just one player and then
and then all three players there was a lot of players in it and they got anyone left
um they can like chris bassett's name has been out, but we'll talk to Zach about that and see who else is out there.
At 7 o'clock, Devin Heroux.
He is in Paris covering the Olympics on the ground for CBC's
The Poolside Reporter.
So it's going to be a lot of swimming talk.
Summer McIntosh with a gold medal yesterday.
Her first.
It was a really good win.
Okay, is there anything I need to know about Devin?
Has he ever had anything devastating happen to him
during his career?
You'll find it.
Yeah, I don't want to ask him a question like,
has this ever happened to you?
Yes, famously it happened to me,
and it was devastating,
because I don't want to go through
what we went through yesterday.
No, I think you'll be okay.
I think you'll be okay.
All right.
730 Brady Henderson covers the Seahawks for ESPN training camp underway
and new coach, new offensive coordinator,
a lot of changes for the Seahawks.
So we'll get into how this training camp looks,
how they're shaping up ahead of the season as well.
And at 8 o'clock, TJ Lee, defensive back for your BC Lions.
He's back from injury and BC Lions in action this week against the Winnipeg Blue Bombers.
So we'll get into all of that with TJ Lee.
So working in reverse, 8 o'clock, TJ Lee, 7.30, Brady Henderson, 7 o'clock,
Devin Heroux, and 6.30, Zach Warden.
That is what's happening.
Now let's tell everybody what happened.
Hey, did you guys see the game last night?
No.
What happened?
I missed all the action because I was...
We know how busy your life can be.
What happened?
You missed that?
What happened?
What Happened is brought to you by the BC Construction Safety Alliance,
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And we've mentioned it.
I think we start with the Summer McIntosh gold medal win yesterday.
She destroyed the field in the 400 individual medley.
It's not a surprise that Summer is having success at these Olympics.
It was largely expected that she would be one of the good stories for Canada,
but it's still awesome that she's actually doing it.
She is just 17 years old.
She's got two individual events left along with
potentially two more relays.
I heard the announcer yesterday call her a
generational talent.
And, you know, when you start in the Olympics at 14 and you're winning gold medals by a considerable margin too.
Yeah.
At the age of 17, you know, I think that's a fair term to use to describe her.
Now, she still has a long way to go to catch someone like katie ledecky who's
swimming in these olympics as well ledecky has won seven olympic gold medals and 21 world
championship gold medals that's the most in history for a female swimmer um but i do wonder
if uh penny alexiak's records could be in trouble. And, uh, Penny Alexiak, uh, has won one
gold, three silver and three bronzes.
Um, now she started out as a very young
swimmer as well.
I think she was 16 years old in her, in her
first Olympics.
So, um, you never know what can happen to a
career and you don't want to sit here and put
expectations for the next, you know, 12 years on summer Macintosh.
But what we're seeing in the pool is, is really
impressive.
And I know that this is something I found out
about Josh Elliott-Wolf.
He keeps a running power ranking of the greatest
Canadian athletes since 2000.
Yeah.
So of this century, of this current century,
he keeps a running power ranking of those athletes
on his bedroom wall, which is...
Yeah, my fiance hates it.
Yeah, and it's being updated quite constantly.
So I don't know if you've got the most recent
10 athletes in front of you right now.
I don't know if you've started to write out Summer McIntosh's name.
She's probably not on that list quite yet, but she might be on it.
She's on the board.
She's a prospect for Josh Elliott Wolfe's power ranking in his bedroom.
Yeah, so here's the top 10 that I'll throw out.
So you've got the current list right now.
I've got the current list.
Is it in order?
I wouldn't say it's in order, but it's maybe kind of in order, and we can I'll throw out. So you've got the current list right now. I've got the current list. Is it in order? I wouldn't say it's in order.
Okay.
But it's maybe kind of in order and we can maybe figure it out.
Okay.
All right.
But I know at the top, number one is Christine Sinclair.
Okay.
Then I would have Sidney Crosby.
Okay.
Steve Nash is on the list.
George St. Pierre is on the list.
Okay.
Andre de Grasse, I think I would put on the list.
Marie-Philippe Poulin.
Haley Wickenheiser.
I had Tessa Virtue and Scott Moyer as one.
They're like the Sedins.
They're just going to count as one.
And Connor McDavid, Joey Votto, Damian Warner.
That feels like more than 10.
It's around 10.
So how many hockey players are on there?
I had Sid, Connor McDavid.
Wickenheiser, Poulin.
Okay.
So Haley Wickenheiser has five Olympic medals, four gold, one silver.
She's ashamed of that silver.
Mary Philippe Poulin has, I think she's got three gold.
Not 100% sure. I think she's got three. Yeah, she's got three gold. Not 100% sure of that.
I think she's got three.
Yeah, she's got three gold and one silver, so that's four medals.
And also just terrific hockey players.
And then you mentioned Sid's on there and Connor McDavid's on there.
Connor McDavid's on there.
Connor McDavid's already in there.
I think so.
Okay.
I think that's right.
The other questionable ones you would put in there for hockey would be like maybe Jerome
McGinn, maybe Joe Thornton, Chris Pronger, but he was kind of-
I mean, there's a lot of great hockey players that could be on that list.
But I kind of think the others deserve more of a spot or at least-
Right.
Right.
So you've got Steve Nash and that's the only basketball player?
Yes.
If you're watching these Olympics right now, he's SGA in the conversation.
That's what I was going to say.
He and Natta, we won't give out the score yet,
but if we're talking about the whiteboard that I have at home,
he is listed faintly on the side like slightly below summer
McIntosh I think SGA and he's in the conversation for sure I think he has to do a little bit more
both in the NBA and potentially at the international level but if Canada was to like unexpectedly win
gold in this tournament beat the U.S. right and and he's a massive part of it, which he's expected to be.
That would vault him up high.
Now, someone takes it in, where is Donovan Bailey?
Donovan Bailey is in the previous century.
Yes.
That was 1996 Atlantic Games where he won gold for Canada.
It's an interesting conversation to have,
especially during the Olympics.
Do we have any judokas on the list?
Because I found out that word yesterday.
You found out that word yesterday?
Judoka?
I did not know that a person who did judo was called a judoka.
Yeah.
And then I was like, well, they must call someone who does karate something,
and they call them Karataka?
That doesn't sound right.
Thomas Trance?
Karataka?
Thomas Trance? Karataka?
No, but that's... Karatika?
Karatika? I don't know.
Karatika. I think that's
if it's a judoka.
I guess that's right. Karatika?
I have no
idea, but I know that we've got the first gold medal in judo in Canadian history.
Krista Deguchi.
We watched it and we had no idea how it happened or why.
Yeah.
I figured it out later.
Did you figure it out later?
How did they award points?
Because we were like, that looks like a point.
Yeah.
It's not a point.
I don't even know if the points ended up factoring in.
What happened was her opponent penalized out.
So like the yellow cards that appear.
And here's the thing as well.
We were watching this without audio.
So the commentators are probably describing it very well and giving everyone all the information.
We get to guess.
But the two yellow cards that come up, I believe you only get three penalties before you are dis information. Right. We get to guess. But the two yellow cards that come up,
I believe you only get three penalties
before you are disqualified.
Okay.
And her opponent got three penalties.
What were the penalties for?
Did you figure that out?
Didn't get to the bottom of that one.
I believe it's like places you're not.
I think I read that.
One was hooking.
There was a holding.
Maybe a trip.
I think there was a puck over glass at one point.
No, you want to be tripping them.
Oh, yeah, tripping is good.
Tripping is good.
Oh, okay, right, right, right.
This is professional tripping.
Right, okay, all right.
I read that the opponent had trouble,
or was going to have trouble taking her down,
so she was trying to goad her
into all sorts of, like,
schoolyard nonsense, right?
And that's why it ended up going the way it did.
She was enacting hijinks,
and it didn't work. It didn't work. Wow. So I guess that's why it ended up going the way it did she was she was enacting hijinks yeah it didn't work it didn't work wow so i guess that's how uh that's how she went uh there's a bunch of
texts coming in about your uh list where's all the soccer players on the list well he mentioned
christine sinclair are you gonna put alfonso davies on that list you know what? The guy I was going to potentially put was Atiba Hutchinson.
Yeah, I understand that one just for the length of time that he committed to the team, but he never –
correct me if I'm wrong, he never played in one of the major –
he started in Turkey. Yeah, he played in Champions League, but the major, he started in Turkey.
Yeah, he played in Champions League, but that's because he played in Turkey.
In Turkey, yeah.
I mean, I would consider putting Alphonso Davies before Atiba.
We're talking about great, like it was impressive that he played
as long as he did for Canada, but this is the high bar here, right?
This is a high bar.
We're talking about, this is a list with Sidney Crosby and Connor McDavid.
And we're talking high level players.
And I think the only male player that you could probably consider putting is Alphonso Davies.
Certainly, and Josh had her on the list.
Christine Sinclair is on that list I just don't know if
there's enough male players to put them on that list of specific athletes and do you look at
anybody on there and you're like oh yeah Alphonso Davies should be above them like Damian Warner
maybe you can make an argument for Joey Votto but like Damian Warner to me is just so
impressive that it's it's it's almost tough to quantify where you should put him because he's just an unbelievable athlete.
But yeah, I'm not putting...
He would be...
On that list of yours, who is the least famous?
On that list?
Probably Damien Warner.
Right?
I would assume so.
He's not a household name.
I just saw him on a box of cereal. And yet he's the defending gold medalist in the decathlon, and he could win it again this
year.
And decathlon, when you think about it, isn't that kind of by nature the greatest athlete
in the world?
Exactly.
I was going to say that.
Right?
The barometer.
That has to be the definition, like the fastest person in the world exactly say that right that has to be like
definition like the fastest it used to be a massive event right it used to be but i don't
know maybe we we as canadian media needs to do a better job of hyping up damian warner because
i remember when he won it and i was kind of surprised i was like wait a minute a canadian
male athlete just won the decathlon? Yeah. That's incredible.
We should be making a bigger deal of this.
I remember we were watching it because they do the events on different days,
and it was like, hey, he's actually probably going to win
or up there with a very good chance to win.
And it was wildly impressive.
So Krista Degucci won a gold medal.
If you're listening right now and you've recorded the Canada-Australia game,
turn it away for a few minutes.
Turn it off the station for a few minutes.
Turn it to silence, though.
Don't turn it to a different station.
Just turn it off, listen to your thoughts, and then come back.
Meditation.
Just a three-minute morning meditation.
Yes.
So here is the score.
Canada beats Australia 93-83.
2-0.
2-0.
Likely moving on.
We're moving on.
Yeah, it's moving on.
So Canada, it was a back-and-forth game, especially in the first half.
Australia was actually leading by four points after the first half.
Shea Gilgis-Alexander got in a bit of early foul trouble. I believe he had two fouls in
under two minutes to start the game. And that's what he finished with, two fouls. Yes, he got
very conservative after that, but he still ended up with 16 points. He looked like Shea Gilgis-Alexander.
He looked really, really good. He was definitely one of the stars for Canada.
RJ Barrett also had a really good game, 24 points.
He led the Canadian men.
Dylan Brooks, 16 points, and fantastic defense as well.
And he stayed in the game, which was good.
He had four fouls, but he stayed in the game.
Was never really in foul trouble i don't think for dylan
brooks uh jamal murray five points five points two for seven right so the questions about jamal
murray and josh and i haven't really i mean we weren't able to watch this game closely but i
imagine the questions about jamal murray will continue Yes. I can't see that subsiding before their match with Spain,
who, by the way, Spain beat Greece 84-77 today.
So it's Spain and Canada atop the table?
Or no, Australia beat Spain, so Canada's all alone?
Right, all alone at 2-0.
All alone at 2-0.
The other teams are 1-1.
So Australia is going to be a common theme today
because the Canadian women's rugby sevens team
is going to be playing Australia in the semifinals.
And that comes after a huge victory over France,
in France, in front of 69,000 people.
Nice.
I guess those games are at Stade de France.
And Piper Logan scored two tries for Canada.
And she said it's really hard to describe.
The crowd is incredible to play in front of, whether they were with us or against us.
They were against you.
It was really incredible to play that game.
So that makes two really big victories for Canadian women's teams
over France, in France, facing not only really good French sides,
but also the crowd because the Canadian women's soccer team famously beat France
two to one, came from behind, scored very late in that match to win that one, setting up their big
match against Columbia, despite the six point total or the six point punishment that they were
levied. So the Canadian women's rugby sevens team came into this tournament with metal aspirations.
Like this isn't an upset.
This isn't a massive surprise or anything.
It is still impressive that they beat France on French soil because France is a very good rugby nation.
But now Canada has to play Australia, which is going to be a very tough game for them.
They're going to play for a medal regardless.
They're either going to play for a gold medal or they're going to play for a bronze medal.
And that game goes at 7 a.m., so we probably should have the result at some point during the show.
Also, Canada playing Australia.
Three Canada versus Australia matchups today in women's three-on-three basketball.
That's at 9 a.m.
In terms of other medal chances, notable things today,
Kylie Massey and Ingrid William are in the women's 100-meter backstroke final.
That's at 11.56.
Kylie Massey, she is a backstroke specialist, so maybe keep an eye on her.
University of Toronto, shout-out.
Shout-out. Well, that's just for you. That was a personal shout-out. Let's keep those two a minimum, please. specialist so maybe keep an eye on her and university of toronto shout out shout out well
that's just for you that was a personal shout out let's keep those two a minimum please yeah
all right canada u of t come on i'm wearing the shirt today yeah no i could tell canada one of
eight teams in the uh women's artistic all-around gymnastics turn or final as well that starts at
9 15 i don't know if they're expected to medal in that,
but they're at least in the final for that.
So potentially keep an eye on that.
Do we want to move on to the trades the Toronto Blue Jays made?
Yeah, do the Blue Jays stuff.
You and Laddie.
Are you a Jays fan basketball, Ben?
I mean, you went to U of T and everything, apparently.
You can't stop talking about it.
Are you a Jays fan?
Jays fan.
I'm not as into it maybe as these two are. Okay, well, why don't
you and Laddie talk a little bit about
the Jays trades that were
made. Talk about
how happy you guys are
or unhappy you guys are with the
returns on all this and how things are shaping
up. And maybe a note about
Vladdy because Vladdy is
on fire.
He was hitting the ball hard yesterday in that double header against the
Orioles.
Yeah.
Let's start with that and then we'll move on to the trade.
So Vladdy,
yeah,
two games yesterday.
He had a couple home runs in his last nine games.
He's batting 452,
has five,
five home runs,
nine RBIs.
He has been on fire, not only for the last two weeks,
but for the last month.
In the last eight hours, he brought his OPS from 869 to 904,
which at this point in the season should be impossible.
I know he played a double header, but that is amazing what he's doing.
So yeah, Vlade's been hot.
He's probably not getting traded.
But,
the Jays did make
two trades yesterday.
The minor one was
Justin Turner
to the Mariners.
That was the first one
they made.
Justin Turner,
the return for him.
Outfielder,
RJ Schreck.
That's a fun name.
He plays in AA.
Not a lot
to write home about
with him.
They're saying his
hitting tool is the sharpest tool yeah yeah he that's a shrek yeah there we go uh hits for
contact doesn't strike out a lot but not a lot of pop not very fast and he's like fine defensively
so kind of a long shot to be an impact player in the majors but the bigger trade of the day you say kikuchi the left-handed pitcher going
to the houston astros and i talked about prospects yesterday on the show in baseball and i was like
most of them are whatever you can just kind of forget about them this one was kind of a fleecing
for the blue jays and a lot of people around the league think the same. A lot of people that are fans of the Astros,
cover the Astros, are like,
man, what are they giving up for Yusei Kikuchi?
And the return was Jake Bloss,
who is their ninth-ranked prospect.
Very good right-handed pitcher,
23 years old, taken in the third round last year.
He has pitched in the majors this year,
though it's been kind of rocky
he's pitched 11 innings given up nine earned runs he struck out 11 though um he spent a lot of time
in double a that we has played in triple a sugar land as well that's where candy comes great so i
just wanted to mention that uh 44 innings pitched in double aA, only eight earned runs, 35 strikeouts.
In terms of his stuff, good fastball.
He's developing off-speed stuff.
He's now the Blue Jays' number two prospect,
according to MLB Pipeline, behind Ricky Tiedemann.
Okay, so I have a question for you guys.
If you could only sign one of Vladdy or Bo long-term,
take the money out of the equation, which one would you choose?
Vladdy, probably.
You look at the month he's had.
I don't know how you can go against Vladdy.
I know the ceiling on the shed is so –
Just doing recency bias, are we?
Yeah, that's what you're worried about, right?
The thing about Bo is that there's always felt like there's kind of like a disconnect and
if any of them was were if either of them were willing to leave it's always felt like it would
be bowbush yeah he's always seemed to not be one foot out the door but at least more open to
pursuing other opportunities and you want a guy that wants to be there. Yes, especially if you're the Blue Jays, I think.
I also don't really know what his long-term prospects as a shortstop are.
Honestly, I know he's received a lot of flack,
and he's gotten better over the last few years,
but I still see him as a second baseman,
but I just don't think his ego can handle it, that move to second base.
Long-term, I don't know where exactly he might fit in as a Blue Jay,
where Vladdy, it's quite clear where he's going to fit in as a Blue Jay.
That's probably what's going to happen though, right?
Like if there's going to be one of them signed long-term,
it's going to be Vladdy and they could make that decision
and they probably will make that decision this offseason, right?
I mean, that's –
ASAP.
They have to do it.
And I guess if they're going to make a decision on Bo,
it's sign him or trade him?
What are the chances that Bo is in a Blue Jays uniform next season?
Are they above 50% or below 50%?
You wouldn't want to sell him the way he is right now.
I almost wonder if there's a world where they come back with him to start the year
and they're like, hey, maybe it all works out.
Maybe this season is a good season and he's a key part of it.
Or they're out of it again by the deadline and they can move him by the deadline.
But what would they be able to move him for then?
I would assume.
Depending how he's doing, I guess.
Yeah, it depends on how he's doing.
But I still think.
What if they're doing well and they've got him, but.
Then they're probably not trading him.
Right.
So if I were to put a percentage on it, I would say personally,
I think there's like a 40% chance he starts the season with the Jays next year,
which is still pretty high.
But I would assume that they would want this all to be figured out
by the time next season starts.
Okay, we can talk about this.
Coming up next was Zach Warden.
We did get a very angry text into the Dunbar Lumber text line
about your top 10 Canadian athletes.
Awesome.
It's unsigned.
It says, this list of top Canadian athletes of the 21st century
is so flawed and ridiculous.
How can you rank athletes of different sports ahead of each other?
Stop it.
Halford is gone only for a few days, and the show is in chaos.
Two things on that.
When Halford is here, the show is in constant chaos.
And number two, that's the idea of ranking the athletes.
It's hard.
You can't just be like, hockey, here's the list.
Yeah.
Dragon field, here's the list. That. Track and field, here's the list.
That's the challenge, and it's only a list.
So don't worry about it.
It's too early to get excited about lists,
but we appreciate your comments and questions
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We now go live to Paris,
where Devin Heroux is joining us.
Poolside, CBC Olympics reporter on the ground in Paris.
Poolside, but if I heard correctly,
not the pool you've been beside for most of the Olympics?
Well, it's a scorcher here today, guys,
and it feels fitting that there's a heat wave stretching across France
in the wake of Summer McIntosh's gold medal.
Summer has arrived, but yes, I'm outside.
There's an outdoor pool right by La Défense Arena,
so I figured I'd do that here and then head back into the pool
where the competition will heat up tonight.
Awesome. Well, we appreciate you taking the
time, and you mentioned
Summer McIntosh. What have you made
of what's been deemed the Summer of Summer
so far?
Yeah, you know, to me it's not very
surprising because I've basically
been at every one of her meets for the last
three years since she made her Olympic debut when she was 14 years old. She was the youngest swimmer on the
Canadian team at that point. Three years later in her second Olympics, she's still the youngest
swimmer. And anybody who was sort of paying attention to what she was doing, and I know for
a lot of Canadians, they only tune in every four years for the Summer Olympics so they would see Summer McIntosh and go, who is she?
Well, the reality of it is, is she is a once in a generation talent.
She's going to be, in my opinion, the best Olympian this country has ever seen.
And it really started last night, of course, in the 400 meter individual medley.
It was a dominating victory.
She went out in the first 200 meters, put the Americans to bed
behind her. They didn't even have a chance. And I did some math, which isn't my strong suit,
but I have been able to confirm that her victory, the gap between her and the second place finisher
was 5.69 seconds. And just for context, Leon Marchand, who's a French young swimming star here,
a night earlier won his 400-meter individual medley by 5.67 seconds.
So Summer did it a little better than him.
Her first gold medal, her second medal at the Games,
and I'm telling you right now, there's a lot more to come from Summer McIntosh.
Well, I'm getting greedy because she's already got two medals.
How many more could she possibly win at these Olympics?
Going into this, I said she could win five, and I'm sticking with that.
I think Summer McIntosh can break Penny Oleksiak's record from 2016 in Rio when, of course, Penny was 16 years old and won four medals there, one gold.
I think Summer has a very realistic shot at winning three gold medals.
She already has a silver.
And I think the Canadian women can find a way to get on the medley relay podium in bronze.
That would mean she would finish with three gold, one silver, and one bronze.
And listen, anybody out there, I know it sounds like pressure,
but I have asked Summer McIntosh about pressure for three years. She doesn't feel it. It's crazy.
She looks at it as almost like praise that people believe she's good enough of doing things like
this. So she doesn't feel pressure. She loves the support. She's been
dreaming of this her entire short life because she's just getting started. But I really think
she can win five medals here and break the Canadian record for the most at a single summer games.
How important is it for her that her mom was also an Olympic swimmer? That's a fantastic question. It really is. And
I think it's a huge part of her success. You know, I was with Jill McIntosh last night and funny
enough, I flew to Sarasota where they're living and training about a month ago. And we sat on the
beach, Jill and I, and I said, how, like, what is this like to have gone on your own Olympic journey,
to know exactly what it takes to be at this level,
and 40 years later be back at an Olympics watching your superstar daughter?
And she says, I'm learning from my daughter because I was not chill.
I was a nervous Nelly, is what she said.
And she says, and I still get nervous for summer, but she is as cool and as poised.
She says, I don't know where she gets it from because it's not from me.
But the reality of it is, and guys, listen, we can look at examples of young women who rise to stardom really, really quick.
And in some cases, I don't think have the right support system around them.
And they fade out or they lose their way a little bit. I really get the
sense that isn't going to happen with Summer McIntosh directly because of the question you
just asked. Her mom knows what this is all about. And it's always been rooted in having fun,
finding friends and enjoying the journey. Like go figure, you can have fun, you can love the sport
and you can win. And I think they're sort of changing that model of success in swimming so i i i don't want this question necessarily related to what you
just said but a lot of people have texted in to our show and said is penny alexiak at these games
what happened to her because it's not like she's 38 years old. I think she's like 24 years old. Um, but she has
had some struggles in, in the last few years. Uh, can you talk about those and what the expectations
for her are at these games? Yeah, I, I don't think it's a completely out of the blue segue or
connection. I mean, I have covered Penny for years. She told me, she looked me right in the
eye and she said, I've been through hell and back in swimming. She fell out of love with it. And
that's the case for a lot of swimmers. I've talked to them here about it. Like what is going on in
this sport that so many people fall out of love and almost hate getting into the pool. So many
swimmers don't even get in the pool leisurely after they finish because it is such a
grind. And I think for Penny, you know, when you're 16, I don't know what you were doing at 16,
but I was not winning four Olympic medals and becoming an Olympic champion. And you just sort
of overnight become the success. And I think it was even more shocking for Penny because we knew
less about her. And then she's there and she's in the spotlight and she's getting sponsors and she's
the toast to the town everywhere she goes. And, you know, I think Penny now is more in love with
the sport, but more in love with herself. I don't think she had the chance to grow up and do things
that teenagers do and make mistakes and have fun and go to parties and have life experiences. She didn't
really get to do that. And now I think Penny's doing it. She didn't qualify for any individual
events, but I will say this on the record that I think she will go down as one of the most
athletically, naturally gifted athletes in our country's history. She's the most decorated
Olympian. And I'll tell you right now,
Penny Oleksiak in Paris
is the most positive, loving,
caring person I've ever seen.
It's beautiful to watch.
Do you think this could be
her last Olympics?
Or is there a possibility
that she could fall back in love
with swimming and be back in four years?
She has been unequivocal in that she wants to go to LA 2028.
And,
and,
and I pushed her on that because I'm like,
really?
Like I saw how disappointed you were about not qualifying for any individual
events in a way.
I think it lit a fire under her and she was so close to qualifying for the
100 meter freestyle event.
Of course that she won gold in Rio.
But she says she's going another four years.
And you know what?
Why not?
If you think you can do this, they're finding better ways to swim longer
and later into their careers.
And if Penny thinks she can do it, I say go for it.
And I think she left it a little long this time. I think she thought she
could put in a solid year of work and qualify in those individual events. And I know because I'm
getting older too, it gets a little harder to rebound after a training session or whatnot.
And so I think if Penny can do whatever she wants and at the heart of it, I just hope she's
loving it like she says she is. It must be such a grind on a day-to-day basis.
And you can understand how someone just, I don't know if it happens gradually or one day you just like, I've already had a lot of glory in the pool.
Uh, I've already been on top of the world and I don't know if I want to do this anymore.
How do you think it goes down?
I'm sure you've spoken with Penny about it.
Yeah, I think there is something to that.
I mean, listen, Maggie McNeil, of course,
who won Olympic gold in the butterfly in Tokyo,
I can tell you this is some breaking news right now.
She has scratched the 100-meter freestyle semifinal tonight. And the reason she's
doing that is because she looked me in the post-race interview this morning. She said,
I have nothing left to prove. She probably wasn't going to advance out of the semifinal,
but she said, I've won everything. I'm the Olympic champ. Nobody can ever take that away from me.
And I'm going to focus on the relay and I'm going to have fun in Paris and you know then I watched Katie Ledecky this morning in the 1500 meter which is 30 laps
and she's as good as she's ever been I mean she was half a pool ahead of everybody else and I just
go I marvel at these athletes who have a desire to be great despite the fact that they've been
at the pinnacle of their sport.
Like, what drives them?
And I think that's what Penny is going to have to figure out is what is my why in the pool?
And if I can figure that out and if I can really lean into that over these next four years, who knows?
I think Penny's going to play a big role in helping some of these younger women on the team just sort of evolve in
the sport. And I already see that happening here. And like I said, it went from sort of the Penny
show to Penny Oleksiak being the ultimate team player. And I think it's just a really nice
evolution of self and swimmer. I'm sure you've chatted with Katie Ledecky before. What does
drive her? Because correct me if I'm wrong here, I'm not a swimming chatted with Katie Ledecky before. What does drive her?
Because correct me if I'm wrong here, I'm not a swimming expert,
but she is considered the greatest female swimmer ever?
She is.
And that's unequivocal, absolutely.
She has 11 Olympic medals now.
Seven of them are gold.
Three of them are bronze.
And if you can believe it, when McIntosh out touched her for
silver in the 400 meter freestyle the other night it was Katie Ledecky's first bronze medal in her
career and and she wasn't happy and and I'm you know putting that lightly uh I've gotten to know
Katie Ledecky's mom really well Mary Jen Ledecky she actually has ties to Canada. I always ask Mary Jen, you know, like you could
have chose Canada for Katie to swim in, right? The family's incredible. So it gets back to that
support group for Katie. She always talks about her family. And I think this is going to be
something we hear a lot more of from Olympic athletes, high performance athlete is sort of the support system
around them. We've, you know, exhausted sort of the conversation, an important one for sure about
safe sport, mental health, the framework of sport. And I think I've heard it more than any other time
in my career in the lead up to Paris and here in Paris, that you just need good people, good coaches,
good family, good friends around you.
And that's going to keep you wanting to get up every morning when you don't want to get up and be reminded of what you're trying to do. And Katie Ledecky loves training more than anybody
I've ever known. In fact, she actually goes for a swim at the pool, a leisurely swim on her days
off because they just think she doesn't know what else to do with her life. And quite honestly,
that's why she is the greatest female swimmer.
However, Summer McIntosh is coming for that really fast.
I think LA 2028, if she's healthy and everything goes as planned,
I think Summer McIntosh could win seven or eight.
Like we're talking Michael Phelps territory in LA.
That would be incredible.
Any other stories in the pool from a Canadian perspective or non-Canadian perspective that we should be
keeping our eyes on in the next few days?
Yeah,
I think we should quickly just touch base on the Canadian men because for so
long,
they've sort of been in the women's shadow for good reason.
They haven't really produced at the games.
Uh,
Rio,
the women won six medals,
Tokyo,
the women won six medals,
but pay attention.
Uh,
it'll be, I guess, early in Vancouver
when you guys will be watching out in British Columbia,
11.30 a.m. Pacific time.
Ilya Harun is a 19-year-old fearless guy with swagger,
born in Montreal to parents of Cirque du Soleil.
He's a showstopper, just like them.
He's 19 years old.
He could probably reach the
podium in the 200 fly he actually told me at trials i want to beat leon marchand who's a great
french hope here the guy's fearless he had the second fastest qualifying time this morning so
watch out for him and josh liendo is one of the great hopes for canada on Canada on the men's side. He'll swim in the 100-meter freestyle semifinal.
Both those guys are fearless. They have sort of this Canadian bravado and swagger and politeness
about them that's so incredible. So those guys kick off. They're back-to-back to start tonight's
session at the pool. Pay attention to them. I think they're going to end a 12-year drought in
the pool at the Olympics on the podium for Canada. Devin, this was great. Thank you so much for
taking the time to join us. Really appreciated your insight and your energy and your enthusiasm
about the Canadian story in the pool. Maybe we can catch up and do this again soon.
Hey, I'll talk to you guys anytime about our Canadians. They're exceptional and great ambassadors. Appreciate you guys. That's awesome. Thanks, Devin. Thank you.
Devin Hru joins us from Paris to talk about Summer McIntosh. And he sure put the expectations on
Summer McIntosh. But at the same time, he said, that's good. And she doesn't feel the pressure.
Um, you know, life has a way of throwing curveballs
at us.
And, uh, you know, I'm sure we were talking about
Penny Alexiak being maybe the greatest swimmer ever.
And when she was 16 years old and now we're talking
about her eight years later and wondering, you know, like, has she fallen out of love with the sport?
Is she indifferent to it?
Does she want to do other things?
And when you're talking about Summer McIntosh, who is only 17 years old, things can happen.
But currently she is having a terrific Olympics. Olympics um I think having the Olympics in LA in 2028 is going to be a massive motivational
um thing or whatever for North American athletes I think having the Olympics in Paris frankly was
a massive motivation for a lot of people just because it's Paris it's cool I know on the men's
basketball side it was like the Americans were like, yeah, we want to
go to Paris.
That sounds awesome.
Like, you know, especially with the influx
of, uh, of French players into the NBA, um,
there was an enthusiasm about Paris.
Now I should mention that throughout, and by
the way, spoiler alert, spoiler alert. if you want to, if you're, if
you're recording the rugby sevens, I should
mention that throughout that interview with
Devin, we were watching the Canadian women
rugby sevens against Australia.
And I mentioned before this match that the
Australians were heavy favorites, just like
the Kiwis were over the
Americans in the first semifinal and New Zealand
took care of the Americans fairly easily.
And it looked early on like the Aussies were
going to take care of Canada.
They were up 12, nothing early.
Spoiler alert.
There are 29 seconds left in this game now.
21 to 12 for Canada.
Big comeback.
So Canada is about to pull a massive upset in the Rugby 7s,
and if they can hold on, and they should be able to hold on
with a nine-point lead on the Aussies,
they will meet the Kiwis later today for gold in the women's rugby sevens.
And this is an incredible scene from the Stade de France.
Australians are distraught.
The Australians are in tears on the bench.
And, uh, we gotta be a little careful here.
We can't exactly do play-by-play on this,
but Canada has won.
They have won.
They have won.
They're going to kick the ball out here
and that'll be the game.
And here comes the celebration.
And what an incredible victory for the
Canadian women in rugby sevens in front of almost 70,000 fans at the Stade de France.
This is a Canadian team that went into the Stade de France yesterday and beat the French, booking the semifinal against the Aussies.
The Aussies, obviously a rugby nation, both men's and women's. It looked like it was going to be an Aussie
Kiwi final, but instead it is going to be
Canada versus New Zealand for a gold medal
later today.
Again, the Kiwis are going to be heavily
favored, but Canada is guaranteed at least a
silver.
And if they can beat the Aussies, you never know.
Maybe they can pull the upset against the Kiwis.
This is just a terrific story.
And you're talking about, let's talk about the Canadian women
and the team sports that we've got here in soccer and rugby.
Soccer, obviously not a good start for the Canadian women,
but it's turning into a potentially great story.
They will be playing Columbia tomorrow.
And if they win that, they're through to the quarterfinals.
They beat France on French soil.
The French must be sitting there going like,
these Canadians, we do not care for these Canadians.
So this is a really terrific story for the women's rugby team.
And the final, I believe if I'm reading the schedule correctly,
should be going at 1030 for the gold medal match, maybe 11.
Yeah, it's a quick turnaround in rugby sevens.
They're like, are you tired?
Because you're playing in five minutes.
Yeah. So they have all the seeding games for all the 10 through bronze before then.
So, oh, it's showing it now.
It should be at 1045.
So if you want to watch the gold medal match between New Zealand and Canada,
it'll be at 1045 our time.
So we'll see what they can do.
I honestly think that's the biggest moment
of the Olympics so far for me.
And just being able to,
being in here,
being able to watch it,
I'm kind of glad that Halford's not here
because he would be so distracted
by these TVs
that I don't think he'd pay attention
to a single word that I said.
Well, good thing I'm not,
I don't understand the full scope, good thing I'm not a...
I don't understand the full scope of rugby
because I have not been to Rugby Sevens.
But I do understand that this is a huge upset.
And beating France to, again,
like two upsets in a row
to then move on to...
Everyone knows that New Zealand excels at rugby.
So this is going to be a big challenge,
but just to get to that point too is a huge accomplishment in and of itself.
By the way, what also was happening during that,
Canada competing for a bronze medal in judo, and they lost.
So fourth for Canada in men's judo.
So not another medal there, but again,
there are a few medal chances today in the pool
and now a guaranteed medal,
and we'll just have to see what it is,
if it's gold or silver in women's rugby sevens.
Again, the final goes at 10.45.
Okay, I thought we were going to have some time
to discuss the Canucks' odds to make the playoffs that I brought up in the previous segment. I thought we were going to have some time to discuss the Canucks odds to make
the playoffs that I brought up in the previous segment.
I thought we were going to have some time in that segment after we spoke to
Devin,
but Devin was such a good interview and the women's rugby game was on.
So maybe we'll have to have this conversation after we speak with Brady
Henderson coming up next,
talking a little Seahawks training camp. I just wanted to chat with Brady to see what the, talking a little Seahawks training camp.
I just wanted to chat with Brady to see what
the storylines were at Seahawks training camp.
They have a whole new coaching staff.
Mike McDonald is the new head coach.
The Pete Carroll era is over.
So I want to ask Brady about like, what are
the big storylines?
You know, we all know that Gino Smith is going
to be the starting quarterback.
They didn't end up drafting a quarterback.
So we'll talk to Brady about the storylines
at Seahawks training camp.
Maybe then we can have the conversation about
the Canucks and their playoff odds.
At 8 a.m.
TJ Lee is going to join us, BC Lions defensive
player, and we'll talk to him about recovering from his,
I believe he had an Achilles injury.
And I think that's the second time he's done his Achilles.
So he's done different legs.
Yeah, he's got two of them.
So we'll talk to him about the rehab there.
We'll talk to him about the BC Lions and how he's feeling
about the season, the opportunity to
play a home Grey Cup.
TJ Lee went to Eastern Washington University
and there's a lot of CFL talent that has come
out of Eastern Washington, including Vernon
Adams.
A lot of people think, oh, didn't he play for
Oregon?
Yeah, he played the first few years for Eastern
Washington and then transferred to
Oregon to play one season for the Ducks.
Bo Levi Mitchell went there and Cooper Cup
and Kendrick Bourne went there as well.
So there's some NFL talent.
So we'll talk to him about going to a school
like Eastern Washington.
TJ Lee has spent 10 years with the BC Lions.
So we should have a good conversation with him.
So there's some football talk coming up,
maybe some hockey talk if we have some time.
And of course, we're going to continue on the
Olympic talk on the Halford & Brough show on
Sportsnet 650.
You're listening to the best of Halford & Brough.