Life Uncut - What Actually Goes On Inside the Olympic Village? Uncut with Ellie Cole

Episode Date: August 20, 2024

Back for the second time is the hilarious Ellie Cole. Ellie is the most decorated Australian female paralympian of all time & a childhood cancer survivor. Ellie has joined the podcast before in Feb 2023  “I threw my leg at him and it hit him like a shish kebab”.  Ellie has just touched down back in Australia after doing poolside commentary in Paris at the 2024 Olympics. We have a whole bunch of Olympic questions for her like: -The funniest/most meme-able moments from Paris 2024 -What is the Olympic Village like? -Can and do the athletes all hook up with each other? -What are the Olympic beds like? -Should the Paralympics and Olympics be at the same time? -Pay parity, the ‘equal Olympics’ and misogyny in commentary  We also speak about Ellie becoming a mum, their IVF journey and her fears about her son being bullied when he gets to school for having two mums. You can find more from Ellie here! You can watch us on Youtube Find us on Instagram Join us on tiktok Or join the Facebook Discussion Group Tell your mum, tell your dad, tell your dog, tell your friend and share the love because WE LOVE LOVE! xxSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Life Uncut acknowledges the traditional custodians of country whose lands were never ceded. We pay our respects to their elders past and present. Always was, always will be Aboriginal land. This episode was recorded on Cammeraygal land. Hi guys and welcome back to another episode of Life Uncut. I'm Brittany. And I'm Laura. And today we have a very exciting guest, a very good friend of mine, someone who's been on the podcast before. We are welcoming back Ellie Cole.

Now, Ellie is one of, no, she is the most decorated Paralympian in Australian history. Is that correct, Ellie? I haven't exaggerated that to like prop you up, have I? It's incorrect. Is it? Female Paralympian. Oh, there we go. Kadri has more.

Screw the man. I should have done another game. The most decorated female Paralympian. And we had you on the podcast back in 2023. I think it was February at the start of the year. That was an incredible episode where we spoke about so many things, some embarrassing stories, your journey with childhood cancer and your journey to the Paralympics.

So we're going to link that episode so everyone can go and see it. That's in the show notes if you want to go back and have a listen before you listen to this, but you don't have to. So Ellie has just – But you should. Yes, you do. You do. You absolutely have to.

Sorry, you don't have to listen to it before. You can listen now. Like you don't have to check out and then come back. But it's an incredible episode. But Ellie and I were also in the I'm a Celebrity Get Me Out of Here jungle recently in South Africa, which was awesome. And I feel like we were like stuck to each other from when we went in and we actually left together equal fourth.

I think I walked out a minute before you. Strong finish, guys. I think that makes me fourth and you fifth because I actually stepped out for like one step before you. Did you? We'll go with that. But a lot else has happened, Ellie, and you have since become a mum as well.

So you've got a beautiful little boy, Felix, that we're going to talk about. But welcome back to the podcast. It's good to be back. Lots has happened since I was on the show last. So much has happened. You've also come back with a few more battle wounds. If anyone did watch I'm a Celebrity, Get Me Out of Here,

there was this one scene where Ellie was getting mauled by a rat and then continued to go back for more. And everyone who was watching it was like, what are you doing? Stop now. And you were like, no, I will get the star. When you said I went back for more, I didn't go back for more rat bites, just to be clear.

I went back for that star because there's so much pressure to bring back full stars for the camp so that the camp can eat. But if you bring back full stars, you don't even get more food. You just get salt. So I did all of that for salt. You just get seasoning? Yeah. Trust me, when you say just get seasoning,

it means so much more in the jungle. It's not just seasoning. Well, okay. It's like the only thing you can look forward to in there. My favourite thing about that, though, when you came back, everyone was like, because you had blood all over you, you were mauled by the rat. It wasn't just the rat bite.

You've still got the scars all over your hand. But we were like, oh, my God, why did you keep going back? And she's like, well, I'm missing a leg on one side, so I thought I'd even myself out and miss a hand on the other. I'm like those shopfront mannequins that you see without the hands. Hey, one thing I did forget to say also is that Ellie, one of the main reasons we've got you back on the podcast is you did just come back from the Olympics.

You were just in Paris, but you weren't competing. you were doing poolside commentary and some interviews and stuff. So this episode, whilst we're doing a catch up with you, we've had a lot of questions come in completely surrounding the Olympics and what it's like there. So we are going to get into that a little bit later too. I'm sure it's all about the Olympics, the questions. So tell me about Ray Gunn.

What do you think? Is she a massive scam? I need to know. Not yet. Let's start with an embarrassing story. Well, this embarrassing story isn't about the Olympics. I tried to keep it sport themed because we're in the Olympic Paralympic. sphere right now. But my story goes back to when I lived on campus at the Australian Institute of

Sport. It's not an embarrassing story. It's just a funny one. But I used to live on campus with my best friend, Tanya, and she's short statured. I'm not sure how tall she is. I'd say she's probably about 150 centimetres. I've never held a tape measure to her, so I'm not really sure. Thank God. But Tanya, she is very fit. She loves to exercise and her favourite thing to do is triathlons, but you know, road bikes, they're pretty fixed size. Yeah. And so if you're short statured, she had to ride a bike that was actually made for like kids who are doing triathlons. So this bike was like up to people's knees and everyone wanted to like ride this tiny road bike, but Tanya would not let anybody touch this bike for like years. Right. And she had stolen my phone

one day and had locked herself in a room with my phone, trying to like text this boy that I was seeing at the time. And I said to her, I said to her, like, if you don't give me my phone back, I'm going to take your bike. Right. And she's like, don't you? F word. You can swear. It's okay. Beep, beep, beep, beep, beep. Don't you fucking touch that bike? Like, don't even put a finger on it. And so I'm like, right, I'm taking it. I'm taking it. But at the time I was wearing my pajamas and I didn't have my leg on. And so I hopped to this bike. I took it out to the front of our apartment on residence at AIS. And I'm kind of like scooting around on this tiny bike. With one leg.

With one leg in my pyjamas. And then I hear the door open and Tanya, like remember she's short stature, shoots out of the apartment and is like chasing me. And so I start like just going for it. And so I'm riding around like all of campus in my pyjamas on this tiny bike. I go like straight past the dining hall, which is where like all of the kids who are touring the AIS kind of eats. and there's like floor-to-ceiling windows, right?

And they just see like someone with one leg on this tiny bike in their pyjamas like just scooting along. And a very small person running after them. What is happening? And then like 10 seconds later. Did she catch you? I don't know who's faster. Is it a short-statured person running or someone with one leg

riding a minibike? Like I don't know who genuinely would be faster. Questions you never thought you would ask. Well, did she get you? No, she did not get me. of course not. Did you hook up with a guy? What's the end? What's the end? Also, can I just say, it's very rare that we get people on for two episodes. Normally we only get a one hit wonder here at Laugh Uncut, but your stories are so great. And I was just looking at what we named

the last episode that you were on. And it was in case you're looking for it and you want to just like, you know, do the double dump of Ellie Cole. It was, I threw my leg at him and hit him like a Shish kebab. It was very funny. Well, what can we title that story? We'll have to come up with something pretty creative. Yeah, we have to be careful with what we title that. I was like, that's going to get me cancelled.

Ellie's trying to get us cancelled, I swear to God. Well, Ellie, one thing I want to talk about before we get into the Olympics, which I know is one of the main reasons why we have you here. It's Ray Gunn. No, it's not. It is. I'm going to bypass Ray Gunn. But so much has happened in your personal life since the last time we taught,

and that is that you've become a mum. Yes. And you have a little baby, Felix, who's probably not such a baby anymore. How old is he now? Six months old. Six months. All right. We're still calling him a baby.

He looks two. He's a big boy. Funny enough, he was the smallest in the nursery and he was on a feeding plan and he's just. It worked well for him. He has chunked up. So fill us in then, your partner, Sylvie, who, for those listening at home, how did you decide to go down this journey of motherhood and who carried, who did what, where did you get the sperm from?

give us it all so silver's silver and I've been together for 11 years and she's always wanted to be a mum but I always kind of put it on hold a little bit while I was selfishly pursuing my sporting career and then as I was nearing towards retirement around the Tokyo 2020 games we started the process of going through IVF which is the biggest emotional roller coaster I can't even put into words how hard that was and it took us probably about two years to fall pregnant Do you mean emotional rollercoaster as in literally emotional is in the hormones that you're doing, like literally physically, or do you mean just like the ups and downs of it not working or trying again or the stress?

I think there's just, there's not as much support around IVF as what there needs to be. It's almost like you go into this IVF journey with you and your partner and you're so hopeful and optimistic at the beginning that things are just going to work out straight away. Particularly if, you know, Syl didn't have anything wrong with her uterus. she had really good blood levels. Like there was no need for the IVF journey to take two years and there was no really explanation for it either. But it's hard because trying to find a donor throughout COVID was almost impossible. It's like everyone was getting pregnant throughout COVID. So

the donors were in really short supply. So that took a really long time. And then once you do get like the sperm, you need to go and get your eggs harvested and then those eggs get fertilized. and then you go through a cycle of IVF where they put the egg in and then you have to wait 10 days to see if it's a positive pregnancy and those 10 days are like the longest 10 days of your life. How many rounds did you end up having to go through? We did two rounds of IUI, which is like the turkey-based as well. Into uterine insemination?

Yes, and then we did four rounds of IVF. That's a lot, especially over a long period of time. And in terms of when you say that it was hard to come across sperm supply during COVID especially, what route did you guys go down? Did you go with a known donor? Did you get it through the sperm banks? Like how did that process work for you? We went through a sperm bank only because we, well, we didn't really know too much about the process, but that was kind of what was recommended to us. So we went through the US donor system because that was what was recommended to us at the time. I suppose that was what suited us best only because you go through all of this

genetic testing and then genetic profiles so that the baby is more than likely to be born quite healthy obviously there are things that can go wrong throughout the gestation and everything but well I don't know if you remember and I don't know how much I talked about it or maybe I didn't even tell you but when I was doing my embryos not that long ago I only got one and I chose to do the genetic testing and it had like a really rare malformation like a really rare which I only knew because I did the genetic testing so I ended up with none but if I had have implanted that without testing. It would have failed likely. Either failed or would have been born with a disease that is not compatible with life. Yeah. Yeah. So it's like, it's just so hard the whole

process because as Britt just said, you know, even going into the egg harvesting, you're filled with so much hope that it's going to be a good result. And so many people come out of just that process alone before they even begin IVF without any eggs. And you just, there's no answers. So it's hard you left to do I'm a celebrity only a couple of weeks after Felix was born how many weeks was it like five weeks five weeks old so crazy I remember watching it and I was like I wonder if you would receive negative backlash because people love to hate on mums whenever you do anything but then I was like I wonder if your response would be the same as say if the birthing mum was to go away and do five weeks or if you were treated kind of like okay like good for you

you're doing this for yourself you're doing this for your family like what was the response that you received in doing that? The response I received was fine. Wow, that's so interesting to me. I know that there were a few, you know, comments on my social media and then Sylve responded to those comments. Great. And so I think people had an understanding of, you know, why I was going into the jungle and what that meant for the family as well. But it was so hard being in there. And there was a moment where I, you know, Felix, he was only five weeks old. He was changing so much before I even went in. And there was a moment where I just completely

forgot what he looked like oh and so I think that was the moment for me you know where I was like I need to get home and then we saw the video home videos from Sandra Sully and I was smiling I saw his face again and then from that moment I was just it was so hard for me to be in the jungle every elimination that happened from that moment on I was like please be me but you can't you can't really say that on the show but well Pete Dacos did it every day I honestly home but what was it like when you saw him after being in there for so many weeks oh he was three times bigger when i left but the food plan worked oh it definitely he's like the michelin baby like lola worse he's got a massive head right that's lola yeah his tummy time i remember like i'm part of like a

mom's group and all like on tummy time their babies are all lifting their head and felix is like still face planting i'm like he literally cannot lift his own head so good you said something to me when we're in the jungle you worry about Felix being bullied you not even worried you said it it's without a doubt my son is going to be bullied at school and I need to prep him for that and you think that that's because a you have one leg and b his mums are mums yeah I think about it every day I even thought about it on the way here today so you Do you still think that that's going to be the case for him, that he'll receive that level of criticism?

Absolutely. I remember having this conversation with you on the way to the waterfall. Well, I said, no, surely this is, we are in a time now where that is normal and also mum having one leg, mum's also the most decorated Paralympian Australian female. Mum will throw her leg at that kid. Shish kebab him. Can you shish kebab a five-year-old?

Whatever, they deserved it. So you still feel like that? I think so. You know, I think it's more normal but it's still different and that's the things that bullies target. And I know it's going to happen because one of my other Paralympic friends has a daughter. So one of my friends has one arm and her daughter at school has been bullied

and my friend and I had to go into her preschool and show like the class all of our medals and some of our races from the Paralympics and then they thought it was pretty cool. But I know it's going to happen and even, as I mentioned, when I was coming in today I was thinking about, you know, what I'm going to say to Felix the first day he comes home because he's been bullied because he has two mums and it's hard. Like you don't want to see your kids go through those things

but it's been amazing being a Paralympian. All of my teammates have been bullied quite excessively when they were kids and it's hard. Like we do have thick skin but it's, yeah, it's difficult to sit in that moment when you're in it I think. I think it's also the question that every parent asks themselves is like how do you build resilience in your children? Obviously every child's experience in life is different

but every parent wants the same thing for their kids. every parent wants their child to be able to be resilient in the face of being bullied or but not to be the bully themselves how do you in terms of having these thoughts and these considerations like have you thought of a way that you would navigate this like how are you gonna model that for him I have thought about it I think I've thought about it more in my own experiences and what that was like and that's why I loved sports so much when I was younger because people were always bullying me for being different when I was younger and you know pointing out the fact that I was different and sport and swimming for me when I was little was like a way for me to show

them what I could do yeah and I was being celebrated as well for my sporting achievements and I'm not saying like sport is the answer to everything but I think finding an outlet for Felix is going to be really important and finding a place where he can know in himself that you know he can achieve things if he wants to in terms of visibility we've had so many conversations around I mean you were on I'm a Celebrity Get Me Out of Here, you were just commentating on our screens for the Olympics. You are doing so much talking and so much advocating. Do you feel like there has been a change in the opportunities and the visibility for the Paralympics and the way that the audience in Australia and the world now views it? Because I feel like I'm seeing a lot of it now and I would

like to think that kids are starting to see it so much more that it is normal. Yes, definitely they are. I know, you know, from racing at the 2018 Commonwealth Games and I had boys and girls who were meeting me at the pool gates after that competition. And they were asking me, how do I become a Paralympian when I'm older? Like they wanted to become a Paralympian. And I've seen a lot of kids that are drawing like pictures of Paralympians and they're understanding disability and understanding difference. And I know that the generation that's coming through in our school system now is going to be very different but it's it's fascinating like the older generation they have these deep-rooted ideas of what it means to have a disability and it's very hard to change

those ideas but the more that you know we showcase Paralympians the more that we showcase diversity it challenges the way that they've always thought and slowly but surely I think their idea of what disability is, is evolving. But I suppose the more that we have visibility, the more that we showcase diversity, the more, not necessarily it just becomes part of our mainstream society. It actually, it becomes acknowledged in a really positive way. And people are actually seeing so many benefits that come from diversity. And it's not like, it's not as tokenistic as it used to be, I don't think. No, I 100% agree. But not even just from like an ability or disability perspective, but just going back to like being in a same-sex relationship and having two mums

and having a child that's going to daycare soon and like being a part of a, you know, kids have their own little social networks. It's fascinating to me as a mum of two girls, because growing up, I don't think I ever knew of a same-sex relationship that had children, not in my like little ecosystem of the world. I didn't either. But Marley and Lola, I mean, they know several people who have two mums and two dads. And so you say to Marley, like she'll say, mommy, I'm going to get married one day. I'm going to marry a girl and we're going to have babies. And to her, it's normal. And for me, that was so fascinating. And also it made me feel so happy that they're growing up in a time where I'm not

saying that we're there, but it's definitely shifting the views around what is and isn't normal. And I think also the benefits of growing up in somewhere like Sydney, rather than growing up in like a small country town, the visibility is tenfold as well. Yeah. I was saying to Sylve last night, I want to have Felix is going to go at school. And if he's going to know anyone else that has two mums and she pretty much said it's guaranteed. 100%. 100%. God, I grew up not knowing anyone that had two mums or two dads.

But you also grew up pretty on a farm. I don't want to call a spade a spade, Ellie. I grew up on the Mornington Peninsula, thank you very much. Your dad runs a farm now. Sorry to everybody who listens to the podcast who's from the Mornington Peninsula. No, but Ellie talks to me about her farm all the time. But, yeah, I think that it will be more normal than not

to be in a class with multiple children with same-sex parents. I'm looking forward to seeing what it's going to be like. Of course. Because at the moment I'm just riddled in fear. I know. It's nice to hear the story of Lola and being at school. Also, he's going to be a big boy. No one's picking on Felix.

He'll be all right. Let's talk Olympics. You just got back from Paris 2024 Olympics like two nights ago. So jet lagged. So you were poolside commentary. How was it? Oh, my gosh. It was one of the greatest three-week period of my life.

Better than the jungle? It was a lot more fun than the jungle. The jungle was pretty fun. But the Olympics, I think it's going to top the jungle. Okay, fair. I've been the biggest Olympics super fan since I was a little girl, like huge fan, but I've never been able to go to the Olympics because being a Paralympian, I was always in training when the Olympics were on.

And so when I got the call up, you know, do you want to do poolside interviews at the Olympics? I was like, you're joking, like get me there right now. Cannot wait to be there. The first day I walked into the swimming pool and saw where the mixed zone was, which is where you do all the interviews, I was like literally, I pretty much may have my big toe in the water. Like it was so good.

And all of my like heroes that I've watched over the last 10 years or so, you know, walking straight, like, you know, Adam Peaty made eye contact with me. Basically dating. No, it was amazing. but being on the other side of the fence not being an athlete myself was pretty emotional not for myself personally it's more that when you're an athlete and you're competing at the olympics or paralympics you are so hyper focused on what you're doing that you don't really get to enjoy like the whole experience of being at the games i can only imagine also like it's so hard when you

look back on things in life and you go god i wish i was able to enjoy it more but you can't physically enjoy it because you've got to have that hyper fixation in order to be able to concentrate on the sport. And it's interesting. Like I remember being an athlete. I used to be a multi-event athlete, kind of like Emma McKeon. So I would race in five or six events, usually at a games and you would race in your first one. If you won like the Olympics or Paralympics, that is a huge achievement, but you can't even sit in it for a second because you need to go to the warm down pool, get your drug test done, go back to the dining hall, make sure you're getting ready for the next one. It's like, you don't even get to enjoy any of it.

what do you feel like being that you've spent the last three weeks there what was like your number one highlight that you're like that was such an incredible moment I think seeing the athletes or like saying there's not a necessarily one moment that stands out apart from Emma McKee and retiring don't even talk to me about that I'm so upset oh I mean that is a huge thing for Australia it is but seeing the athletes compete in front of a crowd again because in Tokyo I was at those games there was no crowd because of COVID and it was like so quiet in the swimming pool that you could actually hear like the water filters it was crazy and so this time it was so loud because Leon Marchand from France was racing most nights as well that the like the five meter

flags were like shaking it was from the screams and stuff yeah which anyone that knows that goes to any sporting event and I can imagine it's on steroids at the Olympics but like you don't even have to like a sport to go to a live event and be in the crowd and then be obsessed with it because the atmosphere is exhilarating. I remember going to the 2000 Olympics in Sydney. Like my mom bought tickets to everything. Oh, I went to everything. I went to the handball. We went to the rhythmic gymnastics. We went to the swimming. We went to everything. We were a big sporting family as kids. And my mom was like quite a great swimmer. So was my auntie. My sister was an incredible rhythmic gymnast. I kind of sucked at everything, but I got dragged along. And like

the obsession that you have with it afterwards handball i was like this is the best fucking sport in the world i watched handball for the first time three days ago phenomenal and i was like where can i play this well we have everything i need guys i'm ready for handball thank god you didn't lose it up from the wrap i know still got two hands we asked the lifers our listeners what they want to know about the olympics and we got loads of questions so we're going to churn through some to see yeah so this is also what i want to know i'm really nervous no no no but like okay so the olympic village yes firstly do the athletes have to stay in the olympic village or like can you opt to stay in a hotel and secondly are the countries allowed to like intermingle or is it

like b block is france c block is brazil you don't even go here like the hunger games so you can choose to stay out of the village you need permission from the chef de mission which is kind of like a the team general manager they don't actually cook food for the athletes thank you so like usually the big names won't stay in the village like you think like usain bolt roger federer those kind of athletes usually stay at a village but the ones who have just like an average size olympic profile will stay in the village because it's such a good environment like there's so much to do in there and speaking of you know if the country is isolated australia have their own building so everyone from Team Australia will stay in that building but other countries can come

in and hang out if they want to but it just depends on if they want to. And do they? Not really like I used to have two friends from the US who would come over to my building quite a lot and I'd go over to theirs but you feel weird walking into another country's building. Like you're not supposed to be here. Yeah you just don't kind of feel right about it so most people spend time together in the dining hall or there's like a lot of sponsor activations as well that happen in the village and you get so much free stuff. Like it's crazy. So when you say that like the bigwigs, as in like the celebrity Olympians,

don't stay in the village, is it because they will get swamped by people? So they're just like, I can't be around. I'm too much of a celebrity for the Olympics. Yes. So like if, say, a Usain Bolt stayed in the athlete's village and went to the dining hall, they wouldn't be able to eat their food. Because everyone that's in the Olympics or Paralympics, they're like super sport fans as well.

Yeah. So it's almost like, yeah, okay. That's so interesting to me because I would have thought that, like, they were amongst their own people and people were like, oh, I'm not going to bother that person because they're obviously just an Olympian like me. Absolutely not. It's like going to the Logies and then fangirling

over, like, the most famous person there. You're like, I've got to keep my cool. What? How wouldn't you do that? You're not allowed to. I have never kept my cool. You see Hollywood people all the time fangirl other Hollywood people. Like, you see, because, like, you know, like, a lot of people,

Well, you're in that industry because you love it so much. So there's always someone you aspire to be or to meet. Who would be your number one fangirl moment in terms of at the Olympics? Was it when you met me? I said at the Olympics, girl. Oh, sorry, sorry. I don't even know, to be honest. The handball guy.

So hot. Mine would be like a Federer or Alcaraz, even though like I was weird, like I sort of have met him in a weird way, like on the tennis tour. Oh, here we go. No, but he's my. Wait, who were you in the elevator with? You said you were in an elevator. Oh, like, yeah, heaps of people.

And they fangirled me. Yeah, that's right. Yeah, that was the whole next story. I remember being at the Melbourne Cup years and years and years ago. And Usain Bolt was in the tent. And they had to section him off. But he was just by himself in this tiny little section of area with one other person drinking mum wine because we were in the mum tent.

And everyone was like too awkward. It was so. It's no way to live. Yeah, it's not. I felt sorry for him. I was like, gosh, so fast, so big. You want to be successful, but not that successful. Don't you remember the rumours that were going around when he was here,

Usain, that he was like a womaniser? Like he was on all the dating apps. He is. Yeah, he was like hooking up with heaps of people. He'd do so well in the village. He hooked up with one of my friends actually in the Gold Coast Comm Games. And? I don't want to say much but.

Thumbs up or down? Hot. Thumbs down. Oh, shame. In terms of stamina? Because we know he's a sprinter. He doesn't have the endurance. look I don't want to speak to Usain Bolt's sex life oh dear okay I wouldn't go there

mind you I don't really swing that way so no there's that as well Ben my fiance Ben had a question okay he wrote in directly with the the beds we know that they are made of cardboard and there's all the people being like I know where this is no you don't yes I do no it's a very serious question it's not sex he genuinely wants to know what happens to the basketballers who are like seven foot, seven foot five and can't fit in the bed. Do they get special beds made for them or do they have to stay elsewhere? That was his question. Oh, he's really tall.

Because he's six five or something. So you can get three different lengths. I don't know how long the longest one is, but I know that there's like a pretty much like an extender thing, not on the bed itself, but you could just plonk it on the end. A cardboard extender. They are so uncomfortable though. I stayed on those cardboard beds when I was an athlete in Tokyo

and you cannot sleep on those beds without a mattress topper. That's so interesting to hear. From koala. Koala is where it's at. Swipe up, hit the link. No, but also it's interesting to hear that because I know there has been a lot of things that were circulating around, especially at the start of the Olympics, around the bonk ban

and the cardboard beds to try and deter people from bonking. Then there were so many videos of athletes going viral on TikTok who were showing actually you can jump on these beds, they're so sturdy, it's got nothing to do with that, That's just got to do with the environmental impact. What happens when the Olympic finishes? So when we talk about not just the environmental impact, but like what happens to the village now that everyone's left?

Is it just a ghost town? Does it still exist? Does it get demolished? Like how do they navigate the period after the Olympics? That's a good question. So it's effectively like a little micro city in itself. There's already shops there because when the Olympics are on, they have like little grocery stores and whatnot.

And so everything that you need is kind of there. So they sell the apartments. in the lead up to the Games. And I remember this became a huge issue with Tokyo because they had sold all of the apartments in Tokyo but then the Games were postponed by a year. And so then all of the people that had bought the apartments then had to wait a further 12 months before they could move in.

And I don't think we're compensated for it and all of that. But it just becomes like just a normal town. I think it even gets its own little postcode at the end. Wow, that's so interesting because, I mean, obviously we've got the Olympic Village in Sydney and it's still used all the time for concerts and sporting events. But yeah, I don't know if anyone would really understand where the athletes stay, how that area is kind of reworked after the fact.

But it's good to know because everyone always talks about how much money is poured into the Olympics and how much money the country needs to pay in order to have them and whether there is a return on investment long term. So I find that fascinating. Yeah. And it's a huge piece at the moment around host cities that are hosting and games around making sure that there's a legacy that the games leave behind. And so I know that in the lead up to Brisbane 2032, they want to do a lot of legacy pieces

around the venues. But building new venues costs millions and millions and millions of dollars. And we can't, at the moment, we're struggling to secure funding. It's a bit all over the place. But if you look at Paris, they've done a whole bunch of temporary venues. Obviously, it's a different city. It's very beautiful. I think Brisbane's going to struggle on that front.

But it was so successful. And the amount of people that were in Paris for the Olympics, you know, for the economy is just crazy. But then what about the river that had to be cleaned for something like $1.5 billion or something? And then people still got sick. Well, that was just a silly idea, wasn't it? Yeah. I don't know. I'm in two minds about it. I understand why that you would then, Paris, would sell off the apartments to make money back. But there's also part of me that thinks, okay, it wasn't as spoken about, but so many of the homeless people in Paris were just

literally bust out of the city. They were shooed out, like, we don't want you here. surely there's got to be a way of like giving back to the homeless community or something like that when you've built all of these literally apartments like that's where they lived on the streets now you've kicked them out to build apartments it's got to be something to do with giving back and I feel like that would make a far bigger impact in terms of a legacy piece yes a sporting venue I agree with that and that happens for every games unfortunately every city has a homeless population and if you have a host city those people usually relocated for the games, which is heartbreaking, but I love that idea.

How do you feel about now that you have gone and worked at the Olympics, but you've also attended the Paralympics for so many years as an athlete, do you like the way they're really segmented that we just do the Olympics and then we do the Paralympics off the back of it? Because a lot of people want to know if we should be intermingling them, like putting some of the Paralympic events in between the Olympic events. Yeah, it's a question I think that comes around every Games, whether the olympics and paralympics should be integrated you see it in the commonwealth games but i think most people don't realize in the commonwealth games they usually only take

a select amount of people with a disability like 10 or something there's not that many and so i love the fact that they're actually segregated and most people that are able-bodied think that paralympians want olympics and paralympics to be together it's a fair assumption because obviously the Olympic Games, well, it happens first, but it brings this incredible excitement that kind of kicks off the whole game cycle and then the Paralympians come like four weeks later. I am so exhausted from being at the Olympics for three weeks though. I couldn't imagine having to do like an extra three weeks at the Paralympics.

Like the two-week break is really nice to have. And also I think the Paralympic movement and the messaging is so different to the Olympics. like the Olympics is all about high performance it's all about their motto which is like faster higher stronger or something like that I don't really know what be better yeah but the Paralympics it adds such like a different depth to sports that is so much more relatable to the general public in terms of overcoming adversity and overcoming something incredible and just I suppose just being able to be in that position to perform on on the high performance level is just amazing in itself before they even like start on the track or dive into the pool. It just adds

so many extra layers to the best parts of being human that I think the Olympics, it still has those moments, but not to the same extent as the Paralympics. And I love that it's separate because then we really get to elevate that kind of messaging. Is the Paralympics growing in size and popularity with each Paralympics that happens? Oh, hugely so. In fact, for the television rights, the broadcasting rights, the International Paralympic Committee are only selling them in like four year blocks because they know it'll change so much. It's changing so quickly. So I know that Network 9, they have the Olympics till 2032, but the Paralympics, they only had for Paris. And so they have to bid again for the next games in LA because the International

Paralympic Committee knows that the value of the games is going to go up so much in the next four years. It's so amazing though, isn't it? When you think like that is a direct correlation to people's attitudes and views changing people wanting to be invested and wanting to watch it yeah it's so cool and I love the Paralympics it's like so emotional so I'm I'm hosting the Paralympics uh this year and I know that I'm probably not going to be able to get through like one show without crying without crying because the stories I tell you I remember being an athlete myself and I never asked anybody about their disability or what their stories were to get to that point of being at a Paralympic Games because I was just so self-serving, just so

focused on winning what I could. And it wasn't until probably Tokyo where I started researching the athletes and learning about their stories. And it made me like appreciate the whole movement so much more. Like it's like nothing else in the whole world, you know? So you're hosting here. You're not going back there. Yeah. I'm hosting from Sydney. Yeah. Cause you're like cooked. You're like, I'm definitely not doing it. I would have loved to have gone back to Paris because I haven't missed the Paralympic Games since 2008 and so this will be my first Paralympic Games that I miss being on the ground but I still

get to host it from Sydney so it's just got to do with studio space so I can't be over there Ellie I'd love to know your as an insider like your inside thoughts on some of the stuff that went down there that from our perspective like a spectator perspective in a media perspective were pretty fucking wild and there was I mean we will talk about Ray Gunn but first I want to talk about the dickhead and I don't even remember his name and it's fine I don't want to find it to put it in I don't care less but the commentator that they made the really sexist comment when the girls won their relay and he had said they were taking too much time on the podium enjoying their moment and he made a comment about oh typical women they take so long probably doing their makeup like that

kind of a really sexist comment what was it like for you guys like a as a female a swimmer but somebody that was actually there knowing everyone's internal thoughts. Yeah, it was interesting. That comment itself, if that comment was made even two game cycles ago, that commentator probably wouldn't have been removed. So I think the fact that he was removed so swiftly as well kind of just goes to show the progress that we have made in sport. And if you look at how many women won medals for Australia, for the US,

it was crazy. Yeah, so I think women's sport in Australia has come a very long way and the value that we have on our females in high-performance sport is in such a good place right now. So the fact that that comment was made and then he was removed was a very good decision. Yeah, internally when that comment was made, I don't think that anyone was too worried in terms of about themselves

because someone like myself or Giannini or Ian Thorpe would not make a comment like that. We absolutely love our female athletes for their performance and their performance alone. I can guarantee you there was not one moment when they were on the podium. like swimmers look like shit when they get on the podium like our hair's all ready, like our mascara's running down our face You've just had a cap on

You've just won gold Yeah, we've got like that red cap mark and there's not one point where I would have thought about their makeup on the podium like why are you commentating on the Olympics, you know if you're going to make a comment like that Do you know what they thought? Who?

The girls Oh, they didn't care, they just won Olympic gold They probably weren't even aware of it To be honest, I think the reason why a lot of people became aware of it was because of the media the media frenzy that happened I mean obviously there was outrage but it's kind of the one thing about social media is that it then doesn't let up it almost forces there to be a sense of justice or a sense of punishment because social media now no longer will like let things die oh it's

people are mad well that's what happened for the Tokyo Paralympics with pay parity that all blew up because of social media and there's no way that we would have received pay parity if that didn't blow up like it did you know well that's a really interesting question in terms of like the Paris Olympic? Because I think partly maybe it was a moral and social movement, but also I think it was a PR movement. They really focused on this idea that it was the equal Olympics, that they had the same amount of female Olympians as what they did as male Olympians. Was that something that was felt over there? Or was that more part of their, like I said, like their marketing around it? Or was it very much it felt like an equal Olympics? Well, the games have always been pretty

equal in terms of gender between male and female but I think that Paris did make a point of it because it was the first time that there were actually more female athletes than males and that had never happened before oh I thought it was exactly even exactly that's what that's what they're promoting but maybe not like to the person yeah well I know that they emphasized equality quite heavily over in Paris like even the way that the Olympic torch was designed like it was like they said it's perfectly symmetrical because of equality oh wow wow we're like got it loud and clear so you know they made some huge statements with that and then obviously with the climate change and being climate positive experience as well and the opening ceremony there are a lot of

aspects to it that were all about equality and I didn't watch the opening I actually I went to watch the opening ceremony with all of the commentators we just went to the bar we put it on in the background but then we all got so because a lot of the commentators that I was on over there with like Cadell Evans you know people I grew up loving as athletes as well I'm not watching the opening ceremony of Cadell Evans is sitting you get to see it spend time with like your heroes and your icons you're like oh that's happening that's right we've got to do that tomorrow shit so is it true that there are some countries that don't pay their athletes anything like you to win a medal because we know that it is not uniform so some countries you'll win 20,000 some

you'll have 100,000. Are there some countries that don't reward anything? Heaps. There are so many countries that don't reward their athletes at all financially, or even really fund their athletes financially. In Australia, I know that we, I think we rank maybe 32nd or 33rd with how much we have in terms of set aside for medal incentives. But you've got to think also in Australia, we win a lot of medals. Yeah, of course. But yeah, there are some countries that don't some countries, their medal incentives are bonkers. Like I know that Hong Kong reward their athletes for a gold medal, 1.1 million, but they've only won four gold medals in their Olympic history. So. I mean, it's easy to promise something when like the actual payday is probably

not going to be that high. I mean, statistically, I think Singapore was also similar. They've got a really high payment for an Olympic gold medal, but they've never won an Olympic gold medal. So it's easy for them to say, we'll pay you $10 million. That's all we've ever had to pay. There was a country and please no one quote me on this because I've got a lot of details wrong. There was like a South American country that I read where one of them was a very small payment, but a large part of what he won was like a year's worth or 10 years worth of like chicken nuggets or something. I'm not lying. Can you search that up please, Jono? I remember after Tokyo, I won't say the name of the shop, but this very famous chicken shop in

Sydney. No, you told me. You said I could come. What? The chicken shop? Yeah, you told me you had unlimited amounts of Charcoal Charlies. All of the athletes got like this. I think it was like $50 of Charcoal Charlies a day. Oh, it's the card. It's the secret card. Yeah, but it's unlimited. That's the card that you're never meant to talk about.

It was loaded on my account. No, it was just this like $50 credit. Mate, we can talk about Charcoal Charlies after this. Man, it was so good. I lived on Charcoal Charlies for four months. I had it every lunch and every dinner for four months. I mean, I know we've joked about the whole Ray Gunn thing on and off throughout this entire episode.

I don't want to talk about her in terms of like the conspiracies or anything like that, but I do have a question. She's an alien. Put my tinfoil out. Can you imagine if you competed at the Olympics and then the commentary around it two weeks later is that there's a conspiracy theory? That's exactly what my question is.

So more so than like everything that's blowing up in the media, but there is such a huge sense of responsibility as an Olympian, not just to do a PB or to perform the best that you possibly can for yourself, but also a sense of representing your country. do you think there should be or there is you know the backlash is justified when somebody goes and does a performance that is completely subpar i haven't seen a performance what i haven't seen the only person in the world that hasn't seen the kangaroo what about the sprinkler i've been in paris that's where it happened

you weren't on the moon but i don't know we don't need to use her just as the reference point i mean it happens unfortunately there are times where people either are not as well skilled as other olympians or they just absolutely fucking bomb like it can happen yeah it happens all the time it's heartbreaking ellie stopped short in her race remember by 50 meters and celebrated she thought she won she hadn't finished the race it's very easy to bomb at the olympics though we actually see it quite a lot. It's just that the athletes that usually don't perform well at the Olympics are the ones that are going for the first time. They're quite inexperienced, so they usually don't get much

airtime anyway. I shouldn't have said it like that. But they are so overwhelmed by the whole experience. You've got to think, if you're competing at the Olympic Games, it's an experience that you have never had before. The stadium is full. It's so loud, you can't even hear yourself think. And then the pressure that you have from the public to perform at an A++++ level is almost soul crushing. And for someone like Ray Gunn, who has competed in a sport that's never even been at the Olympics, there's nothing to compare herself to. Like obviously she can compare herself to the other dancers that were there, but it's a relatively young sport in a stadium that would have been so far out of a realm of anything that she's experienced before. And I do know that

Ray Gunn in particular, she went for an angle that she knew that she wasn't as strong. That's so diplomatic. She knew that she wasn't as strong as the other dancers. So she went for an angle that was more creative and didn't work out for her but it's a huge huge risk to go into the olympics and go i'm going to go creative here it's also just like imagine if i started artistic swimming can that just be the grab it's a huge risk to go to the olympics and try to be creative it is though because every time someone competes at the olympics like it's almost like you follow a formula that has been done thousands and thousands of times before whereas she went

to the Olympics and followed a formula has never been done and didn't work out. But it didn't work out, did it, though? Who knows? I'm still confused. I would do anything for Adele to say my name. I said the same thing on that episode. I would do anything.

I was like, I would sprinkle up for Adele to stop a concert and say, like, Brittany Hockley sprinkled. It is interesting with the rise of social media now. Like, obviously, I think the Olympics and the Paralympics, I mean, everything that we watch now is increased tenfold in popularity because of the help of social media. There are athletes that I know now that I never would have known, not from watching the games, didn't see them, but from social media.

Probably for the wrong reasons. The poor guy, the pole vaulter that we only know because his penis got stuck on the vault. You've seen that though, right? That was great. Imagine that's what you're – I watched it on repeat. I watched it in slow-mo.

Watch it in slow-mo. In HD. Cinematic mode. People are becoming famous for all the different reasons, right? And I think it's cool, like, I think it's cool that you don't have to, I mean, it sucks to be known because your junk got stuck on a pole at the Olympics. Like, that sucks to be known for that. It sucks to probably be known for what Ray Gunn is known for.

But it is nice that you don't have to just be the person that wins to be the person that people are speaking about. Like, creates more opportunities, creates an income outside of winning the Olympics because we know Olympians don't get paid much. It creates an income outside that helps them to attend the next Olympics. And I think it's super cool because you don't know what the moments that are going to stand out at the Olympics are until they happen. Like no one could have predicted that guy was going to get his dick

stuck on a pole vault. But also guys. Or the guy that won his silver medal and said, Sharon, I want my dog back once he wins the Olympics. Sharon, give him his dog back. Fucking Shazza, where's the dog? Can you imagine going to the Olympics to get your dog back? That's like some homeward bound shit.

But also the commitment. Imagine competing. You've worked for that place your entire life and taking your one opportunity to shame your ex about something. I know. There's so much resentment that's bottled up in that. I was about to say it's iconic until you said shame my ex. But it was pretty iconic.

Yeah, fine. I think it's funny that like we're like it's created so many more opportunities. All these people have turned into memes, guys. Every single one of them. I'd be a meme. But if you're, I guess the junk one, I know I keep going back to getting the junk stuck. It's not a bad thing to be known for that your junk was too big that it got in the way. Like you lost the Olympics because your junk was too big.

But you know what? Every time that he jumps from now on, people aren't going to be looking at his face. They'll be looking at everything else. He's going to have to strap it down. Well, not everything else. Yeah. It reminds me of Matt Shervington, who now hosts like the morning show when he was running, but he obviously has a package.

He's well endowed. He will never be able to outlive or outrun the meme that is Matt Shervington running in normal running gear because it was right there and everyone's seen it. That's what he's known for. I know. He's a really nice guy. I like him a lot.

But every time I see him, I'm like, oh, that's right. That's my point. Imagine, like, you've achieved so much. Like, not you, sorry. You have as well, Ellie. But when you've achieved so much like Matt Shervington, now you're on TV, you're trying to be taken seriously and literally someone goes, it's all I know you for.

It's all I think about is your penis. Well, I do want to say it's very, very fortunate, bringing this full circle, Ellie, it's very fortunate that back in the day, no one had an iPhone to film you riding around on a tiny bike in your pajamas with one leg and a small statue person chasing you around because that's what you would have been known for. Last question. It lives rent free in my head, that's for sure. It will live rent free in my head now too.

Last question is when you are out of the Olympics, are you allowed to just chill in the village for a while or is it like you got to pack up, shop and leave the next day? You can chill. Well, so I don't know what the rules are like now because I know since COVID has been a thing, as soon as you finish your competition, you have to leave 24 hours after. That's rough. Yeah, it is rough.

It's like being evicted, isn't it? Yeah. Like let a girl live. You just got there. It's like bravo. Well done. Bye. But I remember like for the Commonwealth Games in Birmingham,

I know it's not the Olympics, but we still stayed at an athlete's village. I finished on like the first day of competition and then I had like nine days of hot girl Euro summer when I was watching all of the other sports. But I'm not sure what it was like for Paris. I think some of the athletes, most of them stayed behind because they all arrived back at the same time.

Yeah, right. Well, there we go. It's so much fun, though, if you're finished at the Olympics. Like, you know, you don't have any more sport, any more commitments that you really have to do. You just go and have fun. How many tequila shots do you have, Ellie? You have to be very careful when you come back into the Athletes' Village

because there are still people that will be competing and so you have to make sure that when you come back you're, like, sneaky like a mouse. Yeah, right. Because you don't want to wake up all of the competitors who are racing the next day. And how many tequila shots did I have? A lot.

My last question. I know I said last question. Do athletes really hook up there a lot? Oh, yeah. So just bang. There is a massive bowl of condoms, like hundreds and hundreds and hundreds. And do they hook up inter-country? Yeah.

So you just go bang America? You just hook up with whoever you want to hook up with. And it's frequent. And you just like eye each other across the dining hall and be like, come back to my cardboard bin. I know that I was always saying silver when I was an athlete, so I haven't done anything like that. But I know that, like, I think on Tinder, I don't know,

I've never used Tinder. Can you, like, set your settings to be, like, within, like, 500 metres? Yeah. Because I know that people, like, in the Athletes' Village, they use Tinder a lot and that's how they find the other athletes. It's like you don't even have to go to the dining hall. You just do it from your room. Like, get on Tinder.

You can say, oh, this person's an Olympian. They must be staying at the Athletes' Village. You swipe whichever way that is. Which way is it? Left for no. So you swipe right and you go, oh, yeah, I'm staying in the Australian building. Come over and see my cardboard bed. Come over and see my flag.

My flagpole. Ellie, you're a legend. Thank you so much for coming today and giving a bit of insight. We love having you. And maybe we'll leave it a year or two and we'll get you back. Yeah. Sounds good. See you guys next year.

We'll be right back.