It was billed as “the Olympics the world had to have” and it certainly delivered. This episode of Clean and Gold looks back at the Games’ highlights and features two of our gold medallists, rowers Lucy Stephan and Alex Purnell.
Stephan, who grew up in Nhill - a town with no water for years, says she was “prepared for anything” when her races were delayed by an approaching typhoon.
“I think, honestly, it’s kind of like, ‘ok, what else have we got,” says Stephen, who won the coxless four event alongside Rosemary Popa, Jessica Morrison and Annabelle McIntyre.
Being the first Olympic gold medallist from a town of less than 2000 people, one of the things she’s looking forward to the most is heading home and sharing it with the school kids.
“You don’t have the luxury of seeing those people around you often go off and do sport and amazing things, especially a sport like rowing,” she says. “This [gold medal] may help push and guide those young kids to help them achieve their goals, whatever they may be.”
Fellow gold medallist Alex Purnell says the lack of international competition may have played in their favour.
“I think it was an advantage for us,” he says. “It was nice that there was no real form guide so we could fly under the radar, do our thing and it ended up working out well for us and we managed to cross the line in front.”
Alongside men’s four crew mates Alex Hill, Spencer Turrin and Jack Hargreaves, they held off a fast-finishing Romania to win gold, ending Great Britain’s dominance in the event since the Sydney 2000 Olympics.
The foursome dug deep for inspiration and drew on the Raiders for strength.
“At that point when everything is hurting so much you try and draw inspiration from somewhere and just try and find an extra something,” he says. “Over the last 100 it was ‘Raiders, Raiders, Raiders!”
And the prospect of Paris 2023? Both admit it’s definitely “tempting” that’s for sure.
ABC commentator Glen Mitchell, a veteran of four Olympic Games, admits he was ambivalent in the lead-in the Tokyo Games given the lack of crowds and the fact the majority of the Japanese didn’t want them to go ahead.
“I was pleasantly surprised how watching the Olympic Games, it [lack of a crowd] didn’t really stand out to me so much, it changed my perception in some ways to have crowds at venues,” he says.
While highlights included watching Jess Fox and Peter Bol race, Mitchell also enjoyed the camaraderie of the athletes, particularly those competing in the new Olympic sports of skateboarding and BMX riding.
“I thought that was really heart-warming the way the youngsters reacted to their competitors that had actually had a bad run, it’s not the sort of thing you’re used to seeing at the Olympics competition.”
Finally former Olympian Ben Hardy, a Sport Integrity Australia’s Intelligence Analyst, shares his top tips for competing clean.
Hosted by Tim Gavel and three-time Olympic gold medallist Petria Thomas
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