Athletics was thrust into the mainstream media off the back of the women’s Australian marathon team selection for the Paris Olympics. Athletics isn’t accustomed to this kind of attention, and often gets swallowed up by other sports in the news cycle. The secret sauce this time? Controversy.

Zachary Gates, Olympic and Paralympic Games Reporter with Nine’s Wide World of Sports, is the journalist who broke the story on the women’s marathon team. In our conversation we talk about how he got the scoop, why athletics struggles for eyeballs, and how other sports leverage drama to get more viewers and engagement. We anticipate another potentially turbulent round of Australian Olympic team selections this week.

At the time of recording, we speculate about the Australian men’s 1500m team selection, on which Zachary has since published an article, naming Olli Hoare, Stewy McSweyn and Adam Spencer in the line up. Read that here

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Intro and outro music by Dan Beacom

Graphic design by Kate Scheer