By The West Australian
From The West Australian, Let's Go Tokyo, hosted by Mark Readings and Ben O'Shea is a podcast dedicated to bringing you the latest on the 2021 Tokyo Olympic Games.
As well as daily recaps an
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The podcast currently has 75 episodes available.
Well, that’s it. It’s all over. We’ve seen elite athletes compete over the last 2 weeks, cheered them on and watched on with their nervous families back home in Aus.
Our Aussie athletes did us proud with a total of 80 Paralympic medals - 21 of them gold.
We finished 8th on the medal tally, with China GB and USA taking out the top 3 spots.
In this final episode of Let's Go Tokyo, we speak with Madison de Rozario's mum abut her incredible marathon feat, and her struggle over the last 5 years to make it to Tokyo.
What a ride it’s been… as we’ve brought you all the action from the Olympics and the Paralympics.
Tokyo has done the Games proud in an incredibly difficult set of circumstances… And our Aussie athletes have done US proud.
Thanks for joining us… We’ll catch you in three years.
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Wasn’t the first week of the games exciting to watch?
Australia took home 6 gold in ONE day, saw records smashed, have seen Aussie legends in the making, and it seems our Aussie’s knack for post-event comments has continued in the Paralympics!
Lakeisha Patterson started it all off when she said she was “more fried than a chook from KFC” after winning her 400m final but it's this quote from fellow swimmer Grant "Scooter" Patterson (no relation), that will go down in the history books.
Scooter and Ahmed Kelly took out bronze and silver respectively - their first Paralympic medals - in Saturday’s 150m individual medley, and while they were overjoyed to be on the podium together, their fierce rivalry still runs deep into every aspect of their lives.
With Scooter saying: “We even had a race to the toilet this afternoon to see who could poo first”
By day 6, Australia is sitting eighth on the ladder with 8 gold, 16 silver and 13 bronze. But way out in front is China with 47 gold! And 106 medals in total, followed by team GB and USA
And one of those medals went to one of our very own, WA man Ben Popham, who you might also recognise as one of the Telethon stars in 2011.
And we were so lucky to talk to his mum Jennifer on the podcast.
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As Paralympic tennis star Dylan Alcott put it, the warmup is officially over. It’s time for the big show now.
Tonight, we’ll see Danni DiToro, wheelchair tennis and wheelchair table tennis star, and Riley Batts, 5 time Paralympian in the wheelchair rugby, be the flag bearers in the opening ceremony.
The themes this year are ‘moving forward’ and ‘we have wings’ - which encourages athletes to spread their wings, no matter which way the wind is blowing.
Over the next two weeks, more than 4400 athletes will compete for Paralympic glory, and the 179 athletes from Australia will be looking to have another year in the top five on the medal tally.
In this special preview episode of Let's Go Tokyo, Ben and Mark speak to swimming legend and medal of the Order of Australia recipient Priya Cooper ahead of the games, who to watch, and who she'll be paying attention to, in and out of the water.
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In this episode, we speak to Paralympian Robyn Lambird, who will be representing Australia in Tokyo in wheelchair racing.
She talks us through her preparation, and why representation for people with disabilities is so important.
She'll definitely be one to watch.
Stay tuned in a couple of weeks when Let's Go Tokyo covers the Paralympics.
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Sailing has always been in Matt Wearn's blood. And taking out gold in Tokyo has been the icing on a pretty challenging cake.
I’ll tell you what, one of our favourite moments of the Olympics was speaking to sailing Gold medallist Tessa Parkinson, who was talking about this up and comer sailor named Matt Wearn, who will be one to watch - then the next day he wins gold.
He took us on his journey through Tokyo, and what it's like to call himself an Olympic Gold medallist.
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Well, what an Olympic Games it was!
Australia finished up 6th, after sitting in 4th spot for most of the games - GB and ROC had a late surge of medals.
In this final episode - for the Tokyo Olympics, Ben and Mark speak to GOLD medallist Matt Wearn, who took us on his journey through Tokyo, and what it's like to call himself an Olympic Gold medallist.
Plus, we speak to Paralympian Robyn Lambird, who will be representing Australia in Tokyo in wheelchair racing. She talks us through her preparation, and why representation for people with disabilities is so important.
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TONIGHT WHAT’S COMING UP
TOMORROW
For those who don’t know what’s in the pentathlon, it’s fencing, 200m freestyle swimming, show jumping, and a final combined event of pistol shooting and a 3200m cross-country run.
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In a shock in the athletics, the US men’s 4x100m relay team didn't the final, and track legend Carl Lewis put a rocket up them.
In other Tokyo action, the unofficial strongest man in the world was crowned -Georgia's Lasha Talakhadze lifted a new landmark 223 kilograms in the snatch and 265kg in the clean and jerk for a total 488kg.
And sport climbing's first gold medalist may as well change his name to Spiderman, winning the title by climbing a 15m wall in 6.42 seconds!
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As written in the west today - “Move over Russell Crowe, Australia has a new gladiator"
In the toughest event in track and field, Queensland’s Ash Moloney has created history by winning an Olympic bronze medal in possible the toughest event at the games, the decathlon.
But in this, a true show of sportsmanship emerged, with his teammate, Cedric Dubler running beside Ashley Moloney and yelling encouraging words in the last few hundred metres of the 1500m final run.
Ashley was falling behind, so Dubler ran beside him, setting the pace and yelling at him to keep going to ensure he remained in touch with American Garrett Scantling.
And he found something extra to close the gap to his closest rival, ensuring the bronze medal was his.
“F**k yeah,’ the 21-year-old screamed on learning he won the bronze.
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Let's Go Tokyo's special guest knows too well the frustration of just missing out on bronze.
The Australian men's basketball team have never won a medal at the Olympics, but have at least three times come agonisingly close in 4th place.
Basketball legend and four-time Olympian Andrew Vlahov tells Ben and Mark about his Olympic journey, what he thinks of our Aussie team, and what it was like facing THE REAL USA Dream Team.
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The podcast currently has 75 episodes available.