Well it's officially time to say goodbye to everything Paris 2024 related as the 2024 Paralympics have drawn to a close, and we're back to go over everything to do with the Paris Paralympics in true Off The Podium style! We go over all the big moments, big athletes and big sports that we loved watching along the way! We also talk up just why some sports at the Paralympics are far better than the Olympics and what we would like to see worked into more future Paralympics! Added to this we learn just how sad we are that Paris is over and that we have to wait another four years for another Summer festival of sport! It's all here and more in our epic Paralympics 2024 recap that you simply can't miss!

As the Paris Paralympics continue, we are continuing on with our mini-series interviewing Paralympic legends. And today it's a big one, as we speak with legendary Australian swimmer Melissa Carlton about her extraordinary career that netted her nine Paralympic medals across two Paralympics. We find out about her start in the sport and her move from South Africa to Australia, and just how she went on to become one of the biggest name athletes in the state of Tasmania across the 1990s. We also learn about her journey to the Paralympics and just how she found the differences between swimming in Atlanta and at home in Sydney. Added to this we find out just what she has done with her medals, how she feels about being an iconic Tasmanian and how she was able to turn her successful swimming career into a successful career outside of the pool. It's another amazing interview with an amazing athlete that you can't afford to miss!

The Paralympics are here! And to celebrate the occasion we are continuing our mini-series in speaking to some Paralympic legends as we sit down with five-time Australian Paralympian in the sport of swimming, Matt Levy, to learn about his epic rise in the sport and his amazing achievements at the Paralympic Games. We find out how attending the Sydney Paralympics in 2000 was so inspirational for Matt and why that made him take up swimming on a more competitive level than he had ever before. We also learn about how he was able to adapt so quickly and find his way to the Paralympics only a few years later in Athens, and how through all of his Paralympic appearances he was able to use past performances as fuel towards achieving greater success. Added to this we learn more about his part in the epic 4x100m freestyle 34 points relay win in Tokyo, how he has used his story to help out others on a grand stage since his retirement and whether or not he feels a bit weird not being at the Paris Paralympics given it's the first time he hasn't competed at the Paralympic Games in 24 years. It's an amazing interview from one of the greatest Australian Paralympians of all time, so don't miss it and get to listening!

With the Olympics over for another four years, it's now time to switch focus to the Paralympics in Paris which are set to begin in less than a week. And in the lead up to the 2024 Paralympics we thought it would be a perfect opportunity to chat to some legends of the event and learn more about their unique and incredible individual journeys through sport. Today we begin this mini-series in perhaps the biggest way possible from a Canadian perspective, as we speak with the most decorated Canadian Paralympian of all time, Michael Edgson, to learn about his amazing career in swimming and just how he was able to achieve such success on the world stage. We find out just why swimming was his chosen sport and what it was like to rise through the ranks in Canada in the late 70s and early 80s towards his Paralympic debut in 1984. We also find out how he came to choose his specific strokes and which stroke he just never had a liking for. Added to this we hear the most extraordinary stories behind his most famous races, and why one of them actually came from defeat rather than victory, some epic tales of hanging out with some legendary Canadian athletes and just why he decided to hang up the goggles after the Barcelona Paralympics, despite still being so young. It's an absolutely incredible interview that you simply can't miss!

After an incredible last few weeks of amazing Olympic action, we bring our Paris 2024 coverage to a close with one last special episode! Join Ben as he brings you some exclusive snippets on the ground in Paris during the Olympics, featuring a variety of thoughts and insights as he documents his journey throughout the 16 days of competition. We also hear from some very special guests, including Jill and Alison from the 'Keep The Flame Alive' podcast, our special contributor Patrick Riley and two very special guests that you won't want to miss! It's one hell of an episode with one hell of an insight into the greatest show on earth!

Wow. That's all we can say. The Paris 2024 Olympics are done, and we definitely need to take a breather after all the epic times and moments we have seen over the last few weeks. And to take that breather, what better way than to bring you another episode to close out the Games in style! We go over all our favourite moments, find out more vibes and gossip from the ground direct in Paris and find out just how terrible our pre-Games predictions were. We also of course come for the ATHLETE OF THE GAMES, names in a new form this time, as we give out the most prestigious possible award any athlete can get. It's one hell of an episode to bring to a close one hell of an Olympics that were Paris 2024!

All good things must come to an end, and after the Paris 2024 Olympics set the bar so high with the opening ceremony, we're here to discuss whether the closing ceremony was able to vault over that bar or not! We're privileged to have another ground floor call-in guest to give us instant reactions of the ceremony as the stadium emptied, talking about everything from floating pianos to athletes rushing the stage to most importantly how Tom Cruise looked and smelled up close. We also have the final day of competition to cover including the spectacular finish of the women's marathon and Sifan Hassan pulling off a near impossible feat. And if that could be beat it may have been the down to the wire final seconds of the women's basketball final. And as we bid farewell to our dear friend Thomas Bach, we also find out just who will win our final ever Bachie for athlete of the day, and whether or not we can resist the temptation to give it to another athletics athlete. Your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to download our closing ceremony episode and listen now before it self destructs! 

Show of hands who enjoyed day 15's never ending string of medals awarded today? We definitely might have! Strangely though we're still discussing yesterday's show with a continued plea to leave the poor athletes alone. Unless you're there to cheer for New Zealand killing it today, in which case join us as we give them their due, even if it might go against our show's mission statement. We watch along as US goes for the one gold medal in basketball that might have broken the country if things went in the wrong direction, and witness Sweden making history in beach volleyball. And if you thought Tokyo and Paris had the hardest marathon in history do we have news for you. You won't believe the facts we discover today from the 1904 St Louis marathon, which has to be heard to believe. Once again we ask for a show of hands on who plans to download and listen to us today. Records will fall if your hand is raised!

Please forgive the tears of joy coming from Colin and the shot voice after the Men's 100m relay today, but we do have more important things to discuss on Off the Podium, mainly the sport of BREAKING! Just what did we witness today? Do we understand it? Do we like it? Do we want more? And even aside from our feelings on the sport we have a huge behind the scenes rally today for one particular B-Girl to potentially win our Athlete of the Day. There is still plenty of non Breaking discussion as we go over the huge Men's Soccer final that will go down as one of the best games ever. We're keeping the anticipation going through the show for a special report on Taekwondo, and while the Men's 100m Relay brought a tear to Colin's eye (even though he's typically void of emotions), we try to figure out if the American team has managed to complete that first exchange yet at the time this episode airs. If you can successfully receive the baton of an episode we're passing you today then give it a good listen!

It felt like a day full of upsets in Paris, but we are anything but upset to be here to cover all the events from Day 13 of the Paris 2024 Olympics! With Covid hitting the track and field, we saw historic wins in the 200 metres, 400 metres and javelin, but it was the team sports that really captured us today as we saw a huge last minute come from behind victory in the basketball. While there were medals for both Australia and Canada, it's the hope of future medals in water polo and beach volleyball that seem to be exciting us the most, so naturally we are offering some bribes to a certain friend of the show to sway the results in our favour. We also feature our very first surprise listener call in to build up anticipation for the coming of breaking and modern pentathlon. So get masked up and keep a safe distance as you listen to our latest episode on everything that went down in Paris today!