My guest on this episode is my good friend and fellow fencer Max Hartung, a 2 time olympian from Germany in sabre fencing and currently ranked 3rd in the world.

Max is also the president of the German athletes commission and played a pivotal role in challenging a controversial Olympic Rule which prohibits athletes from getting sponsorship revenue during the Olympic Games. They won the case and the ruling in Germany significantly scaled back the advertising restrictions placed on athletes by the International Olympic Committee's controversial Rule 40 . This is a historic win for german athletes and sets a precedent for all other countries to follow.

In this episode, we chat about :

How Max and the German athletes managed to challenge rule 40 and score a winThe exact nature of what German athletes are now allowed to do under the more relaxed rulesHow Max thinks athletes around the world can do the same in their respective countriesMax's takeaway after his meeting with the IOC president Thomas Bach about revenue sharing between the IOC and athletesMax's thoughts on the new organization Global Athlete which is trying to unite athletes around the world and give them a strong, unified voice Much more about Max's views on athlete rights, athlete transition after sport and his perspective on abuse and corruption in sport

This is a very important episode that should be listened to by sports fans, athletes and sports leaders from around the world in order to spark a conversation with their respective governments and leaders.

Enjoy!

Episode featuring Jason Burnett, a 3 time Olympian (2008,2012,2016) and Olympic Silver medalist in the sport of Trampoline.

This episode takes you through the life of someone who has experienced something that few people in the world have or ever will experience. Jason gives us the chance to live his  Olympic experience step by step!

My goal on this episode was twofold:

I wanted to learn more about the sport and what makes Canada such a strong competitor in Trampoline. We have won medals at every Olympics since the year 2000.  Jason explains very well how the sport helped him overcome his shyness as a kid, how mentally tough you have to be and how easily things can go wrong in this sport.     

2. I wanted a detailed account of  his journey through all 3 olympics and try to understand how winning an olympic medal  affected his life.  Jason gives us an in depth look at what it really takes to become an olympic medalist and how to keep going despite broken ankles, torn ACL’s, losing your confidence and how to  find motivation to keep going after achieving the pinnacle of the sport.  You will also be very surprised by what Jason has to say about that an the MOST important lesson he learned after going to 3 Olympics.

Additionally, we talk about his aspirations of becoming a stuntman, his appearance in his first movie, his personal life outside of sport and many other insights into why and how he kept going through all the hardships. Enjoy!

Special Episode!

THE NEXT GENERATION INITIATIVE- 5to8 campaign (5to8.ca)

Today is a special episode for 2 reasons. First, there was a huge announcement this past week in the Canadian sports world which will have  major impact on the next generation of olympic athletes. The Canadian Olympic foundation launched a groundbreaking campaign called 5 to 8, a fund matching program dedicated to raising money for the next generation of Canadian Olympians. The initiative targets athletes that are 5 to 8 years away from an Olympic podium and helps them define and perfect their skills by providing financial support, specialized training, equipment and access to innovative sport science.

To launch the program and encourage other Canadians to give, David and Ruth Asper and their children Daniel, Rebecca and Max announced the largest individual donation to Olympic sport in Canadian history by a factor of ten, unveiling a transformative $2.5 million contribution to the Next Generation Initiative. The contribution will be supplemented through the Government of Canada’s fund matching program, bringing the total value of the Asper donation to $5 million.

5to8 was created to encourage all Canadians to give to our Next Generation athletes in need. Every donation made to 5to8 will be doubled by the Government of Canada making every dollar worth twice as much to help support the Next Gen of Team Canada..

My guest is one on these Next Gen Olympic hopefuls and also the first ever guest who is not an Olympian...yet!

Pierce Lepage is 6 foot 7, 22 year old Canadian track athlete prodigy who competes in the decathlon. He burst on the scene by winning the RBC Training Ground talent identification program in 2016 and then went on to win the 2017 Canadian Track and Field Championships and the silver medal in the decathlon at the 2018 Commonwealth Games

He is aiming for the Tokyo Olympics and is motivated as ever.

Some of the topics we covered:

How he got into his sport

The difficulties of training for 10 sports

How he gets ready for competitions

His mindset going into the final stretch for qualifications for 2020

His huge passion for Esports and League of Legends

How the 5 to 8 campaign  will impact him and athletes around him

The importance of funding to reach the Olympic podium

The best advice he ever received

Which person in the world he would like to have a coffee with

And much more..

Links:

For more information on how to contribute to the 5to8 campaign, visit: 5to8.ca

This episode was sponsored by Elixir Wear.

Use promo code JOELIXIR15 to get 15% all their products on elixirwear.ca

Episode 3 features Olympic Synchronized swimmer Jacqueline Simoneau.

Jackie is a very impressive 21 year old who competed at her first Olympics in 2016. A rising star of the national synchro team, Simoneau first joined the team in 2012 when she was still a junior competitor. That year she won a bronze medal in the solo event at the FINA World Junior Championship and since that time she has been ranked consistently among the top 5 solo and duet synchronized swimmers in the world. On May 18, 2016 the 2 time Panam Games Gold Medalist Simoneau was named to Canada's Olympic team where she finished seventh in the duet with her partner Karine Thomas.

I had so much fun in this interview and we talked about many interesting subjects such as:

- How she overcame the odds when most people told her she could never make the Olympics because of her body type

- How she handled the difficult situation where only her and another teammate qualified for the games but the rest of their team did not

- Her advice on how to work and develop a successful relationship with a teammate who you see 8 hours a day and needs to be perfectly in synch with your every movement

- How she overcame an ulcer that went undiagnosed for months and needed to be rushed to the hospital before her Olympic qualification event.

- How she manages her time to perfection between training 8 hours a day, going to school, working part time and giving speeches

And much more!!

This episode was brought to you by the groundbreaking and all natural muscle pain relief company Elixir Wear. Listen to the end of the podcast for a detailed description and for a special promo code JOELIXIR15 to get 15% off all their products on their website : https://elixirwear.ca/

Olympian Mandy Bujold - Boxing

Mandy is an amateur boxer whose career was launched following a successful 2006 when she claimed the Canadian National Championships and Boxer of the Year titles. Since that time she has won 11 consecutive Canadian National championships, 3 continental championships, a bronze medal at the commonwealth games and 2 back to back Golds at the 2011 and 2015 Pan American Games. Mandy finished 5th at the 2016 Rio Olympic Games. Since Rio, Mandy has started her own TeamBujold Sports Academy where she runs High Performance Mentorship Camps for Youth across Canada.

On this episode, Mandy and Joseph discuss topics such as:

•How she got into the sport

•How she stayed motivated to continue through setbacks

•Her mental routine and special superstition before every fight

•How she really felt being in the Olympic village (you will be very surprised by her answer)

•How she miraculously managed to fight in Rio even though she suffered a severe stomach flu the day before the fight

•A great story on pre fight mind games and visualization techniques she used to help her beat the best boxer in the world

•The importance of coaching in sport and life and how she dealt with the untimely passing of her own longtime coach and mentor

And much , much more!

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This is the introductory episode of The Olympian's Podium, the podcast where Olympian Joseph Polossifakis sits down with other Olympians to discuss their unique stories and extract universally applicable lessons they learned along the way.  On this episode, Joseph gives a brief description of the show's purpose as well as a quick look into his own olympic journey and why he decided to start the podcast.

 

 

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