This was the week that the doyen of world cycling commentary, Phil Liggett, the man many Australians once fell asleep to every night of the Tour de France, announced his retirement from calling the Olympics, after calling no fewer than 17 of them, (including Winter Olympics.) Lovely bloke. For my Q & A in The Sun-Herald on Sunday, I interviewed Liggett on Thursday. We had a robust conversation about my long-time attacks on Lance Armstrong, calling him a cheat, and Phil being the last-man standing defending him, before Armstrong finally confessed.
You can read that in The Sun-Herald , but in the meantime, I also asked him what was the greatest race he ever called. He immediately answered:
PL: Tour de France 1989. Greg LeMond, the great American cyclist, had won the Tour in 1986 and then in 1987 his brother-in-law shot him by mistake while hunting turkeys, and put 200 pellets in his back – nearly killed him. In rehab for 18 months, in a wheelchair, and he had to push himself around and nobody wanted to give him a pro contract. But he got one and on the final day of the Tour, a great young Frenchman Laurent Fignon had a 50-second lead, with 24 kilometres to go from the Palace of Versailles to the Champs-Elysees.
Legendary cycling commentator Phil Liggett.
I did a cross before it started and my cohost said, “It’s got to be Fignon, because he lives here. Closing up 50 seconds in just 24 kilometres is not enough.” So I looked down the camera and I said, “I think Greg LeMond will win, and I think he will win by six seconds.” Well, he won by eight seconds, and my producer back in London yelled down the line into my ear, “Next time, Liggett, get it bloody right!” And then I burst into tears, [I was so moved].
Noah’s spark fizzles out
TFF attended the athletics finals at Stade de France on Thursday evening, and most particularly loved the 200m men’s final. Circumstances placed me in the second row just in front of where they started, so I was right there for the greatest exhibitions of hot-dogging I’ve ever seen.
For when the man who won the 100m came out, Noah Lyles, he looked like a cross between Muhammad Ali, a bouncing ball and a coiled spring. Unbeaten in a 200m final in the last three years, I swear he jumped around for a full 30 seconds, revving the crowd up and looking like he wanted his standing ovation early.
Two lanes over, Letsile Tebogo of Botswana – just 21 years old – was a strict contrast. He came out, got on his blocks and took his mark.
Ready … set … GO LIKE THE CLAPPERS!
Tebogo won, for Botswana’s first gold medal in its history, and the first time an African has won the 200m at an Olympics.
Lyles, for all his hot-dogging, finished third. He says he has COVID.
Impressive gene pool
TFF did a little light palling around with my former Wallabies teammates Phil Kearns and Brendan Nasser this Olympics, with both men boasting daughters competing for Australia. In the first week, Bella Nasser played wonderfully well in the women’s sevens, only to have the bronze medal snatched away just when it seemed like it was there for the taking.
Tilly Kearns, however, has been with the Stingers water polo team, as they knocked over every opponent in nail-biters. This included beating the mighty USA – who have won gold in this event for the last three Olympics – in the semi-finals , with her parents front and centre at the pool. The Stingers play Spain for the gold on Saturday. One for the old days: CARN KEARNSY!
Tilly Kearns in action for the Stingers.Credit: Getty
These glorious Games
Thanks, everyone, and that’s a wrap!
Very nearly, anyway. Look, with just a couple of days of the Olympics to go, I suppose we might squeeze in another five medals or so, but one way or another the key results are in. The Olympic Games were a fabulous success.
For a tag, I would choose the “Beautiful Games,” as that is the abiding memory. For a built environment, nothing matches Paris on a good day, and we’ve had fifteen straight so far. The city has been sparkling, the Parisians wonderfully warm and welcoming.
For me, a janitor on the western approaches to the Stade de France was emblematic of the vibe. With broom in hand, he was serenading visitors with his broom-guitar with a song of his own making, turning on “Have happy time everyone, and be welcome!” Laughing, he loved it, we loved it.
And of course, these Games will also be remembered for just how well Australia has done. Gold medals up the Wazoo! Silver medals from here to Silverton. Bronzed Aussies as far as the eye can see. Wonderful performances from so many of our team, even if they didn’t get a medal. Bravo, the lot of yers.
What they said
Michael Phelps: “If you test positive, you should never be allowed to come back and compete again, cut and dry. I believe one and done.” Agreed.
Noah Lyles on winning the 100m by 5/1000ths of a second: “I want my own shoe – I want my own trainer. I am dead serious. There is no money in spikes. Even Michael Johnson didn’t have his own sneaker. For how many medals we bring back, for the notoriety that we get, the fact that hasn’t happened is crazy.”
Fred Kerley, 100m bronze medallist, seated next to Lyles in the press conference, rolled his eyes and said: “You’re talking shit, man.”
Noemie Fox on winning gold, when for so long it has been her sister Jess making those headlines: “It feels surreal. It’s crazy that it’s mine. You don’t really dare to dream this big, but I really did this time, and I dared to dream to get to the Olympics and then to get to that final. When I saw at the last [stream gate] that I was first, it was just pure joy – there’s no words to describe that feeling – and the crowd just carried me through.”
Algerian boxer Imane Khelif: “I am a female. I want to tell the entire world that I am a female, and I will remain a female. I dedicate this medal to the world, and to all the Arabs and I tell you, ‘Long live Algeria.’ ”
Algerian boxer Imane Khelif.Credit: AP
IOC president Thomas Bach on all of it: “Let’s be very clear here: we are talking about women’s boxing. We have two boxers who are born as a woman, who have been raised a woman, who have a passport as a woman, and who have competed for many years as women. And this is the clear definition of a woman. There was never any doubt about them being a woman. We will not take part in a, sometimes politically motivated, cultural war.” Strong leadership.
Italian boxer Angela Carini backtracks: “All this controversy makes me sad. I’m sorry for my opponent, too. If the IOC said she can fight, I respect that decision … I have nothing against Khelif and if I meet her again, I will kiss her.”
Australian tennis player Matthew Ebden on winning gold with John Peers: “A few months ago I started thinking about this, it’s a bit strange as we both live down the road from each other, our wives are friends, the kids are friends. He said, ‘I would do anything to be at the Olympics again’, and that was all I needed to know. Somehow, we’re gold medallists. It’s more than a dream.”
Saya Sakakibara winning BMX gold – her BMX riding brother Kai had a crash in a race which caused a severe brain injury: “Those are the moments that made me really dig deep, really go internal and just find myself with BMX again.”
Afghan athlete Kimia Yousofi, part of the country’s six-person team competing in Paris: “I have a message for Afghan girls. Don’t give up, don’t let others decide for you. Just search for opportunity, and then use that opportunity. I just want to represent Afghan people with this flag, our culture. Our girls in Afghanistan, our women, they want basic rights, education and sport.”
TikToker Kiera Breaugh criticised Simone Biles’ husband for wearing her medal in a photo that went out on social media, and Biles responded: “Crazy thing is, I put my medal on every single one of my family members and took pictures. So don’t ever make assumptions. Like y’all are so f—ing miserable. Leave us alone.”
Needless to say, Breaugh loved the attention: “I’m honoured to be told to f— off by such a talented woman. I can’t be mad if she told him to [put the medal on] … maybe he is really taking notes.”
Team of the week
Noemie Fox. Gold medallist!
Australia. Most gold won at a single Games, since forever! First time since Munich that we’ve won more gold than both silver and bronze.
Novak Djokovic. Finally won Olympic gold, surprisingly over Carlos Alcaraz.
Dolphins women. Our men won one gold, while our women were throwing gold around like they were on the Eureka in 1854. The last time Australian men swimmers won more than two gold at one Games was 2004, when we had Hackett and Thorpe.
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Kaylee McKeown. Has won a medal in every Olympic event she’s entered – including five golds.
Henry Fieldman. British coxswain became the first person to win an Olympic medal in both men’s and women’s events. The haters will be disappointed to hear this had nothing to do with him changing gender, but the IOC changing the rules to allow men and women coxes to be on women’s and men’s teams.
Hockeyroos. From 1988-2000, won three of four gold medals – and haven’t made the semis since.
Armand Duplantis. It’s his world that he’s jumping over – we’re just living in it. The pole vaulter broke the world record for the ninth time in Paris. Strangely, Sergey Bubka is probably still more famous.
Dustin Martin. The AFL great hangs up his boots, forthwith pursuant, heretofore immediately, like right now. Hung ’em. He was so great that even those of us who don’t understand AFL were mesmerised just watching his endless menace.
Andrew Leigh. The federal parliamentarian celebrated his 52nd birthday by running the Canberra Trail 100k (cool and dry), in just under 13 hours. He expects to be walking normally again in a week or so …
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