Miscellaneous
Hosted by Tim Gavel and three-time Olympic gold medallist Petria Thomas, this blockbuster edition of our Clean And Gold series features champion sprinter Raelene Boyle, four-time Olympian Bronwen Knox and dual Olympic and Paralympic table tennis player Milly Tapper. Raelene burst on to the scene at the 1968 Olympics in Mexico as a 16-year-old, taking home a silver medal in the 200m sprint. She went on to win silver medals in the 100m and 200m sprints in Munich, only for it to be later revealed that she was cheated out of gold in what remains one of the greatest travesties in the history of Australian sport. “I look back at it and I just hope that people don’t remember me for those things or remember me as an athlete for those things, or for whingeing,” she says. “I’ve never really whinged about it it’s just what happened, it is what it was and there’s an awful lot more to my career than that.” She remains divided over the suggestion of a retrospective gold medal. “It would be nice to have a gold medal but I wasn’t first over the line,” she says. “I don’t know, there’s different ways to view it, you could say Renate Stecher was loaded with testosterone and sure a male is always going to beat a female over the distances that I ran….oh, I don’t know, I don’t know how I feel about it.” She also talks about integrity in sport, the evolving Olympic Games, her battles with cancer and, showing her trademark sense of humour, Raelene insists she can “still push out a bit of weight for a grey headed old bag”. Dual Olympic bronze medallist Bronwen Knox is preparing for her fourth Olympic campaign, one much different to her previous campaigns. In the absence of international competition for 18 months, the Sport Integrity Australia athlete educator says the Stingers are “just going in solely focussing on what we need to do….having that focus solely on us and what we can control”. Bronwen admits returning to the pool after COVID was more difficult than she had anticipated. “… having that really long break during the first COVID lockdown and not being able to train, it sort of took everyone by surprise ….there was nothing in place for us to stay engaged, stay involved, to stay in shape. Being an older athlete the body sorts of disintegrates on you and getting back and try to start again there was just roadblock after roadblock.” At Rio, Milly Tapper made history by becoming the first Australian athlete to qualify for both the Olympics and Paralympics. Milly, who has an injury that causes paralysis of the arm, started playing table tennis in 2002 while she was still at primary school. Regardless of the competition, she treats everybody the same. “Everyone that I compete again is turning up and trying to play their best to win,” she says. “Every athlete that you play has a different strength, a different weakness, regardless if it’s able bodied or Para, you still need to find a way to be able to win the point. For me, it’s exactly the same approach.” Her first venture into the competitive Paralympic world was an eye-opener – as a youngster she didn’t know that the Paralympics existed. “When I went into this international stage, some had one arm, one leg, no legs … The only thing I did notice was every athlete’s ability to play table tennis….. they can find a way regardless to get on the job and play table tennis amazingly.” Finally, former Sydney 2000 Olympic rower Kerry Knowler, our Assistant Director Anti-Doping, shares her top tips for competing clean. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.