3x Paralympic gold medallist, Ben Popham, joined Scott Cummings and Tim Gossage to preview the Swimming events at the Paris Olympic Games.
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SEN WA Breakfast
"We should win 10 gold medals" - Ben Popham (23/07/2024)
Poppum looks to be moving the better of them. Poppum's in front and swimming well, lane six is coming Nickalaya. Poppum gets it! Here you hell of a gun! Look at that, he's in the background, who's in the background so happy for you? It's a pretty keeper, who's a glory guy, who's a glory guy? A good group of good, Les Mertigue. Yeah, exactly right, Paralympic gold medalist triple, gold medalist Ben Poppum is in the studio, good to have him back. And we're going to say we just want to speak to him before he heads off to Paris, but he's not going. He's not going. That's tough. That's a tough one, isn't it? That's a real tough one. Why are you not going Ben? What's happened to you? No, this is the problem, this is the problem. Basically, the Paralympics has an impossible job of trying to balance every disability ever made, right? Or ever created or ever had, right? And they've got ten classifications to do it. So think of it like weights in boxing, so you can go up and up away, you can go down the weight. After Tokyo, they decided I was too good. So they chucked me up and away. So I went from eight to a nine. So I just have to race for people that are a lot faster than me. But you've got cerebral palsy, right? Yeah, cerebral palsy. Did that change? No, nothing exactly right. So we'll just stop. Well, yeah, you don't want to get too technical, otherwise it kind of does your head in. But they basically decided, you know, I out trained my disability. I got so good that I was no longer as disabled as I was two years ago. So what they're saying is you put it on. Yeah. Yeah. You've been putting it on over there. Let's be serious. I've been overlooked. You've been overlooked for Paris. Yep. What's the... Are you swimming, Paulie? Yeah. Well, I swim the best I've probably ever swam, including my 100 freestyle at Tokyo. So I was really, really happy with it. And I put my hand in the ring and they just chose to go a different direction. And I think it's always a hard one to take. But I think the fact that my own performance was so good, made it a little easier to take. Always difficult, especially at a Paralympic trials, when emotions are high from every swimmer. But we just got to reassess and see if we'll go again. So there's just no spots left in the team? There are spots left on the team. Can we get you in? Can we get you in? Hey, and what do you mean? They chose not to fill every spot available to Australia. Yeah. Well, they just decided that's all they need to compete. So I'm surplus to requirements. You're handling a lot better than I am. I've had a month to sit with it, mate. I haven't been on the team for a month. Well, the day after. I don't understand that. Is that a funding thing, maybe? You don't have the money to send everyone? I'm sure they wouldn't just chuck money for the sake of, you know, chucking money to someone. But I don't think funding was necessarily in mind when they made the decision. I just think they thought that I was going to be nowhere. And so they didn't pull me over the team. I obviously disagree. But you'll never know in the minds of a selector. I'm going to take a break. We're going to take a break. So just to repeat in the news, Ben Popham has known for a month that he's not going to Paris. Yet, swam fitter, swam faster, put you up into a different category. You didn't have it, you didn't swear, no, I led to believe you didn't reach the qualifying standard. But there's still spots for those who are close to get picked. There were six spots. Yep. And they've only filled four and they've left two not to be filled. We'll take a break and come back and dissect that a little bit more. We're angry. We are Scotty and Gus with Benny Popham in the studio. Scotty and Gus, Ben Popham in the studio. Don't forget the Paris Games open on Saturday morning. We are excited about it. Swimming, of course, as you listen, most medals in the country for the Olympics. And that will start July 27th to August 10. Ben Popham, who has been overlooked for. Spotting the Paris Games Paralympics, which is disappointing. Just in clarification of that, swam two seconds faster than your previous best over the last 18 months. But you're still misqualified by 0.3. But the Paralympic team selection has decided to not fill a couple of spots there for you. Is that how we summed it up? That is perfectly correct. And they moved you from a category eight to a category nine, making it harder for you to get there. So are they saying that you're less, your cerebral palsy has got better? And you are less, just that was not the wrong way. But you've been less disabled than you were last year. Yeah, yeah. That's exactly what I was saying. So get a little curly. Like I said, if you think too much about it, you just got to take up a face value and move on. Okay. I only have done that bloody well, mate. You've got an eye angrier than you are. He's had a month in digestive. Yeah, I know. All righty. Well, and you're not there. But you will be there in support. I will be. Tell us a bit about the Australian team. You've got high hopes for the Australian so-called able-bodied team that goes across first before the Paralympics. So tell us a bit about what your expectations are. Yeah, I'm really optimistic about this Olympic team. I think it could be a once. This team is generational. Once in a generation, our girls are potential world record breakers. And they've already got the world records for most of them. And they are in their prime. Most of them are 24, 26, that sort of area. And I reckon we will do some seriously good work over there. I'm expecting 10 gold medals. Ooh, the men? Oh, well, they're good enough. They're good enough to compete. And I think now this is something you can quote me on when it goes wrong. But I think we will beat the US of A in the medal tally for the first time since 1956. I think we are that good. The boys can take a couple medals off and the girls will shore to rack them up. Because we're just that good. Our top end is seriously unbeatable on their day. Wow, it's a big statement there. High hopes, of course. So when you've got Ariane Titmus, Emma McKeehan, Kaylee McEwen, and the like. But then you go back through some of the names of the men. No disrespect. Kyle Chalmers jumps off the page. There's not a lot of names you talk about. So these are swimmers that haven't been to against before a lot of these. So it is a very much a new look team, is it not? Yeah, exactly right. And that's the exciting thing. People will likely not know of Sam Short, who is a sort of a distance free student. He is going to seriously storm onto this world stage and take a couple of names. But no one knows him until the game starts. We've got so many names that aren't household names that haven't been doing the rounds and have just recently popped up and they're ready to kill. They're ready to seriously go and get these US swimmers. That's exciting. And it's exciting to be around. Okay, and then let's turn yourself into the Paralympics then. How do you think that team going across here? Because it's, again, is an inexperienced team, is it not? But what's your expectation? Yeah, look, I think the experienced guys will go really, really well. That's for sure. We always go with our experienced names and we always perform. And I think that's one thing that we can hold our heads high. And it'll be interesting to see how these guys go that haven't done a games before. Because a lot of these guys haven't been in the circuit for that long. So although sometimes you can get swimmers who is their first games, but they've been around the traps for eight or nine years. A lot of these guys are sort of fresh-faced one or two years around the circuit. And so you can never really tell if they're going to crumble. I hope not. Or if they're just going to perform and back themselves. So it'll be interesting to watch how we go over there in the Paralympics. We've got some WA swimmers. We pop it up. So let's talk about Iona Anderson, junior world backstroke champion, Kyle Lee, who's 10k swim. Yeah, it's unbelievable. I don't swim, he's just so tough. Why would you? I don't know. I don't know. And Josh, Josh, are you on a short course, will champion breaststroke out? Yeah, so I train with all three of them. So I've got it on good authority that they are performing at their best in the staging camp. And they're ready to seriously have a go. And I think Iona is one that you should look out for because the women's 100 backstroke in Australia is so good that sometimes she gets overlooked. You know, Kayla McEwan, Molly O'Callaghan, but Molly's dropped out. She's not racing the holder back. And so Iona's second up. And I think she's a good shot to get in amongst the podium. It could be double for Australia. Oh, wow. Have you got a media role? It's just about that. Have you got a call in there? A guest, you know, like what do you call those? Analysts, special comments, are you? Mate, I should. I should be, shouldn't I? Ben, Ben, Ben. Everyone just tells me to shut up. Ben. You're quite French, right? And we'd been. Ben, we could have done all of that for you. You didn't need to get ahead of yourself, mate. When in doubt, just text Gossie. He'll sort of go out. How? You get the wheels in motion. He'll just say turn it from a source. Oh, mate. There's hope for you. And what are you doing apart from swimming then? What's life for you? Because we miss you. I mean, you know, you're paneled for us here and we love you. And we sort of, you're self-inserted yourself in the show. Yeah, of course I did. No. I'm actually sleeping a lot more. I'm not getting up in early hours in rain like this morning. I'm doing communications work at Venice West. Nice. Just started this week. Nice little corporate job. Yeah. I mean, I'm in the delves of corporate Australia and I'm loving it. I tell you what, it's a lot easier than swimming off and down a pool. Yeah. Where's your swimming future lay then? With this disappointment, are you still sort of looking beyond this year, maybe? Yeah, we'll take a month by month and see how fast they've been. That's fine. That's fine. That's fine. Exactly right. The Olympics are only over four years, mate. Yeah. Well, you've got to see how fast everyone goes, Scotty. If everyone just smashes me out of the water, then I would just go, oh, I can't. Let's pass you by. Yeah. So you can't hold on to things for too long, really. Otherwise it might taint my experience with the sport if I go chasing the carrot. Yeah. So we'll see. Was it just Australia that changed the categories or? No, it's worldwide. Worldwide they've changed the category. Yeah. Yeah. Exactly right. I was in there and, oh, jeez. It wasn't a good time. But now I'm out of the background. I'm looking back. Great time. Well, mate, you smile. You make us smile. You make our audience smile. You will never, ever not be a triple gold medalist. Yeah. In those games. Got a nice little ring to it, doesn't it? It does. Now you've got the suffering of not going. Are you going to watch them soak it up? Will there be a moment of sadness in that time that you think, oh, I could have done that? Yeah, of course. It'll always be hard. But I think watching the Olympics and especially watch out for Kayla McEwen versus Regan Smith, that'll fire me right up. That'll be so close. What we should do is get into calls of the race before it's actually happened and see how close you get to them and sort of jazz. Yeah. Pop prodramas. Pop prodramas. You work on that. Yes. Hey, we love you. And we thank you for coming in. You're going to be my mom. You are one of the all-time good men that we've met over our journey. And we will take this up on you over half that one. Seriously, mate? Get your passport ready. I'll get you onto that bloody plane. Yeah. You're okay. You're legend. Next time. Benny Poppen joining us. Paralympic triple gold medalist. He's a star. Scott Inghos.