[Music]
well hello everybody and welcome to the
wine and wisdom show thank you
so much for being here i know that you
all would have had a full calendar
tonight and you’ve decided to stay in
and be with me tonight
yeah right okay well for those of you
who are here for the very first time
welcome and cheers to you i’d love to
know
what you’re having in your glass i have
a buttery chardonnay
um but for those of you who are
returning thank you again for coming
back it’s
warms my heart that you prioritise this
on a fortnightly wednesday night
the wine and wisdom show it it sounds
like we are just having a sip of wine
and sharing a bit of wisdom but it is
far more than that let me tell you
because what it really is about
is connection
and i believe that the one thing we have
all realised over the last 17 months is
that
connecting to other great humans is one
of the most wonderful things that we can
do and let me tell you do i have a great
human to connect you with tonight i have
been so lucky through my life
that
i’ve just been surrounded by all these
amazing resilient and courageous self
leaders
who are sprinkling their goodness across
the world in little ways and big ways
and certainly my guest tonight is doing
that but before i introduce him
what i’d really love to do is firstly
acknowledge the traditional custodians
and elders spread across the many lands
that we are all located on tonight
i’m personally coming to you from the
lands of the birrabirragal people
where i live in birch grove sydney
but i’d like to give my heartfelt thanks
to all the traditional owners who have
nurtured and protected
this wonderful country that we have of
that well they we we’re living in now
but they’ve been protecting for 65 000
years can you believe it oh my gosh
so that we can work live and play in it
now uh thank you
to every traditional owner uh for doing
this for us but tonight i am going to be
bringing you uh an amazing guest and
our tips tonight about courageous
stories from our
olympic athlete
who would i be able to bring on that
would be able to show you better stories
than
the most
recognisable and smiley
sports presenter and personality in this
country here he is welcome mark beretta
cheers to you in quarantine hi good to
see you thank you and cheers great to be
with you and uh
what are you what’s in your glass
tonight mark
i’ve got a little pinot noir little
french pinot noir which um my friend
gareth jones dropped in here to hotel
quarantine two weeks ago and
i wasn’t getting another supply so i’ve
just sort of been able to just just take
it a little bit by little bit and keep
it rolling so yeah that’s it
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i can see like this kind of sort of
disco lights not going on there yeah
the police will come and turn the lights
off in about an hour so it’s all over
well i’m glad emma’s having a bailey’s
and um yeah i mean manny’s having a
bailey’s so that’s pretty nice thanks
mandy for joining us uh mel’s having a
lime mineral water
good on you mel i know we should all be
having alcohol free days but uh we’re in
lockdown so i don’t know i just can’t
seem to do it i don’t know
about you
no hotel quarantine’s the same now we um
do you love a quiet drink at the end of
the day here
i bet you do hey i was listening on the
radio the other day apparently the
different um health hotels are putting
zoom
putting zoom kind of drink sessions
together of everybody
that’s what’s going on
the yeah thing i’ve found about um hotel
quarantine and how you would get this is
the disconnect with people so what
happens when you when you get off an
international flies
the first thing that you naturally
expect is that it’s exciting to be home
and you’re going home and you you know
you’ve only got people waiting there for
you this is such a different experience
because you come off um and i’ve got a
credit to our adf and our police because
they they handle this really well but
yeah
they guide you off the flight you go
through a whole number of health tests
um and then you are basically brought to
your hotel you come on a bus with a
police escort um and then when your bus
pulls up uh you can see the people in
the hotel all put on their protective
gear and they they funnel you in
basically you sign a form and two police
bring you up to your room and they they
put you in and basically say well
see in two weeks and they close the door
behind you and that’s it the only other
human contact you have in that time um
are the nurses who come you know every
four or five days to do a cover test
that’s it and even
meals and things come to the door but
what they do is they put them down
leave them or any package that comes
they leave it and then they knock on the
door
and you have to go and you know you have
to wait a minute or so to let them get
away so you don’t it’s like santa you
don’t see whoever brings the packages um
it’s quite it’s quite unusual so you
miss you just miss human contact so
what’s happening is everyone’s putting
up these these zoom calls we had a guy
from the student crew ben who had a
birthday today so we had a zoom calm we
always sing him happy birthday we had a
drink at lunch time with him um the
women’s
water polo team they’re awesome they
have zumba every day and they they um
all the teams have got their own little
chats going on all the groups we’ve got
that yeah that’s going on sometimes they
intermingle and the guys to be honest
the guys up at howard springs in the
northern territory
that they’re probably doing it better
than most because they’ve got the
beautiful weather but they can interact
with people and talk whereas you know
the rest of us are pretty much locked
away
yeah
i can’t even imagine well it’s like it’s
funny because i was thinking about it
like that the fact that you’re in
quarantine tonight while we’re talking
but you know what even on the outside
it’s a little bit like quarantine right
now because we don’t do anything
it’s quite weird i find it amazing to
think that you know it left five or six
weeks ago to go to japan to the olympic
games and we’re we’re home and you know
the things are what they are you know
that’s i’ve got to admit five or six
weeks ago that was unthinkable but
that’s what it is
and no one no one minds being here in
quarantine because you know we know
that’s responsibility of going away and
you know we’ve got to do the right thing
to protect people so but so far the good
news is heidi everyone from the seven
crew um all the olympic athletes as far
as i know there’s not been a positive
test um so yeah that’s good it’s
unbelievable and i mean that’s just a
testament to
everybody who did the right thing right
over there oh well we’ve got somebody um
uh the most contact you’ve had is your
feet on that treadmill oh hello
also in quarantine our co-captain of the
women’s rugby sevens who we’re so sorry
yeah
yeah so i have i hope you can you can
actually rent um exercise equipment
which is a great idea so i rented a
treadmill um and some weights and i
think i think shawnee might have an
exercise bike a lot of the athletes have
got exercise bikes um yeah so it’s um
it’s pretty amazing it’s it’s good and
to be honest you need it you need
something i do you know you need some
exercise you need something just to get
those orphans going and help you clear
your mind otherwise you you actually
would go nuts
without a doubt now mark i’m obviously
going to ask you a whole heap of stuff
about the olympics but before i do that
i do have a question for you
how did you go from being an engineer
to being like one of the most recognised
and smiley gorgeous
articulate
amazing
sports presenter in our country how did
that go from there to there or from
there to there
all right number one you’re really too
kind and number two when you’re a failed
engineer it’s not that hard
i was not a good engineer so i had to
look for something else no i loved it
yeah i really enjoyed it i worked for i
rolled steel for bhp for a while and
then i went to a company called
honeywell and did building fire and
security systems which i really enjoyed
and it was it was a hard thing but my
love was sport you know and i wanted to
do that and um
a few things i pushed hard it was a long
tough road it wasn’t it’s not an easy
industry to get into so i started my
local radio station in geelong i then
ended up at triple m in melbourne um i
was working with a young kid called
eddie mcguire who’s kicked on all right
too and um he got me to channel 10 you
know he begged the boss to give me a job
and i started channel 10 did some
commentary commentary in basketball i
was a commentator when andrew gays was
still playing which was awesome
and um eventually job opened up at
channel 7 and a guy called jimmy wilson
rang me and said you know you want to
come and do this and and i did but i
loved my engineering it was it was hard
to leave but um
my starting life was actually with my
dad in the plumbing business in geelong
so i come from a family of plumbers um
but my work with dad lasted two weeks
and he punted me out and he said
he said that there’s something else out
there for you i’m not sure what it is
but you’ll find it and then my little
brother took over the family business
which was good and he’s you know he’s
highly successful now and i’m you know
still working in the middle of the night
and getting up at what time 3 30.
or 2 30 in tokyo
two
is that right yeah yeah hour earlier
yeah so and we’re up at 2 35 and i mean
the nice thing was we got the coolest
part of the day because the the heat was
unbelievable it was so oppressive it was
it was really hot sun but then you had
the humidity as well
and when they did the games in tokyo in
64
they um they moved it to october so that
they wouldn’t have that problem with the
heat but here they you know they had to
get it away when the window was open and
they just went for june july and yeah
and that was it so
but it was yeah it was really hot
i mean i saw with the um
with the marathon they were you know
just decisions the day before to put it
earlier just because of the heat was so
full on yeah yeah they moved it to
sapporo which was which was cool
yeah and the funny thing was would you
believe on the on that day in tokyo
which was uh our last day um was was the
coldest day of the whole campaign it was
actually it was actually cold
yeah
so you know let’s let’s let’s go back to
you arriving in tokyo with um
i really you know what you say 6 000
covet cases a day is that what it was
yeah i mean i’ve got
i’ve got this image of you
at the opening ceremony is that is that
the opening
yes it was yeah
yeah it’s like all those people in the
stands but they’re not right
no they’re just colored seats yeah it
was quite eerie it was quite funny
that’s actually my 11th olympic games
summer and winter so i’ve been really
lucky to get and i love them they’re
they’re the highlight of your career if
you’re in sport and um it’s it’s a
privilege to be able to go
so and to get to an opening ceremony
you’re really lucky too because
generally we’re working on that night
and this night i wasn’t lucky so i got
to go but it was it was quite eerie
because there’s such a i didn’t realise
how much big events really rely on the
crowd you know we’ve sort of got used to
seeing events on tv without a crowd and
so i haven’t been to a lot of them but
at the olympics the opening ceremony you
know the crowd is such a part of it at
the track and field the crowd is such a
part of it at the basketball the crowd
is such a part of it and it was it was
really eerie and i could see the
athletes would sort of sometimes i’d
almost look around the stadium in shock
there was no noise there you know but
but yeah they they did a good job they
they pushed on and got it done and the
results for our australian team were
remarkable that was the incredible games
and um
they should be well they are incredibly
proud they ought to be and their
families and all of us should be proud
of our athletes and the way we got
behind the athletes was the other thing
that blew me away i’ve never seen that
in 11 olympic games that i’ve been to
i’ve never seen the nation get behind
the athletes like that and it was like
the timing was just right you know we
needed it and we got behind our athletes
and
i must admit i don’t know that any other
nation had that that same sort of
passion for their their national
athletes as we had this this time around
it was it was pretty special i think
brisbane probably helped that you know
the games going there in 2032
probably helped that as well
yeah
i mean i’d love to know from everybody
who was watching um you know what was
your favorite sport to watch i’m going
to ask you about your favorite olympic
moment a little later but um just at the
moment for those of you who are watching
i’d love you just to put into the chat
what was your favorite sport or you know
kind of athletics as a whole or swimming
as a whole to watch during the games
let’s see what we come up with of course
um you know rugby sevens of course
and rugby of course thank you mel yes
um good on you
mark so i mean what what really
interested me which i i found so
interesting because it was such it felt
like such a
big difference with what we were
experiencing at home which of course was
nearly the same really you know as
watching at home
was still the same we just loved it
because you know the the channel seven
was so incredible with their um
whole
televising of it uh thank you she’s
saying oh yeah logan was
yeah
surely that was awesome
i i
some things you just marvel at you know
to watch him on a bike you just go
that’s not possible you know that move
where he goes over the big jump and
flips the bike underneath himself
again and lands again you know you just
go wow and that guy is incredible and
his story that he went and um because he
couldn’t get overseas he couldn’t train
and then he went and built the track at
his home you know in his backyard so he
could he could practice and get it right
and yeah those stories are great and i
love the way he said yeah i’m sorry and
thanks to all my neighbors
it was a bit like well i hope you’re
okay now that i want to go
yeah it was great oh mandy says yes the
swimming wasn’t there and it was of
course the scheme was amazing but yeah
it must like as i say like for our
experience as a uh someone who’s
watching from here um the experience was
just incredible as it usually is um it
was televised amazingly um but yeah it
would have been completely different for
the athletes of course just not having
the the energy and the like the cheering
and like i just can’t even imagine what
that would be
like as an athlete that you’ve dedicated
your entire life
to perhaps get that one chance to be in
an olympic stadium
and not have a soul there apart from you
know just the
the skeleton crew
yeah yeah a couple of seven people
it was that was i think it was amazing
you know what was interesting and
you’ll be able to get your head around
this um
while some athletes found it hard some
athletes found it really good because
there wasn’t you know it almost felt
like a bit of a training session it
didn’t feel like the pressure was on of
a big event
so they were able to focus and i’d say
it was almost 50 50 you know half need
the crowd you know that i guess the real
competitors some thrive on that crowd
and they get up for that crowd but yeah
the other half you know sort of
they’re the quieter ones and they don’t
mind the fact that it’s there’s no one
cheering and they’re not the nerves just
just disappear a little bit easier now
the butterflies are not quite as strong
in the tummy so
you know it’s
interesting it was plus and minus
depending on what you liked
yeah of course and yeah for many who
especially being first-timers secondly
never being
having that experience of being in front
of that amount of people ever in your
lifetime
would uh yeah
normally be extremely nerve-wracking so
mark you know of course i know you would
have been asked this a hundred times
since you’ve been home um but
well i can’t help but ask it as well i’m
sorry to repeat it but what was the
highlight for you
okay
i’ll tell you why that is the hardest
question you could ever ask me
yes
i got some advice when i went to my
first
olympics in um 96 in atlanta and a guy
called sandy roberts said to me i asked
him man he’d been to many and i said we
know what’s it like what’s it like and
he said it is like four grand finals
every day for two weeks
and that is the best description of an
olympic games i’ve ever had and it’s
it’s dead true you know there’s a big
event in the morning there’s a big event
at lunch time there’s a big event in the
afternoon there’s a big event at night
and it just goes like that you know for
for two weeks 16 days in fact it’s
incredible
yeah you makes me pick a highlight out
of that
can i say i’ll have a go
for me early on i got to go to all jess
fox’s
canoe races so all the kayaking canoe
races so i was there at um at her heats
and a semis and a final when she got the
bronze and then later at when she got
the gold medal in the canoe
and i i’ve known jess you know obviously
through work and having followed her
career through the silver medal she got
in london the bronze medal in rio and
then the bronze in tokyo and then the
gold here and i got to know pretty well
so um riding along that experience with
her
was was remarkable and what tends to
happen with the athletes is um they when
they finish their event they have to go
to the uh what they call um the
international broadcaster which is the
olympic broadcasting service they
interview everyone and then
your next step is to your home nation so
we’re we’re next up so someone like jess
will come straight to seven and one of
the nice things is i i hope the athletes
would say this too is i get the feeling
that they feel a nice warm connection
when they see the seven team there and
you know there’s a little bit of home
and it’s it’s a good thing so jess was
always um and jess is a beautiful human
but she was always very generous with us
and we you know we really she was really
honest about what she was doing and how
she felt and
um so writing that journey with her was
remarkable and when when she got that
gold medal in the canoe after the bronze
um in the kayak for me that was just a
really really special moment you know i
just it just blew me away that that was
really it was emotional and
i think the thing that’s tough for me in
this job is you get involved you know
you you
can’t help but you know become involved
and you you care for the people who
you’re watching and especially when
they’re australians competing overseas
there’s a much stronger connection
of course but you can’t help but um you
know just feel a bit for them so that
was a great moment um and emma mckeon
for me in the pool was was really
special yeah interviewed emma when they
now announced the team at home bush at
the olympic pool they had a team
function there in the launch of the team
and um i looked at emma then i could
just see in her eyes she was she was
ready to go big time um and she i’ve
never seen her in better shape you know
physically she was the body was strong
and fit and she just had that look in
her eye that this was going to be big so
um
you know to see her come through and do
that and she’s such a quiet achiever too
you know like there’s never there was
never much fanfare about him but she
just all of a sudden bang she was just
collecting metal after medal after metal
and i just like the way she goes about
it and what she did was was history
making you know that was um i don’t
think i don’t think we’ll ever see that
done again maybe until she does it again
in paris
yeah i loved um i loved the interview
with her where she’s she’s so humble and
doesn’t share a lot usually and that
interview where she just said you know i
know i don’t say this often but like she
was just like really quiet did come to
get the gold medal i’ve had gold in mind
yeah it was just like yeah of course i
mean you’ve got to like you’ve got to
believe in it right you’ve got to see it
you’ve got to leave it you’ve got to
embrace it and feel it in every cell in
your
i body that that was a big part of emma
as well now remember she in london in
2012 she she quit swimming you know she
she didn’t go to the olympics in london
she could have and she pulled out she
just had enough of the sport so and
that’s the other great thing of her
story she walked away
yeah decided she missed it came back and
just just went like that you know and
they’re great stories um comes from a
great swimming family um you know
magnificent coach and michael bole who’s
you know we now call the medal maker um
coach stephen rice in beijing who
grabbed those three gold medals so yes
he’s an amazing one um and belinda yes
nicola mcdermott what a beautiful
personality what a beautiful
yeah look at yeah belinda can’t she’s
got so many amazing moments that she
loved
the australian decathlon guys i mean
seriously that was just such
a may it was so amazing seriously
it’s called doing a doobler if you if
you cheat your mate or you’re doing a
googler that’s pretty cool and that’s
you know what an amazing
sometimes moments just transcends
transcend sport and
yeah whether you get the the metal or
not um those moments just stick in
people’s minds and they’re actually more
powerful often than actually getting the
medal and that’s one of them you know
that was incredible i’ll give you
another one patrick tiernon in the 10
000 meters when he collapsed twice
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but got back up and kept going you know
that was that stuff is just the stuff of
legend you know and we’ll treasure that
forever
we really will and i’d love to know now
from everyone i know you’ve already
started some of you putting you know
logan’s bmx and belinda’s given us lots
of ones but what what was your favorite
olympic moment that you watched on
channel seven uh during that time
because they did such a great um and you
mark what i loved was all the back
stories
the back stories through the athletes
was just so beautifully done for us to
understand the kind of challenges that
they’ve had the injuries they’ve
overcome
i mean it blew my mind some of those
challenges that they could then get to
an olympic games
and step up to the mark and represent
their country to the best of their
ability blew my mind
yeah it’s pretty incredible you know i
think we took 487 athletes away our
biggest team ever toured games overseas
and their results were were just
outstanding you know just yeah it just
and momentum is a funny thing too you
know we often watch and we can get some
medals in those first few days it
actually impacts the whole team the
whole team walks taller the thing that
that actually made the team walk tall
and it wasn’t a medal this time was the
announcement of the brisbane olympic
games in 2032 and you can actually tell
especially the queenslanders in the team
all of a sudden they were you know they
were bouncing around and um and there
was a great pride in the australian team
i reckon shannon could probably tell us
about that too but
yeah yeah it was pretty yummy
yeah and i love that mel you’re right
just fox’s gold medal and a daddy
beautiful
they’ll just treasure that forever you
know mum’s a gold medalist dad’s an
olympian and uh you know and she’s got
the gold now jess and dad commentator
that’s that’s pretty cool
um
you know one of those behind the scenes
moments that i loved more than
all of them was
peter bowles family watching from perth
that was just like 3 000
and oh my gosh like i just took a
screenshot because you know in the
middle of all the kind of show that
we were going in here it seemed
it was just so joyful just to see his
whole family and the story behind that
and
you know his t his teacher just putting
him forward and just those kind of
stories were just absolutely incredible
and it’s good to when you when you get
those moments where they they feed off
each other so we’re feeding off the
peter bowles story he’s feeding off the
interest and the support he’s getting
from home and you just get this snowball
of great energy that achieves an
incredible result you know he he gave it
all that night and it wasn’t you know
wasn’t the result that he dreamt of but
boy you know cheesy can be proud because
what he put out there was was everything
and he you can have a strategy in in
those races
you can run it to place well or you can
run it to win it and if you’re going to
run it to win it you’ve got to go and
and he went and he had a crack and you
know that’s i think a huge respect for
that he really gave it a go and it
didn’t get the result that he was after
but look at him paris he’ll be back in a
big way too
oh i can’t wait to see
mark i know like leading up to the games
there was a lot of cheetah chatter about
whether they should go ahead if this was
a big risk it’s going to be this massive
super spreader why should we allow it
yet in the end like from my perspective
and no matter what anyone’s
thought process was prior to the games i
think we can all agree that
far out we needed those olympic games
we needed
those olympic games more than any other
time like
great thing edge be able to watch that
it was it was amazing the lead up
because even even getting on the plane i
you know i posted pictures at the
airport and um and and got slammed by
some people hey you shouldn’t be going
channel seven shouldn’t be broadcasting
the athletes shouldn’t be going the
olympics shouldn’t be on they were like
the key four things
and i think um you know you just you
know i i knew
what it meant to these athletes you know
for a lot of these athletes this is this
is their one and only window you know 60
of their team only go to one olympic
games so if you miss tokyo you you miss
your chance to be an olympian for life
that that’s it and everything you’ve
worked for in most cases all your life
up to that point
you know you just don’t get to that
moment and um so i knew it was important
and i i sort of i bit my tongue but it
was amazing after that three or four
days in
not a word not a woman
and and the support to be honest we’ve
never seen anything like it and i reckon
shannon and and the sevens girls would
tell you as well the support from home
the support within the team
everything around it gives me goosebumps
now just thinking about it but
how the nation the team everything came
together was remarkable and if we can
find a way to replicate that in paris
and then in la and then in brisbane
we’re going to do fantastic things
because that was that was the gold
standard now i don’t know whether it
came from um ian chesterman the head of
the team or susie o’neill the deputy
shifting michelle know how they created
that atmosphere in the team and how it
became so contagious you know to the
people at home but whatever went through
there was it was magic you know it was
honestly magic
it truly was and like i had a i saw a
stat today that um
the average day brought a broadcast
audience was up 80
on rio
in capital cities here in australia but
71 that nationally up from the people
like and yeah i should worry about i get
that more people might have been at home
but we were looking for joy we were
looking for inspiration we were looking
for some light and something that could
uplift us
and our olympic team and all of you who
were doing what you were doing in the
background and in the front um far out
you delivered and i can’t thank you
enough seriously i just was like
i wish that it just like was desperate
when it was coming to an end please
don’t end please don’t end yeah and the
good news is next tuesday night that the
paralympics get started which you know
if you want to be uplifted the
paralympics are amazing they will do
that um
but it was it was incredible because it
caught a past nine every morning we get
the we get the ratings in for each day
and um the opening ceremony you looked
at them and it was over two million
people and um to be to be honest like a
good show at the moment a good show a
blockbuster show like the voice is doing
about a million people so all of a
sudden that massive audience has doubled
and we like looking at these figures
thinking that they can’t that can’t
actually be right and we haven’t seen
numbers like that in television for for
i’d say decades you know they’re massive
numbers and um just night after night
and it got bigger as it went on you know
more and more people tuned in and
staying tuned and it was it was
remarkable like i said i was i don’t
know whatever that magic was i’d you
just want you want to bottle it because
it’s good for all of us
it truly is and we all need it right now
right what have we got here from brook
brook uh bmx was an amazing it sure was
far out swimming fantastic
oh yes
brook saying four by 100 meter relay
with the girls oh my gosh kate campbell
did this amazing interview afterwards i
don’t know if you remember it mark and
she did she had not she hadn’t had a
great uh race just before i can’t
remember which one it was but it wasn’t
what she’d hoped for
and she know that the camera’s pointed
at her face of course she’s she’s she’s
done it before but the camera’s pointed
in her face
and but she and she steps up and says
you know what
i didn’t do so well no i didn’t
but
what it takes
i i knew that
for me to be who i want to be
i’ve got to leave that i’m like changing
the words here but i i know what it
takes to just you’ve got to just step up
and do it for the team and do it for the
country no matter how you’re feeling
back here you know it doesn’t matter
what’s just gone on forget that here i
am i’m gonna give it my all and far out
did she do that it was incredible
yeah really
she’s an exceptional she’s an
exceptional human kate campbell um again
i’ve been lucky to do a lot with her and
get get to know her and i just just rate
her so highly i was really you know a
bit sad and probably the um the sevens
girls and the other athletes that are
watching would be too that she didn’t
make the um there was an international
olympic committee athletes commission
vote and kate stayed back after the
games because she was in the running for
that and and she didn’t make it and i
think that’s really that’s a loss to the
um athletes commission because kate will
be fantastic and it’s not not the time
she’s got lots of other roles too you
know she’s she’s doing a similar role
with the australian olympic committee um
but she’ll be in sport for a long time
to come and she’s he’s a diamond you
know she’s just such a superb person um
and so well respected on the team when
when her and paddy mills walked in with
that flag you know that that team was
united and behind them because they were
the two right people they were the two
that everyone would have chosen to lead
that team in and you know they’re just
both them brilliant leaders i think you
know they’ve hopefully both got great
roles in the future in the leadership of
this country would be fantastic but for
the meantime you know the leadership of
sport um they’re brilliant and same goes
for um you know at the moment ian
chesterman is the the chef to michonne
of the olympic team and he’s brilliant
he’s done an awesome job but beyond him
i think susie o’neill will go into that
role and
and same as i’d speak the same of susie
as i do with kate you know she’s just a
remarkable human and an
australian we can be really proud of not
just a great athlete but just an
outstanding person who really gets this
country and what it’s about so you know
we sport and our olympic team has
produced some amazing people and you
know they say pre pressure makes
diamonds and we’ve turned out quite a
few diamonds
we sure have and i think that’s i mean
apart from just being able to watch the
the strength and the stamina and the
endurance and the skill
i think that the camaraderie ship that
we really saw this time
um amongst the team was such a beautiful
thing because none of them had their
family or friends or you know other
australians cheering them on there they
just had each other right all they had
was each other and
to watch that camaraderie ship i mean we
saw it of course
um with the doing a double um going on
in a
good way um
but i think every australian athlete
that they were there
the one that just came to mind as i was
speaking was the um the skateboarding
actually they
they were amazing
yeah yeah
all right like talk about a
really close knit community it seemed
yeah is that
the new sports were really impressive
like that surfing was the same you know
the camaraderie between the surface was
incredible and it’s interesting i think
you hit on something that may have been
one of the things that brought the team
closer together was that there weren’t
there weren’t people outside the team
bubble you know there wasn’t family who
didn’t spend time with you know you were
your teammates and your roommates really
they were the closest people in your
world at that time so you shared
everything with them and uh it’s an
interesting experiment you know it’s um
yeah it’s proven to give us some great
results so i’ll be interesting to see
what happens from here on in but um yeah
it was amazing that that i don’t know if
you saw it but one of the best things
that would happen was an athlete would
come back into the village in the
australian team compound after competing
with or without a medal and the
reception for every athlete was
unbelievable and i can’t i don’t
remember seeing that before where they
you know the whole team would be waiting
because i guess maybe it was the weather
and the heat but they’d be downstairs in
the foyer and watching the big tv and
they would greet every athlete with a
cheer and a standing ovation when they
came back in and i think that again that
just lifted everyone but the what the
aic did in the way they constructed the
village this time around was the envy of
the world you know it was it was
remarkable um they had so much detail so
much to make the athletes feel
comfortable and at home and and and
loved and to lift them up um you know
there was
a lot of credit to ian chesterman and to
john coates and everyone at the aic who
really they just nailed it and i know
other countries were looking at us going
how did they get that team atmosphere
well yeah we know how to do that stuff
we do
mark obviously i couldn’t remember if
this has happened in past olympics but i
was really i really loved where they had
the big screens of the families like so
when the athlete came from their event
they had the families you know that they
could see and wave to has that happened
before or was that just because of the
code
now that’s something we um we we threw
in this time around because the families
were here and they were all you know and
they’re all into one location like the
great idea too by the swimming community
to get together in the one spot to watch
together that worked really well and the
fact that um normally
um we would be sort of having to chase
families around swimming pools and
stadiums at the olympics you know here
they’re all in one spot so yeah it was
good and bad it’s sort of um you know
that that reunion moment live is always
good but it actually worked pretty well
doing it on screen as well
well it was lovely from a viewer’s point
of view just to see you know because you
could see the athlete looking at the
screen knowing that they had their
family and friends with them but there
they you know they were on the screen i
don’t know i just i from a viewer’s
point of view that was amazing of course
from an athlete’s point of view would
have been better just be there but
it was the best next thing right and
that’s all we can do right now
yeah
what was
tell us what um
what broke your heart
oh good one
um
okay i’ll tell you um
the crowds in tokyo not being allowed
into the stadiums and and it was really
it would really get to you because what
would happen is people would come in
their thousands
with their kids and their whole family
and their grandparents and they’d sit on
the ground outside the stadium as close
as they could get outside the fence just
to grab a little bit of olympic magic
and you’d see him day after day and i’m
talking about at times tens of thousands
at the big events and it was just so it
was sad it was just really sad because
here is a nation that is they’re really
proud and they really get the olympics
they’ve had a wonderful olympic history
um you know they finished in the top
group of nations they had an outstanding
games and yet the people
couldn’t get in to enjoy it and
you know i i get it but these stadiums
and venues were enormous and i just
wonder if there wasn’t a way to get some
small part of the crowd in then the
japanese people are incredibly obliging
that they’re very good at following
rules um you know that’s just their
culture
and you know it just it was painful to
watch it really was because he was you
know a host nation and imagine that
happening here where you’ve got the
world’s best athletes and your
countrymen your families compete on home
soil and you just can’t get in you know
it was hard but they they would come to
to listen to the noise from outside and
you know they’d get sort of the
atmosphere with the pa inside the
stadium and the comings and goings and
the oh the most wonderful thing i saw
and i love this after a few days they
worked out the bus routes that the
athletes would take to the different
venues and people would stand on the
side of the road for hours with their
beautiful signs i’m just saying you know
good luck we love you you know you’re
doing awesome win lose or draw we
respect you and we love you and
i don’t know the japanese people just
did that so well and to me that was that
was just a really magic moment which i
don’t know if we captured back here but
um you know just it was it was beautiful
and heartbreaking sort of all in one
yeah
it would have been
so mark i’ve i’ve got a i’ve got a big
question for you you know obviously you
obviously uh you know being on channel
seven and you’re at sunrise every
morning and you’ve like having to like
tell the world all the all the ins and
outs and the back of the behind the
scenes stuff but
what can you tell us on the wine and
wisdom show uh that went on during the
olympics that you have not told a
channel 7 viewer yet okay
or a channel seven executive
yeah or a channel seven executives
i mean i don’t know where you get
slapped or anything but you know
i want to say
the first one would be the number of
times we were almost arrested um
that’s just between all of us and
between us
yeah so my trouble is i’ve i’ve been to
a little eleven olympic games tonight i
think i know the rules better than the
people who were there enforcing the
rules
and so sometimes i can test
where we can go and what we can do and
who we can talk to
and sometimes you know
they’re very stringent that we should
not um do that and um sometimes we we in
the car a couple of times uh we we got
lost and wandered into the the wrong
area and they don’t take that very
nicely in japan that you know they’re
very
very good on the rules and uh when you
find yourself in a bad spot it’s
interesting we had um one of our drivers
had an accident and having an accident
in japan is a really interesting thing
because the police have to come up um to
the accident no matter what it is if you
scratch someone’s panel the police turn
up and um it’s a big process and there’s
a big apology process to go through and
it’s it’s more about that it’s more
about the apology than anything else so
um that was really interesting but i
actually actually didn’t get arrested um
but got quite close a few times
well i’m really pleased that you didn’t
get arrested and therefore um
you actually have you you’re here in
australia again rather than in a
japanese jail
different sort of locked up yeah it’s
kind of stupid kind of lockdown they
wouldn’t have a treadmill in a jail cell
so you know that’s that’s right i don’t
want to be the japanese jail either
thanks no thank you
so i’ve got two final questions for you
mark the first one is
um you know you get up at 3 30 in the
morning holy mackerel like that would be
enough to send me over into crazy land
um
you you know you’re doing
sunrise by morning you do in
in mostly the normal times a lot of
emceeing and hosting amazing events
you’re you’re flying around the world
normally and you’ve got a family to you
know be a part of like
it must it must
take its toll at
some stage you know your your resilience
must get chipped away
sometimes where you just feeling sorry
this is all pretty overwhelming and um
it’s a lot so
my question around that because we all
feel that in our different ways for
different reasons
what what do you do to keep
to keep resilient what do you do
make sure what’s your habit and or your
go-to thing that you know
you must do in a day or in a week to
make sure that you’re feeling physically
and mentally okay
for me it’s it’s exercise so um you know
i just get such a buzz from exercise and
i find it’s it’s actually better for my
mind than it actually is for my body so
for me exercise is a must you know it
just just gives me that break that i’ve
got to have so i try and do something
every day and my my bike riding with two
of the queue has been a big part of that
because it forces me i know i’ve got to
train for events so i’ve got to get out
and do it um so that’s why here i you
know i had to have the treadmill um had
to have some weights to play with and
you know you just just got to keep
moving
i probably didn’t realise
how wound up i was and how how hard
we’ve been running until i actually was
put in this room and forced to stop and
i think it’s when you unwind sometimes
that you realise how wound up you were
and how exhausted you were and and for
us going to tokyo um we left on a
saturday so i’d done a week of sunrise
normally i’d try and catch up on the
weekend um we flew on the saturday
morning we got in late sort of by the
time we went through the process and and
everything you had to do arriving in
tokyo and the forms and 20 stops or
something on the way through the airport
it was sort of close to midnight now we
had to be up again at 4 30 in the
morning
um to be ready for weekend sunrise on
sunday morning so we probably got a sort
of at best maybe three or four hours
sleep once we did weekend sunrise we
that was off and running we were into
the rhythm then and that’s you know
there was no stopping for three weeks we
were we were up at 2 30 in the morning
we’d do sunrise we’d load the car and
then we’d be off to the next event we
were supposed to be at and then
i’d do the story every night for the 6
p.m news so this this cycle was
relentless it was brilliant and
fantastic
but it it it saps you you know it really
takes your energy out and um
i think one thing that helped me was
knowing there’s a finish line knowing
there’s a finish line
is a great thing because you can really
work towards that and you just you know
when you’re down you just push yourself
on and you know that this is coming i
think it’s probably the hardest thing
for people at the moment with where we
are with with lockdown is at the moment
we don’t have a finish line and i think
that’s really really hard and i you know
we we know why and
we’ll hit a finish line as soon as we
can
um and we’ve just got to believe in that
and and it will happen there’s no doubt
it will happen
of course but for me having a finish
line and a bit of exercise are probably
the things that get me through and i
think too when you know you’re coming
into a tough period physically and
mentally to get yourself ready for it
you know to try and prepare yourself
physically so you’ve done a bit of
exercise and you’ve got yourself in a
reasonable shape and you’ve got your
head clear and and you’ve got all those
things that that come in your mind and
cloud you like you’re sort of paying the
bills and getting the mortgage covered
and the kids school fees
you get all that sorted out and parked
so that when you’ve you’ve really got to
put in those few weeks of big effort um
you’re 100 focused on that
yeah
absolutely and and you’re and thank you
you’re right and i’m ex i feel exactly
the same i mean i i’ve been a lover of
exercise all my life but
it used to be a physical thing but truly
now it’s really to make sure i can feel
mentally healthy and yeah of course i’ve
got to fit into all my pretty dresses so
i’ve got to stay physically well
um but uh yeah my mental health is the
one that needs it the most right now so
thank you for sharing that i see that
ashani’s saying that yeah if you need to
get on that treadmill
i mean you should say that shani because
i just happened to pinch this from
mark’s uh
instagram account and look what he’s got
to get through
11 30 when he gets off there and on
saturday out of nowhere he just turned
up with all those groceries
yeah they’re mostly gone now but
you can see that there’s this just for
men there which is a dark brown i think
is it martin
it was never going to work and the nut
dummies he got with the nut dummies so i
could spit the w i haven’t had to spit
the dummy yet and the balloons and
streamers are for the last day so i’m
i’m sitting up
at the party on my last night actually
actually mark before my last question
you’re talking about i’m talking about
instagram i did notice that in your um
explanation of who you are on instagram
you refer to yourself as a d-grade
handyman
i can’t i can’t help but ask you know of
course that if you’re a d-grade handyman
um do you have a go-to person then that
you call when you need to uh you know
renovate your home or anything like that
and i highly recommend him because he’s
kim doolin from terrific for tools and
he’s your husband heidi so we should
recommend him too
yeah
you’ve got to be watching
he is watching and i promised him i
would slip that in um that’s major
brownie points for me to slip that one
in
every time i messed something up ken
fixes it so he’s he’s just busy he’s
year-round really at our place that’s it
i love it all right final question for
tonight
what has been the most important piece
of wisdom that has been handed down to
you
how has it impacted your life who was it
who was it from
and what’s the ripple effect of it
yep
i i reckon it was my dad i think or when
i reflect back you pick up great wisdom
from a lot of people but gosh for some
reason i just remember my dad’s maybe
because he had to i was not the smartest
kid so he had to drill it into me a lot
um but he he said to me one day um you
know you
you might not be the the best or the
brightest person in the room but you can
always be the hardest worker
and um i thought that’s that’s so true
and you know i i don’t think by any
stretch i’m the best person at
my profession but um you know i know
that i can work hard and i can you know
try to do my best job and and that seems
to you know that gets people through and
i just that’s something i want to really
instill in in my kids is that you know
it’s all about best effort everything is
and when you work hard and you put your
best effort into something
you’re proud of it and that’s when you i
think that’s most often when you get a
nice reward because if nothing else
you’re you know you’re proud of it um so
probably for me that was that’s been my
my motto and my gym of wisdom from dad
oh well it’s a beautiful gem of wisdom
because you know it’s something we’ve
got control of for wine isn’t it that we
can work hard when everything else
perhaps might be out of our control
that’s one thing that we can actually
control which
is an important thing for our lives to
put it i love the saying if it’s going
to be it’s up to me and you know that’s
the thing yeah
exactly what you just you’re saying that
we’re the ones who can do it we can work
hard let’s do it
mark you have been amazing uh wow brett
that’s what you’re definitely hard
working a bloody good human i agree
totally shani
cheers to you shani
sheers to you shani um
absolutely
everybody i am going to put uh mark’s
social media uh contacts in the comments
once we come off
you can join the other 27 billion people
who uh follow him in the world
and um see all the amazing things that
uh he gets to do but not just in a
it’s not in a show off look at me i get
to do all these amazing things but he
does really beautiful things giving back
to our world and i think
you know mark
we so appreciate um firstly for you
getting up at 3 30 in the morning to
bring your sparkle into the morning um
to sunrise uh to being there again later
on the night to doing what you’re doing
bringing the back story and all the
wonderful ways that you present uh sport
which is
such an important part of our society
it’s such a
important part for us as humans for our
physical and mental and social health i
think we often forget about the social
health that sport brings that whole
connection piece bringing us together
like these olympics did we were all
brought together
and um i tip my hat to you for the
amazing incredible work you do thank you
so much thanks thanks honey that’s very
kind and honestly for me it’s it’s a
privilege and i i do i don’t joke when i
say this i pinch myself every day i i
you know that alarm goes off and i get
into sunrise and i i think she’s i’m
doing this again today someone has let
me do this again i can’t believe it and
it’s um it’s a privilege i get to work
with some of the most incredible people
in our athletes you know who are doing
amazing things and and it is honestly a
privilege to be there and and be a part
of that have a front row seat for it’s a
magnificent moment so i i don’t take it
lightly and i know one day it you know
it’ll come to an end it’ll be taken away
from me and and i’m good with that
because i’ve had the most wonderful time
so you know i’m very very grateful for
every day
oh well thank you for sharing that thank
you for sharing your wisdom and a little
bit of a wine with me tonight
that cheers
and
i know it’s like this weird thing it’s
back to that um
i do well good night everybody i hope
you enjoyed our
wonderful interview tonight with the
incredible smiley sparkly experience
articulate
memory like i cannot even believe of all
the different things he remembers every
day
but i hope you enjoyed it and if there
are any comments or questions that you
would like to put in the comment box
afterwards um we’re sure to get back to
them at some stage good night everyone
thanks guys
[Music]
About Mark Beretta:
