Welcome to the Cheeky Olympic Armchair Expert series, where we are diving deep into the events that we are most excited about for the upcoming Olympics, and bringing you on the journey in the lead up to Paris. That is such a long sentence. Um, hello, Anna
Hello fbe
Now, Anna, tell us what event will we be discussing today? Today, we're going
Today, we're going to be talking about the 10, 000 meters. we're going to discuss, what is going to make this event so exciting. Tell the stories of our Aussie Olympians who you'll be getting behind as well as some of the other key players to watch and finish with some of our predictions.
Basically, we are giving you all the information you need to sound like an absolute expert when it comes to the 10, 000 metre event. for when you bump into your ex boyfriend's mum.
create
Anna.
event. Someone's got to do it.
Do you want to impress your ex boyfriend's mum particularly?
I reckon she'll be pretty impressed.
You should start regurgitating things about the 10, 000 metre bridge. She's like, wow, I saw
She's like,
God, she's an
hi, how have you been? I'm like, sick eye, Sophana san.
Lauren
no hates. It's all final, straight final girl.
That's impressive.
So
so tell us, what is the 10, 000 meter event all about and why do we love it?
So, uh, we love it because similar with the 5, 000 meters, a lot of the fun runs that like the amateur runners. compete in, uh, often 10 kilometers. and I feel like it's just got that sense of being a little bit more relatable than some of the other events because of that, you're straight into the final, so it's do or
so it's
Yeah, there are 30 athletes. so even to qualify for the 10 K is like really hard in itself. and yeah, it's extremely strategic survival of the fittest. Like we were talking about with the 5, 000 meters, like a lot of like cat and mouse play really cool to watch.
Yeah, it is. And it's, it's our longest event on the track. And so you just, they just like throw the 30 athletes out there and then you just watch them. run
Suffer, yeah, genuinely. so can you talk us through our lone Aussie Wolf?
so this is the hardest. Probably the hardest event to qualify for because there's no heat. So there's only, only 30 athletes. So we only have one runner who's qualified, male or female, and that is Lauren Ryan. She is two times national champion. She is definitely our best bet over 10, 000 meters. So earlier this year, she ran an insane 30 minutes and 35 seconds. In doing so, she broke a 20 year old national record and became our fastest female ever over this distance.
That is nuts. Um, she's also a bit of an enigma on the Australian running scene, um, because she actually lives over in America, I think Baltimore. she was in college over the U S and then has elected to stay on, as she's sponsored by Under Armour. So yeah, she's one of the only athletes.
sorry, I
Sorry. I should say one of the few of our athletes that actually lives abroad. but she's a Melbourne girl.
also, it's quite interesting I was looking at the, doing some research for this. So her time of 30 minutes and 35 seconds. Makes her the 11th fastest athlete in this race during the qualifying period. So She's ranked 11 out of the 30 there. Yeah. Which is really exciting because it actually means, if she's in form and she's ready to go, then she's a chance for top 10 finish here, Which when would we have last had a top 10 finish Cool. women in this event.
so we, uh, actually that this is interesting. So our last um, so Eloise Wellings in Rio in 2016, she came 10th in the 10, 000 meters. Yeah. Let's hope so. all right. So who are the other key players that we should be looking out for in this event? So
So I'd say the favorite is definitely Beatrice Chibette from Kenya. She's 24 years old, which I just found so shocking because she has been performing unbelievably well. She's such a strong runner. So she's our current 10, 000 meter world record holder. She's the first woman ever to go under 21, under 29 minutes. with a time of 28, 54, and that was only two months ago. So she's in great
ago, so she's in for eight more. I reckon. Yeah,
event. I reckon.
kind of
Um, Yeah, she's also, I kind of love this. Everyone calls her the smiling assassin. And if you watch her when she finishes a race, you'll know why. She has the biggest, most infectious smile. Like, she's not like some runners who are like, You know when they finish and they're just like celebrating but they look kind of angry? She just is like, glowing.
glowing. Yeah, and looks like, very like, genuine.
Yeah. I love watching her run. Yeah. Um,
so a little bit different, probably not one of the favorites, not one of the favorites for a medal, but probably a fan favorite is Parker Valby. Um, so she's another,
Anna doesn't even need a script for this one. She's another
she's another one of my girl crushes. Um, so she's 22, she's just finished college at, Florida. Yeah.
Gold Gator.
she is like kind of, she's like quite quirky. She's like got a funny personality. Um, so all of her interviews are like pretty cool. She's just finished, she finished second in the American 10K trials, which is insane. Like. Yeah. and that's after backing up from the five K's and she was disappointed. She only just, she just missed out in the five K's.
and then, so it wasn't really sure if she should even run the 10 K's, but then on the day of the 10 K decided to, and then ended up coming second, which is just nuts. she's kind of famous for doing a lot of cross training. So she, I think a lot of like amateur runners could sort of like relate to her in the sense that she, uh, doesn't manage the, like, high mileage that a lot of the other professionals do. So she spends majority of her time cross training.
so she'll kind of run half the distance of a lot of, the other, like, college athletes, but cross trains. And she's even states, like, you know, some people, sort of say, that me cross training is me slacking off, but, I work so hard.
hard. Wow. Like what kind of cross training does
like a lot of elliptical, I think,
I think. Interesting.
the, in the gym.
And there's been a bit of, Controversy around her. She hasn't signed yet.
Yeah. So, she hasn't signed with a footwear brand yet, but there are talks of like what the price will be, I think just because she, she is a fan favorite and it is like astronomical. So her dad at the moment is her agent. but yeah, insane. So she will be fun to watch.
she will be fun to watch. I feel like she's very, as you said, she's quirky. She's very like irreverent. in a lot of her interviews and even just the way she races, like, she's like waving at friends, like,
be interesting to see
it'll be interesting to see how she operates, out like, in an Olympic environment. because I don't know if you can have that same let's say, fair attitude or maybe you can
I think she will because I kind of think that's like part of probably what makes her so good is because she like can go like that. and yeah, like, as you were saying, like she often makes comments about like don't take it too seriously. At the end of the day, we're just running around in circles, which I kind of love. Yeah.
So we're going to do predictions, obviously we've only got one Aussie in here, but how do you think Lauren will go? I
one of you in here, but how do
you were about to say a win
Lauren will do?
back her
about to say a win or a loss. I'm not going to back her, really.
yeah, I, I, I remember watching her live, at, um,
Wasn't it Zatterpech? And she
she kicked past Rose Davies.
much about Rose
about, Rose Davies has an incredible kick. And Lauren kicked past her, so we know she can kick. She's got the record. She's in with a shot
a
of top 10. 10. Top 10. Yeah.
for joining
Okay. Thanks so much for joining us for another Cheeky Olympic Armchair Expert episode. We'll see you next time for,
Marathon. That sounded so creepy. The Marathon! The crowd goes wild.