I'll get a champions Craig, Anthony Harper, Donald James, William Elgan and Tiffany and cook high Cookie High Harps. Are you're looking a little bit seedy?
Yeah, it's it's been forty eight hours laying in my bed eating frosty fruits.
I did get a snapshot of you. This is going to sound much more exciting than it is. Folks of you in bed, and it was you and a menagerie of animals, you looking like fucking death warmed up. So please don't send me shit like that again, because I got PTSD now and I can't get that fucking image out of my head. It's out of my phone. But I didn't deserve that. What precipitated the fourteen and twelve spews that you've had in the last Hey everyone, I
hope you're enjoying your dinner too. I hope it's not a casserole. What what? What have you got? What's wrong with you?
I've got no idea, but it come on hard and fast, haks Like I drove. I got tired after our last podcast, and then at the end of the day, I drove down to take Luna for a quick run in the park before bed. We pulled up in front of the park. Luna started carrying on in the back like she does, and I just got hot all.
Over and went off, I've got to get home.
And I thought I wasn't.
I didn't.
I thought I wasn't going to make it back inside the hot I thought it was going to pass out.
And yeah, it's not the It's not the menopause, is it.
I don't think the menopause causes projectile.
All right, Well I'm no experts, so all right then Donald's he's Don's pretty much a doctor. He'll tell us what's your prescript? What's your diagnosis? Doc? She's fucked.
Clinically speaking, Yeah, you're screwed. But God is this this will pass a lot of passing going on, but now you'll come good, like just a shipload of water, flush it out. Whatever.
It is a bit of a bug you before fruits though, frosty fruit, the mate, isn't it? Isn't it funny when you crook how you just crave sugary carby ship because Lincoln.
But we picked that up when we're young, don't we. Mom and Dad gives us that, like the flat lemonade or something. A bit of sugar when we're young, and so that sounds a fault.
Yeah, nobody's sitting at home feeling crooked, going geese. I love a canna tuna. Ta give me toast with honey, give me all the white bread toasted with honey, and or jam Don welcome to the show. How are you, son? Mate?
I'm excellent better than cookie. That's a fact. And I don't say that lightly because it's a pretty rare opportunity. I get to say that because she's usually firing on all cylinders and got shit sorted. So I do wish you well, might hug you. You come good soon, Tiff. But I'm flying, mate, I was. I've had a cracking year around about eighty events this year in the in the airport, so I've been overseas six times. I'm loving life. That's exactly how I set it up to live this life.
I remember body years ago, when I was a little tacker at the cameer. People would say, oh, Don travels great, but then you've got to get back to your normal grind. And as a kid growing up, I thought, I don't want to have a normal grind. I want to have a life. I wake up every day you can go giddy up, and the fact that I wake up, you know, my leg's still missing, and I check every day.
Rights just big day. It's going to be.
A large night the day that grows back. But seriously, so I've created a life and I look at it and go hair goods, and I see people. I see people that are at airports and they're frustrated to be there. And so I don't ever want to get to that point. I want to I want to be bloody grateful that I'm there. Maybe even I'm the head and do it a ship hole. I still want to go, yep, this is cool? How good is wow?
I'm heading to a ship Oh yeah, yeah, but there'll be cool people that might. I suggest that if you do wake up one day and your leg has well, didn't really grow away, you do magically have at your left leg that's missing, isn't it is? If you don't magically have a whole left leg, I'm thinking you might not know what the fuck to do with it. I wonder how well you'd be able to traverse the landscape with a whole leg on the left side. You wouldn't know how to work it well. I'll tell you what.
One day I literally fell a said, I was absolutely spent. I fell aslep my leg on. I set my leg on because it's like you slept your shoes on. You just unless you really pissed doores. You just don't do it like it's uncomfortable. And so I fell asleep my leg on one day and I woke up and I walked and I was like, I was I've never done drugs in my life, but I swear to God, I don't reckon it'd be a drug as good as that feeling gone.
Holy shit, how good is this wake? Just the wake up?
And what I was like tripping at the fact that people do this shit every day and they don't even think twice about it. And yes, for me, I was like, that's awesome, but I must admit it was also it's uncomfortable, like one of my best feelings, and tis out of the three of us, tis probably going to be the best to agree or disagree with this. But my leg is tailor made, it fits perfect, and it's got a
job to do. At the end of the day, I take it off, and my understanding is it's a bit like taking off of bra it's like, what a bloody and nice feeling. I'm not that happy spot. So me, when I get my leg off at the end of the day, if I have to put it back on, I'm hoping, like hell, it's the next day, because if we've got to put it on and I've already mentally checked out or taken the leg off, then it's sort of like fuck, it's a pun nas And it's not
really a panas. It's just it's such a good feeling to get it off at the end of the day. It feels buddy great. How long does it take to get on in the morning? A seconds, mate, I've got my record is nine seconds. So not that I'm competitive, but i do like to have a crack and I've got to have everything mined up though, the socks and everything right the go. But it's like a roll a silicon sleeve on. It's got a pin in the bottom of it. I push it in the whole bang We're
good to go. So it's that easy. So I've got no reason to winge. And you know, I've got legs that used to have straps go over my knee and up my thigh around my waist. One more over my shoulder, and you know when you're wearing that type of technology as well. So bloody fortunate to go through life now because I've seen the evolutional legs. Like I just got my processor saying to me the other day, Don there's this
new leg and it's a waterproof leg. You can wear thongs with it on, going like, I can't wear thongs because I can't keep the leg on on the thong on my artificial legs. But I've also got fucking little shit toes on my good foot, So even if I wanted to wear the I'm a crocs king, mate, I've got crops on now because I literally can't wear thongs. But hearing about this technology, I'm just going, how body good is this? That this stuff exists in my lifetime?
You know, And I'm in a country that's fortunate through the NDIS or whatever means, then I'm going to be able to get access to it. So I'm boddy wrap that it exists.
I feel, without having done any research on this, which is pretty much typically my way, that the evolution of prosthetic legs from say nineteen hundred to nineteen eighty what was probably a steady inclimb, But from say nineteen ninety or ninety five until now, it's been a sharp kind of inflection up. It's like it feels like the last twenty years there's been two hundred years of development in that space.
Yeah, bang on my big like crypto, but without the fall like it just keeps going and going and it has planted out. There's no question about that. I got my first. I was in that group of athletes that got a j leg that was the first start of a running blade, and looking back, it was fucking shit out. So it was really stiff and you couldn't get much out of it. But when you're wearing it and you go, holy shit, this is better than having a sash foot or a bit of rubber on the bottom of a
wooden leg. You feel like king of the kids, you know, because you can run fast with it. But now that you see the blades, the Cheetah is the one that I wear now, and it's not even a running leg. It's actually a running leg that's been modified down to an everyday fight activity leak. So you know, when you see that sort of stuff, it's the same like Formula one.
You know, they put the research and development into the top level stuff, and then it filters, it finds its way down into the suburban you know, family car, the right oil to use and better fuel and all that shit. So same with legs. They put all the energy into the fast guys, the people that could do something with it and push it and test it, and then it finds its way in every day. So yeah, I'm pretty fortunate, mate, But you're right in terms of the development, I reckon
it's pretty much pladded out. But what was really cool about it is you had athletes like me just go what else can we do with this? Well, how can we push this? I had a running blade, so in discus, I want to rotate around at the back of the circle and then get across the circle really fast. Block and then you know, like get that whip to throw the disc. And I thought, if I use a running blade at the back of the circle, then I'm going to get across really quick. But imagine if I could
use a running blade and be completely balanced. So I put a universal swivel through the blade so I could pirouet perfectly, and then when I lad it up across the circle, it was like dialog. I couldn't control I got to the front. I was like out of control on my ass so many times. But that's that's the evolution, you know. It comes with a desire for finding something better and more brains than I've got for people to
actually make it work. My very first attempt at it, we used a full drive suspension sprick we can wait to eight kilos. I couldn't move it, mate, it was too heavy. But we had got us thinking about what.
Can we do with this?
So yeah, it's really cool now to see some great stuff out there.
I would imagine that a spatial awareness or rotational awareness would be a big issue when you're pivoting like a fucking ball arena with a discus in your hand, because if you release that at the wrong time, you're going to kill seven people. Well that's why.
They've got a cage here made for lunatics on me. But fortunately, fortunately nobody died in the making of those fast legs. But I haven't seen any of the girls like it on the scene. Most people. Most people just work out what works for them, And I think that's where you know, you ask the question and you better have been born without a body part or acquiring a
disability somewhere along the line. And for me, I was literally just at a physio this morning and she's talking about my stump because I was actually trying to get qualified or get a classification for another sport. I'm going to have a crack at so watch this space. But she's saying to me, what's your stump? Like I said, I shot you not you probably won't find another one
like it. It is so resilient. It's tough, but you can hit the bottom and I'm not asking you to do this, but I can hit the bottom of my stump and I'm not going to hit the roof. For some people, you can't touch the stump. And I think that's got a lot to do with the fact that over the years, as a kid wearing ill fitting legs, it just got tougher and tough. It's like resilience, you know, you just you fall over, you'd get up and you go, okay,
I can do that again. And my stumps learnt and it doesn't have the nerve endings and the tenderness that somebody having their leg chopped off and has never weight bed on it has. So yeah, I'm pretty fortunate mate.
Well you probably desensitized it over the years, and also it is probably like is it very callous? I imagine it would be as no, yeah.
I would sort of go through phases so when it doesn't fit well, so my body weight. And I always struggle with this bit because you put your shoes in, put your foot in your shoe, and there's a bit of movement, right, even with leather shoes and shit, and you've got a bit of time, like if you put a bit of weight on, typically your shoes will still fit, they'll carry you around. If I put some weight on, like this is this is a plaster cast plaster pars of my stump, so it's made perfectly for me to
fit into it. So you start putting weight on, like one or two kilos, or take it off. Then all of a sudden there's movement in there that it just doesn't fit right. And then you've got rubbing, and then you get then you create problem. But the drama is the climates. You know, when you're sweating like a pig, it's a silicon sleeve, so the sweat builds up in there. If you don't take it off, wipe it down and keep it going, then it basically just creates a problem
for yourself. But yeah, i'd certainly say it's reactive to what I do. So if I look after it, it'll react. Well, if I don't, well it still reacts, but it ends up with me.
Now do you know where you and I met? I don't even know, did you? Do you know we've met before today?
Yeah? Yeah, at buck somewhere and you invite them down to the gym and I said I'll get there and I never made it.
I've been looking out the window for fifteen years. But don't worry. That's fine. I keep look, I'll go past. I usual on my back. I can do it. I usually give you a wave.
It was the end. I can't remember, mate, it was. It was a long time, It wasn't It was.
Yeah, Well I interviewed thousands of people, and you've done thousands of interviews. So I was, do you know this? I should admit what I'm about to admit because it's it's essentially discrimination. I was thick because I interviewed you a couple of times, and also Michael Milton, Oh yeah, and I was I was thinking, what was Don's downhill skiing record? What was that? What was that downhill and
then I'm like, oh, fucking how bad is that? And then as I'm like, no, that was the other bloke with one leg the other that's he was the other bloke with one How fucking bad of that?
Like, I'm not really apologize, no, No, Michael Milton is an above me. Michael Milton got really pissed with me for a bit because I was the first person with the disability to drive in his celebrity challenge and and when I first did it, he rang me up and I thought, oh, that's nice. I don't really speak to Michael. He's a winter sport fella's lunatic and Paul got cancer, you know, like I've been very fortunate my run, and
he goes, how do you get into that race? I thought, fucking hello, Michael, and I said, I've just been I've been stalking the Grand Prix Corporation for a number of years. Made I'll let him know who I am, and I'm ready he is, he said, I wanted to get then and go, oh fucking good luck, see.
Lader, Michael.
We didn't have a lot to do with each other, with different personality types, but like he has anyone who's had cancer, and Kelly Cart writes another Girl that I have a fair bit to do with Cawer manager. Cancer is one of those things that you really never sleep soundly at night, particularly you've lost a leg to it,
all that sort of stuff. So when it come back and Michael got in the throat and stuff, I just actually I realize how fortunate I am, you know, like the disability for me, the heart's edge, you're at three years of age, all that sort of shit. It's done and dust that what you see is what you get. And I've just grown up with all this. Whereas I'm not looking over my shoulder going fuck, am I gonna lose a finger next week? Or is it going to get my other leg? It's like, no, mate, this is
your Cart. So it's easy to come to terms with that. So whereas I reckon, it's got to be a bit harder, you know, I reckon.
I reckon also, And I don't know, but I'm asking you, like I would think emotionally and socologically, there's not the same trauma associated because you never had that, but that you know, you never had that leg, and so you don't miss it in inverted commas, Yeah, no, no, I get.
That, and I've heard that a lot over the years, and I don't disagree. I think what happens is when I was a kid, I was dead set going tied to toe, punching on and having fights with other kids because they teach me so like they found, the trauma is a different It's not the trauma of oh shit, I've lost my leg now, and there is absolutely no doubt in my mind that losing a limb or some sort of function, acquired brain injury, any of that sort of stuff. There is still a it might sound weird,
but there's a grieving process to it. You've got You've actually got to come to terms with the fact that it's gone. It's not coming back. And if you don't do that, you always have this what if or why me, or you have a component of you that's never really settled. But the moment you go through that proce and go, oh fuck it, you know, my dad was awesome at this,
he goes mate. Even if we find out exactly why you're missing your leg, and your brother and your three sisters all got theirs, it's not going to make one ounce of difference. Not going to go back, So don't look back about and ask them why just look forward and say, well, I've got one good leg. And so that for me is it's probably the strength for me over the years. It's the trauma or the disappointment of not having a leg. It raises its head from time to time, but I'm really quick to be able to
put it to bed and go. Mate, that's a view. It doesn't hold space with me anymore. So she'll be right and away we go. So, yeah, but I reckon losing a leg. There's far more for you to contemplate. And typically not a lot of people lose it at such a young age, kids at the bomb because they're resilient, because I don't know any different. If you lose a limb as an adult, you've had a life time of knowing how to walk, no one, how to fit in, knowing, knowing how to create your way. Maybe I created a
way as a one leg of block. So that's my way.
Yeah, yeah, dad's dad and mum sound like though. I mean, obviously you're not prepared for that as a parent. You don't know how to deal with that until you've got to deal with it. There's I'm sure there's a book now but at the time there was probably no five step plan of how to deal with young don so they must have done a pretty good job.
Though, Oh I made I reckon they nailed it, Like my mum and dad young lovers got married with no young, had us kids young. You know, when I'm talking young, I'm talking nineteen twenty twenty one in the first three kits sort of thing. So and then I sort of followed suited. I was married at twenty one, first kid at twenty two, so I think it's sort of it makes sense. But their approach was absolutely one hundred percent old school, where if it's don't broke, if it's not broken,
don't try and fix it. If if you My mum was awesome, and she probably took the line's share of shit unfortunately, because she knew that if I was to go okay in life, then I was going to have to get off mars. She wasn't going to be there to hold my hand all the time. Unfortunately, she checked out for the last time last year, so she's corrected that.
But up until then, what she said is every time I fell over, she'd just get up, give you have another go, And so that the words I heard were things that were going to stack me in good stead for life. And my dad, I think he he my old man used to do a bit of boxing and was going to have a crack at golden gloves and until my mum said you fun go to boxing and not me on that day, then we're done. So which was I just think my old man for Varsity's got
that hanging over his head. It's like, oh, I could have got golden gloves and anyway ended up with my mum, which was a much better ticket. But a really cool thing for him was that they were on the same page. So Mum was always there with a big heart and mopped up when Dad was too brutal in terms of saying bucket mate. You know, like sometimes sometimes as a kid, what you think you need is a cuddle. In actual fact you need to foot up the ass. And it's a balance act to where do you when do you
give the foot and when you give the cuddle. And my dad was he'd go the foot first, and over time, to his credit, as he got older, he got way more nurturing. But as kids, I think if my parents had been really super nurturing when I was young, I reckon I would have struggled as a kid growing up as an adult today, I wouldn't be who I am and that tough love odd bloody rate it, mate. I'm a big fan of tough love and it served me really well.
Wow, yeah, I'm not, surprisingly, I think all three of
us are. But it's it's it's interesting because like, you want to love and look after your kids, of course, and you want to be there for them, but at the same time, you want them to be strong and resilient and independent and capable of dealing with discomfort and uncertainty because the world gives no fucks about their emotions and and you know, so trying to find that right balance between letting them know that they're loved and they're okay,
but also letting them fall down and scrape their knees without you running in to pick them up. Because how do kids get strong or resilient or capable if they never have to do anything hard or get uncomfortable.
That's right, It's a learned behavior, isn't it. So whatever we're learning is our level of resilience or lack of because we learn, okay, we fall over or just have to put behind up or make enough noise and Mum's going to pick me up. Yeah, I can make all the noise in the world. Mum's so exactly something. And that's why I say I recond Mum got the raw end because her sister and sisters would say to her, oh,
you bitch, pick him up. He's only got one leg and one would be like hearing this from her loved ones and she's got nah. He's got to learn to do it without it, without me. And you just think, what a courageous woman to stand up to the people that fucking pointing you out and calling you out for not being there for your kids, because none of us want that. But her vision and view of how to raise me was, in my opinion, hands down better that I could possibly have asked for.
Yeah, yeah, hey mate. For those of our listeners who don't know anything about your sporting background, can you just give us like a little bit of a two minutes, ten minutes, as much or as little as you want. Where did the sporting career start, what did it look like? And can you give us a little bit of this is your life of your sporting career just and then I might weave a few questions in yeah, I.
Made I was pretty fortunate. I was born without the below half my leg, and then that meant that the same opportunities weren't going to exist for me as they were for my brother. What I didn't realize is that I was being raised in the same vein as my brother, so disabled, handicapped, special like the Paralympic Games. Although back when I was born they weren't a big thing, but they certainly weren't even They weren't a welcome thing in
our house. My parents weren't looking for that. They said, mane, you'll play footy. Just go down play footy with your brother.
And that's what I did.
So I grew up in an able bodied world, but always being a bit pissed off that I couldn't keep up like I was alway. And then people would make excuses for me, Oh, it's okay, you've got one leg. I go. I fucking no one got one leg. But I still want to win that race, you know. So there's that little bit of mongol that sort of creeps in because you just you've got to fight a little bit harder. And then a couple of my mates at high school said to me mate, why don't you go
to the Paralympics. And I'd never heard of them. And when they told me that the Paralympics stand for parallel to the Olympics, I started getting a bit excited because I've heard stories about the village and I thought this could be all right. And then they and they said that the Olympics overseas, and so if that's the case, so of the Paralympics, And I just thought, how would would that be to go overseas? Mate? So I'm from Tokamo.
Tokomo had twelve hundred and a half people made I was the half like I am, thinking this is gonna be awesome. So I went home and I said to my man mom and Dad, I shit, you're not. I still remember it like it was yesterday.
I walked in.
I put my bag, my school bag on the ground. Mum's peeling spuds at the sink. Dad's standing behind her, grope and her holding her up, and I said, Mom, Dad, I'm going to go to the Paralympics. But Dad said, you're going to go the what and what was really interesting is Mum stoped peeling spuds and Dad stopped groping mump and they both looked at me and said.
You're going to go to the war.
I said to the Paralympics and Dad said what are they? And I said, oh, they're games for disabled people. Shit, you're not My dad said you're not bloody disabled, and I thought, there goes my te overseas. So I had to convince mom and Dad that I was disabled, and sadly didn't take that long, but I got to go to my first ever. We'd got the Yellow Pages out, we looked up amputees and MPT Association. I was living tokenmar to New South Wales. Found the New South Wales
empt Championships. Said fuck, that's in Sydney. Let's see if we can go to the Victoria once because I've come down here to get my legs made in Melbourne. It's only three hours. And they said, nah, you're a New South Wales athlete. We don't want anything to do with you. You belong up there. So we rang Robin Howe, who was a president of the New South Wales Empt Championships, went up to Sydney, competed in my first ever New South Wales Empte Championships and that was half So I shoot,
you not it was WHOA, what like is this? But I went up there. My parents ran a public swimming pool. I can swim reasonably well. I went up there to swim in five events, and I thought I was bloody win everything. I thought, I'm not really disabled. I'm going to swim against disabled people. I've got this. And I looked around. Here's all these people missing and missing legs.
And I've never seen me shit before, never like. The most I've seen is maybe one or two other amputees at the leg joint, not a whole bloody group of them. And I thought, wow, bloody a bunch of freaks. I thought, oh, I've got you lot. Oh but yeah, And and then I went in the five events and I won too, but in the other three I got my ass kicked.
At that point, that was the turning point for me, my entire life to be honest, not just for me, but for mom and dad, because their perception of what they had been told about disabled and disability and handicap and people that weren't like everybody else was flipped on its head. All of a sudden. This shit was hard, and if I was going to make it, that sort of seemed to be music to my dad's ears. He liked the fact that it wasn't going to be walking the park, you know, like if I was going to
make it, I'd have to earn it. And so after that I really got stuck into swimming, and I tried out for at the national championships for the nineteen ninety two Barcelona Paralympic Games, and I missed out by one spot. And at the time of sixteen, and I was fucking filthy. I thought, like, I've broken national records. I was ringing up Mom and Dad. I was staying there at Parkville and I was ringing them up every day.
Oh, national record fifty four hundred and three. And things were going pretty good.
And at the end of the games, I announced the teams, and when I missed out, I just thought, fuck you, and Dad come down picked me up. Everybody else is going out to celebrate that night, and we're driving home and I said, Dad.
Stuff quit.
I've had enough, mate. He said, what do you mean you quit? I said, I've retired.
I'm done.
He said, you're fucking sixteenth. You're a bit young to retire. How about you have another crack. And so next year I went to the Stage Champs and I did swimming and athletics. I come back from there with ten gold medals. I thought, this is I'm back.
I love this.
And I had the very very good fortune to speak to one of the head coaches, Chris Nunn, and he said, mate, if you had a real opportunity to represent the country, what was like to do either swimming or athletics, Because you're gonna have to get serious because the great athletes that make these teams they don't do facking everything. You might be good at everything, but at that level you won't make it. And I said, I'd rather do athletics. He said why. I said, because the guys who are
athletics are having more fun. I said, at home in the middle of winter, our swimming pool's cold and green and slimy. At least if I'm doing athletics, I can play footy and still get fit. So that was the start of my athletic career. I spent the next well
a couple of years training mass off. I was fortunate to make the Atlanta Paralympic Games, and then I ended up with four World Championships and three Paralympic Games, a couple of World Cups and Commonwealth Games, and I spent the best part of twenty years representing the country, you know, just playing sport. And it's never been wasted on me that I played sport. You know, I didn't save lives. I've got to travel the world here, I had to
raise money and stuff along the way. But I've literally filled four passports, you know, I'm on my fifth through just having them filled up with stamps because I'm in another country to run or to push a shot pull or throw a discu It's like, how good is that?
Like?
Just very fortunate. And the event that I'd chose was the pentathlon and often hear people say, oh, the event chooses you, and that bang on. I was never great at any one thing, but I was reasonably good at five and so which stacks up when you you know, at the end of the day, when you go over one medal, you need to be able to put a really shit performance behind you really quickly and reset. And fortunately for me, maybe it's kid growing up, I had
a very strong mental approach to things. I was able to compartmentalize things really quickly and not take the bad chi into the next event, but to reset and go again and that served me really well.
Most of the time, Sydney wasn't so well. I had.
I finished fourth in Atlanta and the Pentathlon, I'd finish fourth at the World Champs in ninety eight. My goal was to win a medal in my home country at the Sydney Games. In two thousand, I thought this is it. I went out at the Sydney Games. I was in after the first two events. After the first three events, I was sitting in the silver medal position. I was
sitting decon, only behind the current world champion. And then I went into the discus and as you line up, if you've paid much attention to athletics, when you're lining up and you're about to go into your event, the cameraman goes along the line and the announcer says, oh, we've got Thomas Bourgeois from America and Urst colleague from Switzerland, and I've got Don Elgen, And instead of the camera being on me, the cameraman had found my wife and my two year old daughter and the rest of the
Don Elgon cheersquad in the crowd, and Thomas was beside me goes, haven't got the big screen and looked up on the big screen and here's my little girl with her go Dad shirt on, and I just lost my shit. It was I'm getting joked now. I was so emotional, it was that this is I don't even need to throw the discus. This is the best moment of my life. Like I'm at the pinnacle of sport, and I've got the people that give a shit about me right there. So I had three throws of discus that day with tears.
I was crying the entire way and so fucking get it together and I couldn't. I emotionally wasn't ready for the impact. And then I dropped from second into third and it's like, fuck, I'm gonna blame Earth for that for the rest of my life, but anyway, I better get that shit sorted. So I went into the last event, which was the four hundred meters, and I knew I had to beat the American by six seconds, and if I could do that, then I'd get my first ever
parentl pick metal, which would be a bronze. I'd have to do some pretty crazy shit in the four hundred, and honestly I had at the four hundred, so it wasn't likely I was going to do anything super amazing in that event, and fortunately I did. I'd beat the American and I ended up with a bronze medal, you know in my home country.
Week Wow.
So when you see people in the bronze his body jumping around, they're really excited, probably sometimes more than silver and maybe even gold. That's sometimes why I mate is because what it means to get there.
Yeah, that's I love that, mate. That's so good. And that story about your little girl you did, I read you've got four kids? How old are they? Yeah?
So my little girl's now twenty six year old nurse who works in the Royal Melbourne and it's you know, she did her work experience at the place that makes my legs. So when you think about that connection and what they're picking up by looking at me and my wife and the people around them, you know, if you're a care then that's what you do. So and then I've got a twenty three year old twenty two, I'll get the fucker they have birthdays.
I'm good for a.
Full year saying this is how old they are. Then they go and have a birthday and it starts my little routine. How dare they? George and she's living her best life. Mate. She's an ambassador for an energy drink, drives around body Love and matt and works in the corporate boxes, which just her people skills. Her ability to be able to talk to people and just go, mate, that is probably the greatest asset today for anybody that
can actually speak with their mouth. And I get that not everybody is verbal and they can't all do that, but the nation and the globe is moving towards speaking with your thumbs and the ability this will never get old, the ability to sit down and have a chat. And she has that, which is bloody awesome. I've got my third born, my little midget. She's she is now just eighteen to eighteen last week and finish year twelve, and so she's not sure what she's up to yet, which
is bloody exciting part time job. And then the boy, the Golden Child as I like to refer to him as he's he literally just finishes grade six this year and he's off to high school next year. So yeah, things things are good in the olden camp.
Well, mate, it must be a bloody it must be a circus at your joint periodically.
I guess they're not all at home now though not now, but during COVID, I had Nutto and her fiance Bill living in our house. So we had Evan in our house during COVID. And we made the call after about the fucking fifteenth lockdown that what is what's going to be our reflection of COVID. How are we going to you know, when we look back, what's it going to mean? And I thought, you know what, my kids are going
to remember that we had good fun. So Nada, oh, my firstborn, it was her job to create the game. So we'd have Elgin Olympics in our house most days and it was like sometimes it was just Boddy throwing m and ms into a bowl or sliding a coin or you know. So she'd come up with games each each day for us, which was awesome. I come up with a game and they reckon that I probably should be off the games. Mine was to get the little you know, the little mobile vacuums that just do their
own thing around the house. Well, I got everyone to blow up a balloon and put it between their feet, and then I strapped a knife to the vacuum and just whoever's balloon got popped last, they were the winner, but the kids reckon. I was probably trying to recruit them into being emput so I didn't get much of a gig to pick games after that.
No, it's not death. No, I think it's great that Dad's strapped a knife to the fucking vacuum. What could go wrong?
But you could move. I mean we're just told don't move, but you can. I mean you've got to use a bit of con sense too. If it's coming at you, get out of the way.
So I want to let's talk a little bit about mindset. Let's talk about you start. So I'm stumbling towards the finish line and my doctorate in psychology, and so I'm always talking just like you were talking. I guess a lot about mindset and thinking and motivation, inspiration, fucking self management, like how do I manage? How do I get the most out of me? Are you like in terms of you like the guy that we're seeing now, the high energy,
optimistic realist. Is that your default setting or is that something that you've had to hone and develop and build?
Yeah? Mate, absolutely in the ladder it's my default now. And my dad would say to me when we're young, Mate, if you tell someone they're a dickhead, long enough, they'll believe it. I thought, fuck it, why would I want to tell myself I'm a dickhead? Like, why don't I tell myself life is awesome? So I would tell myself every time, all the time, whenever good, bad or otherwise, especially when things were shit, Our life's awesome. I fucking
find another way. Life is awesome. Don't forget life is awesome. And so I programmed myself to think like that. And then what I'd started doing is I started getting feedback from society. People go, oh, what do you want? You know, what are you having? I want with your having a fucking life? How good is this?
Life's awesome?
And it wasn't until I think out of fault setting because of what we look up and see is the news, and it's negative. And there's more that we create space and we enable pessimism to come in and hold way too much ground in our life. And I go, it's there. The leg's not going back, but there's one good one. If we chop that one off, you know what, I'll probably get a fucking wheelchair mine having an electric one
and suit that up. So there's always a way to look at things in a different line, and I just choose that. I've seen people that that have succumb and agreed that life's hard and it's negative. It's like, fuck, how do you carry that weight around with you all day? The burden that is on your shoulders looking to find something that's wrong in the world. Like when when you choose that? Nah, you know, like you can choose the default setting that suits you. And for me, I'm a
helper mate. I ride a motorbike. I see something broke down. I was luck Believers. You need a hand people, It freaks some people out there. Go you're the RSV. You got to equiply go. Nah, made on just a country bike right a home. I'm already wet. You're broke down? Do you need my phone?
Like?
And you know what it does? It fucking makes me feel good. It makes me feel like I'm actually contributed today. I might not have made any money, I might not have done, but a buddy, I've helped somebody. And if somebody helps one of my people one day when I can't be there for them, bloody awesome. Massive believer Craig of what goes around comes around, And I see it. I just figured, well, if what goes around is me putting good shit out, then what should come around is
good shit coming my way. And somebody said to me, I think it was just today, this is how you feeling lucky. I said, bloody, I don't I'm lucky. You know, I am very lucky. I'm very very fortunate good stuff happens to me. I'm not even willing to open the can and say, nah, I never win anything, but that if you never win anything, what have you just told the universe You're not going to win?
Not me. You know what I like the most, and.
This is how I use it in my sporting career is the medals at the Parlem became the Parallemer. Games do not come engraved quite simply is because they don't know who's going to win them. The blueprint for the future is not written. So I figure, fuck it, let's ride ourselves into it. I've got no more ride than any other person lining up on the games, apart from the fact that I've pictured myself having a crack. I've
done the training I needed to do. I am going to do whatever I can to put myself in the best possible position. Every now and then I find myself going, Okay, I'm going down the wrong track reload, And that's why you need that really strong network. But my default setting now is of my choosing, and that is that life's awesome and I want to stay there, and when I'm not there, I try and get back there as soon as again.
Yeah, I'm very much kind of of the hangout with people who drag you up mindset and also be the person that drags others up. You know, it's it's hanging
out with energy vampires is a hard gig. Ah, come on, bro, you know you've still got a care And I'm like, dude, this is like emotional quicks And every time I talk to you, and I'm not talking about someone with mental health issues necessarily, just someone with a fucking toxic attitude, I'm like, yeah, God sake some Now this new sport that we're not talking about, No, this new sport that you're training for, grasshopper, are we thinking that at you're what are you seventy four? Now?
At your no?
How old are you? Actually?
I'm right now today and this shit changes in two weeks. I'm forty eight today, right, So get your head on this. Yeah, this is my plan. I've got a real good made of mind. And she was at the same three games I compared to in Atlanta, ninety six, Sydney, in Athens, and we were just I went over to Paris this year I scored a little gig hosting a commercial. I did a one of my other mates and there's about
a little core group. It was about five or six of us that have been really good mates throughout our career, and a couple of them were commentating at the games and she was sitting at Hunger. Well, you fuck is involved in doing shit and I'm not doing anything. She goes, I reckon, I need to do something. So I sat out with her at the end and said what do you want to do? And she goes, I don't know, And I thought, well, fucking this is not a really good start. We need to have some sort of concept.
And then we both sort of hit the point with it. What sort of rare group of humans would be able to compete at two home games? And so you know, you can do one or two or three paralym bigs and it's people have done four, five, six and seven.
That's a rare group.
But how how small must the pool be of athletes that have competed in two home games, and we've got Bridgbane coming up in twenty thirty two, and we both compete in Sydney, and it's like, fuck, you know what, that's only eight years away, like that like that is nothing in the scheme I reckon. So and then we looked at it and go, okay, let's be real, because you know, we do a lot of speaking and we help people with goal setting and different ways to do it. I
have a very simple goal setting philosophy. I just put it like a ladder, and the very first thing I do is go, where are we right now? What are all the facts that we're dealing with, you know, oldie injuredy fucking driven?
What's the story? What's the real?
And then you know, what do you want to aim for me? I would just go, now, let's say for the top, let's actually have a crack at the very best thing, the biggest, because why not, and then just work back and put the steps into play. So if I'm to go to the Paralympic Games in in eight years time, and then that means that I need to be at a Paralympic Games in four years to get there, I need to fill probably a couple of world champs in between that. Before that, I need to be at
a nationals. I need to be at a state. Okay, I'm going to need a local club. And right there's the fucking map. Right now, we've worked backwards, we've sort of out. Now, let's take one step and just focus on that step. We'll nail that one and then we either come back and reload or we take the next
step whatever we're at. And so really simple philosophy. But mine now, when I sat down and had a look at the now, mine now excluded me being super physical to go and paddle a boat or you know, to run a marathon.
Couldn't be fucked.
My body. It's done what it needed to to get me to this point. But there's still plenty in the tank for me to go. I could still get strong enough. Maybe I could get strong enough to hold a gun. Maybe I could get strong enough to do a sport that requires a different skill set, like a mental game, because I'm probably stronger there than I am physically in my in my legs, my arm. Now, so anyway, that's where we're looking in that space. My friend and it's fucking exciting.
I don't know if you can see what I wrote helps hang on, I'll just tell you down the bottom of my page. I wrote, Paris shooter, you know that old dude, And because I was trying to guess the sport and I'm thinking, well, it's not going to be fucking Greco Roman wrestling or high jump because he's going to be fifty six ish at the that's my all over again? Not enough?
Yeah yeah, yeah, Well he got twenty million for just lasting, so it ain't the worst gig I would yeah, I dude, I would have just jobbed around the ring for four rounds now.
I would have worn him out in that time. Yeah yeah, yeah, tiff wol to beat him though. No, but yeah, like that, that is that's interesting, have you? And I thought I thought maybe shooting, and I was thinking of that. Where was he from? Do you remember where he was from? That shit? Was he actually French or was he from Italian? And he shot in jeans and a T shirt and his hand.
In his pocket.
Yeah, he didn't use the normal bloody super duper sights or that he did.
All the other Olympians just doing everybody you know, doing the poses and ship. It was pretty cool, like that's a you know, when you see that sort of stuff, you just go like it's one out of the bag. You know, I must've been our stuff. It might probably be air rifle shooting, so it's not you know, the clay target, not the cool shit, but still, you know it's I think for me, it's about saying, is there
a possibility that something can be done? And I went to I took the same approach into the and fourteen. I'd been the World Champs manager team manager. In twenty eleven, I went to London as a team manager and then I come back from London and the head coach and me goes, oh, mate, I was thinking about you the other day. Fuck, that's dangerous, and he goes, one of your events from your pentathon is on at the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow in twenty fourteen. I said, we'll get
stuff mate, I'm eating pies. I'm done and because my head space was finished, and he said, oh I was the disc it said, I made this foolish mistaker saying what was the qualifying and he told me what the qualifying business was. I thought I could fucking do that, and that's what happens in my head? It's like yes. First and so then I rang booth my wife and I said, mate, what do you reckon? The common Games are in Glasgow? Do you reckon? Do you reckon? I
have a crack? And I was sort of half expecting her to go, mate, if I can be in the four World Champs three pound because just let it go, mate, it's all good.
You've done it.
And she said yeah, why not? And I thought, fucking game on. So I literally come out of retirement and I chase competitions around the country. I walked into a PTE and I said who was pt for?
My wife?
I said do you want to coach a Commonwealth Games athlete? And he goes yeah, who? I said me, He guess you haven't been a common Wealth Game? I said not yeah. And then I went to my processus, who is a discus coach as well. I said, do you want to coach Commonth Games?
I guess who?
I said me, you haven't been? I said not yeah, and I shit you not. I qualified by the skin and white teeth by two centimeters. I made the qualifying and went over to Glasgow and I thought, okay, how good is this? Mate, so, and I used. I used the process that I thought most people had access to, which was not to go and apply for an Institute of Sports scholarship, which I was fortunate, I'd had one for.
Twelve years throughout my career.
Take one. And I thought, because so many people go on, you're just so lucky. You've got everything. You've got fucking access to massulas and physios and diet and it's true, I do. But can the average punt I get off their ass and go and do this? Is it possible? And so that was what I sort of wanted to take into more so so I could say to my kids and say, hey, guys, fucking just don't die wondering, have a crack. If you crash and boon stiff shit,
you know, we're not saving lives. We're playing sport. And so I wanted to see what was possible. And then that is why I booked into this physio, the bill and clinic today. And I went down and seen it and said, I've just got to get a classification. And she's going, Okay, we'll put you through all these tests and she's got can you move this?
Do this?
And she goes she's you're strong, thank you, and I just just fucking need a classification. And she goes, I squeeze my hand and saying I'm used to putting shot puts, mate, like, and I'm thinking.
You really want me to squeeze it.
I'll go I'll fucking break your hand. I felt like, take it easy, and she goes, no, no, I'll tell you when to stop if I need to. And so anyway, all the right bits are moving. We're good to get. There's no excuse not to have a craft, mate, So watch this space, Halves.
If I think you better come out of retirement. You could make you first. You could make your first Olympic team as a boxer, I mean, as a legit. Why not. We just need to fix that nerve impingement you've got going on and stop throwing up for a bit. John might help. I made. I could talk to you for days, but we don't have the time and people have probably got shit to do. But I so love talking to you. I appreciate you. Know you're a natural at this. You
know that. But you're such good talent, as we say in media, like, you're such good talent. It's such a fun, dude, You're so real and authentic. And as I said to you before we started rolling, we don't do any interview. We just have a chat, and you definitely are great at that. So one, I appreciate you and thank you. But two, how do people connect with you and find you and get you to come to their company for an obscene amount of money and inspire the masses?
Well, my dad is bloody awesome. Firstly, thanks for having me, mate, I really I know you've got a full book. You've got a shitload of really talented people. You've got access to incredible people, and I'm really grateful for a chance, just like I was when I had the opportunity to have a chat with Tiff. I'm really grateful to like you, be surrounded by good people. It's an awesome space to be in. My old man said to me when I was young. My dam madam, what you do? Just keep
it simple. So my website is my name, all the ws don elgin dot com dot au and all my contact details are on there. JT takes care of business for me. That is, Seriously. The easiest way to get me is straight on my website.
You're a gun, all right, mate? Well say goodbye. Affair. But for the moment Superstar start shooting motherfucker, and you know, get yourself, get yourself in the zone sun because I'll be cheering your motherfucker.
I can see that new T shirt I got Legli and Donnie and he started shooting motherfucker.
That's right. That's going to be probably on new motto and you can I'll take ten percent royalties. I bet if you got that on a T shirt, start shooting motherfucker with your name just underneath and sell like hotcakes.
We're not going to die on wondering. Keep an eye on eBay next week, mate, we'll have another website.
All right, mate, we'll say goodbye Affair, but for now, thanks buddy, right to mate, Take care bye