Kaleidoscope Kids
Get ready to step into the world of Kaleidoscope Kids! — the podcast series that sparks language learning, empathy, and cultural immersion.
Kaleidoscope Kids
Episode 25: Olympic Games
On this episode of Kaleidoscope Kids, you'll hear from various people chatting about the Olympic Games.
2:22 Global Voices
Hear from Mr Cameron an IGS Science Teacher and Olympian, at the 1996 Atlanta Olympic Games.
9:37 Community Connections
People from the IGS Community talk about their favourite moments from the Olympic Games.
13:05 Cultural Exchange
Listen to the history of the Olympic Games.
14:03 Global Voices
Hear from Mr Rosandic, who IGS students interview about his involvement with sailing.
17:44 Community Connections
IGS student Gabriel chats about his recent win in a local fencing competition.
Kaleidoscope Kids is a podcast created by students at the International Grammar School in Sydney, Australia. If you would like to take part in our podcast, please email us at kimberleyl@igssyd.nsw.edu.au
Kaleidoscope Kids Kaleidoscope Kids Kaleidoscope Kaleidoscope, kaleidoscope Kids. Kaleidoscope Kids Kaleidoscope Kids. Kaleidoscope, kaleidoscope, kaleidoscope Kids. Ah, welcome to Kaleidoscope Kids. We're talking about the Olympic Games. Every four years, the Olympic Games are held in different cities around the world. This year, they are in Paris, france. Hi, my name is Ryder. I'm a proud Kamaluri girl. Hi, my name is Akira. I'm a proud Kamaluri girl. Before we get started, we want to acknowledge the Gaggle people of the country.
Speaker 2:Oh, Gajo Woo.
Speaker 3:Banamari.
Speaker 2:Yeah, gajo Banamari. Gajo Gajo Gajo Banamari. Gajo Gajo Gajo Banamari. Gajo Gajo Gajo Banamari.
Speaker 4:At IGS we acknowledge the First Nations peoples of Australia.
Speaker 1:We acknowledge the strong, resilient and ingenious Gadigals. They transmit culture, history and songs for generations.
Speaker 4:They have always been connected with the country. They have raised the land, water and sky.
Speaker 5:We are proud of Gadigal and the people, the land, the water and the sky. We are all of the same.
Speaker 1:At the Fess and Lantig. We are all trying to find the perspectives to be re-enacted From the most ancient cultures still existing today in the world Baranian, yagu, baraboo, aboriginal Vanuatu this always was and always will be Aboriginal land.
Speaker 2:Aboriginal land.
Speaker 1:Alkira, who's your favourite Olympian? Jessica Fox. She won two gold medals and she's a great canoeist. Hey, ryder, do you know there's an Olympian teacher at the school? Really yes, mr Cameron, he competed in rowing Great. Let's ask him some questions about the Olympics.
Speaker 4:What was your first rowing competition like?
Speaker 6:My first competition, I think, was on the Clarence River in McLean, which is where I went to school. We raced across the river at an area that was probably about 1,000 metres across and my recollection of that race was in a Gladstone. Skiff Now, these boats were big, heavy wooden things that needed about two people to carry them. Skiff Now, these boats were big, heavy wooden things that needed about two people to carry them. And racing across the river against some of my mates at school back to the boat shed was probably the first real competition I had. It was a far cry from racing at the Olympics and certainly the boats were nothing like what I raced at the top level, but it certainly gave me a taste of competition.
Speaker 4:How old were you when you started rowing?
Speaker 6:I started rowing at the age of about 11. I was in year six at McLean and I remember my sister was rowing and I went out in a speedboat with her coach one day and not really sort of thinking that I would actually have a row, he offered me a chance to hop in a single skull and I rode the boat about probably about three kilometers back to the boat shed. It was a glassy day, beautiful day on the Clarets River, which is a really lovely place to trade, and it started me getting involved in rowing.
Speaker 4:What was your first rowing club?
Speaker 6:getting involved in rowing. What was your first rowing club? My first rowing club was McLean High School, but they used the boat shed of Lower Clarence Rowing Club. Now, eventually, when I left school, I went to the Institute of Sport in Canberra and I needed to become a member, or I needed to be a member of a rowing club. So I decided to stay a member of Lower Clarence Rowing Club, and it eventually turned out that that was the club that I competed for at the Olympics. So it's very rare that a country athlete gets to compete at the Olympics for their home club. I hadn't actually been to the club for a few years by the time I competed, but I was a member of Lower Clarence Ryan Club, so that was my first club.
Speaker 4:What was it like the night before the Olympic Games?
Speaker 6:As a matter of fact, I don't really remember the night before my Olympic Games or my competition. I do remember quite a few things from the Olympics. One of the best memories I have was our opening ceremony. Now we were staying about an hour and a half away from the normal Olympic Village so we didn't actually go into the normal opening ceremony. Normal Olympic village so we didn't actually go into the normal opening ceremony. The Australian rowing team in 1996, we held our own little mini opening ceremony where we basically dressed up in our gear and then performed a whole heap of skits as if we were being part of a ceremony. It was hilarious, but it was very memorable and a lot of fun. So that was my sort of favourite memory from before the Olympics.
Speaker 1:How was it representing Australia?
Speaker 6:Representing Australia was an honour and I'd managed to do it a few times over the years in between 92 and 2000. And one of the greatest, I suppose, moments that I had representing Australia was in the sea final at the Olympics. Now, the best I could come was 13th, even if I broke a world record. The best position for me to come was 13th, or the only position for me to come was 13th. I rode down to the start, past the grandstands, and it was the only event on that afternoon, so I wasn't really expecting anyone to be there to watch.
Speaker 6:So I rode past the finish down to the start and as I rode past the finish I looked over my left shoulder and the grandstand was full and I stopped to wonder. I was like, well, who are they here to watch? Because the only event was mine and I thought, well, I better make it me. They're going to be here to watch me win and watch me come 13th. And that was probably one of the best moments, knowing that there were probably about 10,000 people there come to watch me come 13th. So that was pretty special.
Speaker 1:What were you feeling while you were competing?
Speaker 6:Rowing is a pretty tough sport, so what I was feeling was a pretty enormous level of pain. Now I suppose, to give you sort of some idea of what that means it's, you know rowing races tend to last about six or seven minutes and they take about sort of 240 strokes. Imagine if you were to lift a 40-kilo bag of something up to your shoulders from the ground 240 times in a row. That's kind of like the feeling that you'll have when you're in a rowing race. You very easily can not sort of stop being aware of your surroundings. You sort of need to sort of take yourself out of that pain and actually sort of see where you are in relation to your competition and steering and things like that. So there's all sorts of things that you feel, but I suppose it's dominated by that lactic acid pain.
Speaker 4:Where did your passion for rowing begin?
Speaker 6:Where did my passion for rowing begin? I think it was pretty clear that growing up on the Clarence River was a pretty lovely way of developing a passion for a sport. It's a pretty idyllic place to live. Now. One of the other things that sort of led my passion was the historical story that comes from up there, a gentleman by the name of Henry Searle who rode in about 1880 and became known as the Clarence Comet. Now, back in those days single sculling was a big sport in Australia and in fact more money was wagered on single skulls in every year than horse racing in Australia. So it was a huge sport.
Speaker 6:And he died over in the UK and on his way home or on the ship on the way home. And when he or his body arrived in Circular Quay there were more people came to greet him at Circular Quay than all the ships after World War I. So it was a pretty enormous crowd, especially given the time period that we're talking about. Now McLean, where he's buried, even these days, has a population of about 2,000 people. For his funeral there were 10,000 people in McLean. Now it turned out that I used to walk down to my school and pass his gravestone every day, and so I would, you know, pay homage to him and sort of say, you know, henry, I'll be a champion like you one day, and that sort of, I suppose, drove some of my passion as well.
Speaker 1:Did you ever imagine you would go to the Olympics?
Speaker 6:Did I ever imagine that I would go to the Olympics? Absolutely. I distinctly remember talking to my coach one day when I was in about I must have been in about year nine, and he said would you like to go to the Olympics one day? I said yeah, didn't really understand what the Olympics were, but I knew that it was something big and I knew that I wanted to row and so I said yes, absolutely. And when he told me that I definitely, definitely could, it sort of planted the seed in my mind and I always pictured myself at least once competing at Olympics. So I was pretty happy to fulfill that dream.
Speaker 4:Up. Next, we asked the IGS community about their Olympic Games highlights. What is your favorite Olympic event of all time?
Speaker 7:I think my favourite Olympic moment of all time would have to be Cathy Freeman winning the final back in 2000. The final back in 2000. That was an iconic moment in Olympic history for Australia, but also Indigenous people. It was an incredible moment. I was a teenager, so early teenage years, and I remember it so clearly and the feeling that I had during that moment so really, really cool.
Speaker 8:I would have to say back in 2000, when I was in year 10 watching the men's relay I think it was the 4x100 metres and we were behind and Ian Thorpe won it right at the last minute, beating the Americans. And, yeah, I'll never forget that moment and the celebration that those guys, including Michael Klim I know he was in the team that to me I will never forget. What a great moment.
Speaker 5:My favourite Olympic moment of all time was when the Aussie Boomers won bronze in the Tokyo 2020 Olympics.
Speaker 1:What has been your favorite sport to watch at the Paris Olympics?
Speaker 7:My favorite sport to watch in these current Olympic Games and all Olympic Games actually is the gymnastics. I used to be a gymnast and I just love watching what they're able to do these days compared to what I was doing and my teammates were doing 20. 22, 25 years ago. The sport has come a very, very long way and the types of skills and the performance is just insane. It's really so much more difficulty in the routines. It's just incredible to watch both the men's and the women's, and especially Simone Biles. She has just been incredible during these games and just such a joy to watch. So, yeah, my favourite sport to watch is the gymnastics.
Speaker 8:I always love watching the swimming, but I must say this year I've been getting into the athletics and I've loved watching the 100 metre sprints. So, so fast and it looks like some of the athletes are so far behind. And then you look at the times and it's like half a second, so definitely the 100 metre sprints. I also love the fact that the primary athletics carnival fell in the middle of the Olympics and so I got to watch all of the primary students run their races and run so fast. And then you go home and watch the athletes on the TV, which it just is, I think, looking like. It's a bit of a glimpse into the future seeing our primary kids running so quickly around the track. Maybe one day we'll have our own Olympian.
Speaker 5:I have really enjoyed watching the athletics and the swimming at the Paris Olympics this year.
Speaker 4:In the history of the modern Olympics, Australia has won 605 medals.
Speaker 1:In this year's Olympic Games, Australia has won 53 medals 18 gold, 19 silver and 16 bronze. Go Australia.
Speaker 4:Before the modern Olympics, we had the ancient Olympics. The ancient Olympics started in 776 BC and ended in 393 AD. Occurring every four years. It started from an ancient religion festival honoring Zeus, the king of the Greek gods In ancient Greece. Greece delayed making the army because people wanted to compete in the Olympics more. Eventually, the Persians were defeated in the Battle of Plateau. All three men were allowed to take part in the Olympics, from farmers to royalty. Back in the day, you would receive an olive wreath as a reward, because it represented peace and success. The Olympics started in Olympia, hence the name. Today we are interviewing Mr Rosenditch, who is the head of Bermal and French teacher at IGS and also a sailing competitor.
Speaker 2:Hello, how are you?
Speaker 4:Good, thank you you.
Speaker 2:Yeah, not bad. Thank you, I'm happy to have this chat with you.
Speaker 1:Should we start the interview?
Speaker 2:Yes, please.
Speaker 1:Okay, so how old were you when you started sailing?
Speaker 2:Oh, I was quite young, I think I was around six. Oh, I was quite young, I think I was around six, so this is a funny story. My dad took me on a very small boat which is called Opti, and he took me out of the club and we were sailing towards this huge, that swing mooring and he did a few turns around it and you can imagine how scary that was in the middle of the water. I was just like, wow, what is that? And then he said now you try. And I went into the boat and he disembarked himself. He sat on that swing mooring and he was bobbing around left and right and I was just so you know, daddy, daddy, no, I don't want to go without you. And he said you can do this. And it was one of those moments. You know it's either it breaks you or it makes you, and somehow it made me everything I am today what do you like about sailing the most?
Speaker 2:oh, wow, that's a good question. So what I like about sailing is that when you're on a boat, you see how you are depending on everything that's happening around you. You are depending on the sea state, you are depending on the wind strength, you are depending on the on the visibility, you are depending on your skills how to sail the fastest. You know speed you can, you adjust yourselves and you just go so the most. The best thing of all is just getting into that sync with the nature so have you won a gold medal in sailing I.
Speaker 2:I've never won a gold medal, but I've won many prizes. Like you know, I came to first place, but it wasn't a gold medal. We would get a little kind of a token or a bottle of our favorite drink or, you know, a painting or a picture, but I never won a gold medal itself.
Speaker 4:Who is your biggest sailing idol?
Speaker 2:Ooh, there are so many of them. I think Australian sailing team Olympic sailing team is just extraordinary and since I moved from overseas I learned so much more about sailing here.
Speaker 1:but still, my biggest sailing idol is my dad how did you feel when Australia won gold in in sailing Olympics?
Speaker 2:oh, it was fantastic. So I know for a fact that they are going to win a gold medal in a men's dinghy this year and last year in sorry, last year last Olympics in Tokyo, they also won a gold medal. And the second competitor was Croat, also from country where I come from, and I actually personally know Tonchi, and so I was very happy that we had gold, and silver, uh, lined up one after the other. That was like the best day of my life. I was cheering for both.
Speaker 4:Thank you for your time with the interview today.
Speaker 2:You are very welcome, thank you.
Speaker 4:Bye.
Speaker 2:Bye.
Speaker 4:Next up we have an IGS student who has just won a fencing competition.
Speaker 9:Hi Gabrielle. Thanks for joining us on Kaleidoscope Kids. Now you've just won a fencing competition.
Speaker 3:Yes, I did. I won my little local fencing competition just up in Dromoyne at Sydney. Sabre, funny enough.
Speaker 9:Excellent, so tell us how you got into fencing.
Speaker 3:Oh, fencing. And I go way back, way back to year five even it was. I went to a camp in year five at my local primary school and one of the activities they hosted there was fencing. I did really well in that activity and when the camp instructors came to me afterwards and said you did really well, have you considered doing fencing as a sport? I said no, I've never thought about it before. I didn't really know it was a sport. They recommended me some things and a couple of years later I decided well, in year seven I decided, hey, maybe this might be very interesting, I should give it a go. So I grabbed my best friend, carol, and we went to do fencing in its previous location up at Parramatta.
Speaker 3:Great, so you've been doing it for quite a few years yeah, quite a few years, though there was a obviously a break for COVID, um, but I mean continuously and what did you think of the fencing at the Olympics? Fencing at the Olympics. It was very, very intense. I don't think I could emulate any of those, even if I tried, but they were incredibly fast, incredibly strong, just like truly amazing fences.
Speaker 9:And would you consider trying out for the Australian team at the next Olympics?
Speaker 3:yeah, maybe if I got, if I like, got personal training and maybe participated in a few more high level um fencing tournaments.
Speaker 9:But at this moment, right now, if they were to host another olympics, um, no, not, not at this moment okay, and do you want to tell the audience anything about fencing or try and encourage some people to join or why they should join?
Speaker 3:Well, the thing about fencing is it's a very, very fast paced, like person to person sport. So if you're not very alert and reaction-based, you're not going to excel extremely in it. You can always get better, just practice, practice, practice. But it's very, very fast. So if you're not cut out for, say, short distance sprints, um or like um, for example, like swimming, swimming's probably very similar but those um have very similar athletic requirements. But for all it's for, despite my um physical incapabilities with those, I actually am very, very capable of fencing and I think it's very, very fun. I think that if you just give it a chance, maybe try out a couple times, go to an intro lesson. That if you just give it a chance, maybe try out a couple of times, go to an intro lesson you'll find you really enjoy it Because at the end of the day you get to. Well, for me, I get to live out my fantasy of night fights and stuff, just so long as I have a strong enough imagination.
Speaker 9:Excellent. Well, thank you so much for sharing with us your win and some information about Fancy. Well, thank you so much for sharing with us your win and some information about fencing well, thank you, it's been very nice bye-bye bye, thank you.