Friends and family welcome home Australian Paris Olympics athletes as they arrive in Brisbane

ABC NEWS (Australia)

Olympic medallists and competitors touched down in Brisbane this afternoon to a rockstar welcome. Dozens of friends and family welcomed the contingent, which included swimming gold medallists Meg Harris and Kaylee Mckeown. Liz Gwynn caught up with historic bronze medallist Matt Denny.

Transcript

00:0026 competitives have just arrived in Brisbane.

00:04They arrived to a rock star welcome with family and friends here holding flowers and handmade

00:09signs.

00:10Nine of them Olympic medalists.

00:12Now with me is Matt Denny.

00:14He got bronze in discus.

00:16Now congratulations.

00:18Amazing effort.

00:19How does it feel to be home?

00:21Yeah, it's nice to be able to, I guess, come home to something that's a little bit more

00:26exciting than, I guess, mining dongers when we were doing quarantine after Tokyo.

00:30So it's definitely a great change.

00:32But I think, you know, we did the Qantas welcome home and Sydney as well, like just to kind

00:38of feel that support and energy from Australia and also just, you know, just supportive family

00:43groups that are, you know, really the soul behind all of this team.

00:48It's nice to just celebrate with them and actually feel that support, like the Olympic

00:51spirit is very, very strong.

00:52And I guess it's just nice to see that in person again, instead of looking at mining

00:58donger walls and just hoping that the quarantine ends.

01:03And now you're from a regional town south of Toowoomba.

01:07Talk to me about where the passion for athletics and discus came from.

01:11Where did you sort of become inspired by?

01:13Yeah.

01:14So when I was younger, like I was very sporty, like played a lot of different sports.

01:18But one of the main ones was rugby league.

01:20And then I was kind of doing athletics here and there.

01:23Got dead last in the state in grade six and seven.

01:25And then I thought either I stop doing this or I get a coach.

01:29I decided to get a coach and try it out and figure out how to actually do it properly.

01:33And then from there, I just kind of fell in love with it.

01:35And that went from last in the state to second in the country and then started winning nationals

01:40and then went to worlds and just kind of went from loving the training to loving competing

01:44on the big stage.

01:45And then here we are.

01:48And I could imagine it takes a lot of hours, a lot of early mornings and late nights.

01:52Talk to me about what's involved in that.

01:54Yeah.

01:55Look, it's a lot of repetition, a lot of monotony, but I think if you connect to what it truly

02:02means to you and what you want to actually achieve in it, it makes it a lot easier.

02:05But yeah, there's a lot of dedication.

02:07I mean, a lot of people say sacrifice, but I think if you're doing what you love, you're

02:10not really sacrificing anything.

02:12You're just making the decisions to make you better.

02:14So yeah, it's, you know, it's a lot of that.

02:16We spend a lot of time obsessing over the events and it's kind of just part of it.

02:21But you know, creating moments like this and, you know, being part of the best men's discus

02:26final ever and meddling in that and writing your name in the history books, it kind of

02:30makes it all very worth it.

02:32And Matt, do you hope that you might have inspired some young discus competitors for

02:37Australia?

02:38It's a sport that we have struggled in in the past.

02:40Do you think that that could be possible?

02:42Yeah, I definitely hope I'm not the first and last men's medalist in the men's discus

02:46for 126 years.

02:47So, you know, I got a lot of support messages and videos and seeing kids drawing circles

02:52in their backyard and throwing, whether it's plates or actual discuses, like for me, makes

02:58it so much more special to be able to, you know, for me, like, you know, sometimes it's

03:03hard to fathom, like I'm just throwing a plate a long way and, you know, just enjoying that.

03:10To see that gives people inspiration to enjoy what they're doing or try something new or

03:14just get out and be active and fit and stuff is, yeah, like it's pretty satisfying to have

03:20that effect on some people.

03:22So, yeah, I hope that it turns another Olympic medalist, maybe even Olympic gold medalist

03:26down the track.

03:27So, if that person's listening to this now, bring it back to me in 20 years and let me

03:32know that this was the interview that brought it there, so, yeah.

03:36Well, congratulations and welcome home.

03:37Thank you so much.

03:38Cheers, appreciate it.

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