‘It comes at you so ferociously’: Calling from the Olympics hot seat
The caller stands behind the desk above the crowd, headset on, hands clasped at his back, weight shifting nervously from left foot to right.
A picture of twitching tension – fiddling with his watch, smoothing his collar – Gerard Whateley seems to be channelling the 1500-metre runners warming up, which include Australia’s great track medal hope at these Olympics, Jessica Hull, who steps to the line for her semi-final inside the Stade de France.
Broadcaster Gerard Whateley at the media tribune in the Stade de France, from where he called Jessica Hull’s 1500m semi-final on Thursday.Credit: Eddie Jim
Whateley readies himself, too: bum down, binoculars up, breathing deeply to meet the moment.
He’s been studying for this – training – for six months, schooling himself for three hours each lunchtime (after hosting SEN radio) and three hours at night (after hosting AFL360 on Foxtel) – both of which graciously agreed to loan him to Nine, the owner of this masthead – then all day on Sundays.
He has cycled through every recent Olympics and World Championships – from Rio to London, Doha to Tokyo, Eugene to Budapest – watching every event, in order, to get the storylines right, then feeding copious notes into a “superdoc” filled with medal counts, historic quirks and name pronunciations.
“Some countries are phonetic, and some are not,” he says. “I wouldn’t pretend I’m going at 100 per cent, but I’m doing the absolute best I can.”
‘If Jessica Hull wins, I’ll make the case that this is the best medal the Australians have won in Paris’
Gerard Whateley
Like a footy player who carries a Sherrin (or a Steeden) wherever he goes, Whateley deposits his research around the house in piles to read before watching the footy on the couch, eating dinner in the kitchen, or going to sleep in bed. He brought it all to Paris.
“When I went to pack my suitcase,” he says, “I didn’t have any room for clothes.”
In truth, he started preparing for this moment a long time ago.
“The genesis of everything for me is sitting at the footy with Dad, as a kid, probably seven, and Dad said: ‘Imagine if they paid you to be here.’ And I never asked him why he said it, but I can absolutely place that as the kernel of everything I’ve wanted to do.”
Jessica Hull is on the brink of becoming Australia’s first middle-distance Olympic medal winner since 1968. Credit: Eddie Jim
When he was 12, he had a toy billiard table and would roll the balls down the kitchen bench, assigning a favourite horse to each colour and then calling the “race” between them. Black was Better Loosen Up. Red was Vo Rogue. Green was Stylish Century. They’d clatter onto the floor, and he’d pick them up and start again.
Whateley is now Australia’s pre-eminent sports broadcaster, calling the Ashes, World Cups, Super Bowls and grand finals. But it’s still hard, no matter how extensive his crib notes, no matter how deeply he dives.
“The first day here, it comes at you so ferociously,” he says. “It shocked me a bit.”
As Hull warms into her run tonight, and relies on her training, so too does Whateley settle into his own rhythm, leaning on his research bedrock. It sounds like homework; it’s the part he loves most.
“I’ve always watched athletics at the Olympics, and sometimes you understand what’s going on, sometimes you’re told what’s going on, but to know what’s going on?” he asks, raising an eyebrow. “When the quality of the racing is at its best, and the prize is the biggest – when it’s for all the marbles – that’s intoxicating.”
Calling the 100-metre final was like that. There was a “crackle” in the stadium beforehand. “And there was a nervousness around the media area,” he adds. “I reckon we would have made a fascinating therapy session.”
But we’re here to talk about the women’s 1500m. Whateley has watched Hull improve and improve, and her reputation transform around the world. First, she was in the mix. Then, a medal chance. Now, the best medal chance outside Kenya and Ethiopia.
“That’s not jingoism. That’s not optimism. That’s the international view of her,” says Whateley.
Should she win a medal, it will be the first middle-distance hardware won by an Australian since 1968. Australia has never won a medal in the women’s 1500m, and in the men’s 1500m, those who have are athletic royalty: Edwin Flack, John Landy and Herb Elliott.
“If she wins a medal here, I’ll make the case all day long that this is the best medal the Australians have won in Paris,” Whateley says. “Doesn’t matter what colour.”
‘Framing the moment’
As this dress rehearsal semi-final race warms up, Hull sits perfectly positioned behind the leader, ready to kick, and her legs and lungs must be burning while Whateley is building. He’s also asking (and answering) his own questions.
“Who’s where? What’s the strategy at play? Is Jess well positioned? How fast are they going? Picking out the likely dangers when they loom.”
Hull finishes second, cruising into the final, which will be the last individual athletic event of the 2024 Olympics. I wonder what makes a great call – that which American sportscaster Jim Nantz termed “framing the moment”?
Whateley’s acutely aware of his platform to create a soundtrack that will live on in the archives, but it’s not a terribly helpful way to think. “I love that stuff,” he says, “but it’s not the job.”
The job is now narrowing the scope by asking one question: When Hull’s family and friends hear his call on Saturday at 8.15pm (Sunday, 4.15am AEST), what should it sound like?
That – and all the threads of what Hull is trying to achieve – will be most on his mind.
“But then it’s a race, and you have to give yourself over to the race, not impose yourself on the race,” Whateley says, smiling. “You’ve gotta let races guide you and see if you can punctuate them, or narrate them, or bring them to their finality as they resolve. We take you through a four-minute story and then tell you what it meant at the end.”
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