Star athletes to go head to head in TV battle
Samantha Lane
December 10, 2008
THE makers of the soon-to-be launched eight-part television series Australia's Greatest Athlete wouldn't say much at all to us yesterday. In fact they told us to wait until the launch.
But we can confidently predict that they will soon be pumping up what they will claim to be the most comprehensive sports celebrity series this country has ever seen. We can save the debate until afterwards.
Richmond's reigning best-and-fairest winner
Brett Deledio is the sole AFL representative among the eight combatants for the title (they are all male). The Tigers confirmed last night that Deledio was on the Gold Coast shooting this week and had received a short-term leave of absence from pre-season training with the club's full support. He is in fine sporting company — our mail is that cricket's
Andrew Symonds, the National Rugby League's
Billy Slater, rugby union's
Lote Tuqiri, V8 supercar champ
Jamie Whincup, Olympic gold medallist pole vaulter
Steve Hooker, soccer's
Joel Griffiths and ironman
Ky Hurst are the other contestants lined up.
The program will be pitched as a multi-discipline physical challenge aimed at determining Australia's best all-round sportsman. Who knows, if it's a success maybe a couple of sporting women will get a go.
Nine confirmed yesterday that it has the program pencilled in for Saturday afternoons and has Andrew Voss and Michael Slater pencilled in as hosts, and Australian cricket captain Ricky Ponting committed to a role as guest commentator as well as athlete motivator and interviewer.
Word is the athletes will undertake challenges in the disciplines of golf, cricket, basketball, shooting, and rock climbing, and complete 40-metre sprints, a mini ironman, take soccer penalty shootouts, bench press until they blow up and even attempt dune buggy racing. Symonds v Tuqiri on a dune buggy? The mind boggles. The title will be bestowed on the best performer overall.
No show for ArchieTHE pressure will be on 21-year-old Deledio who will fly the flag for his code and no doubt receive all sorts of grief from his peers at Richmond along the way. A crew from Australia's Greatest Athlete has been hanging around Tiger headquarters and filmed Deledio training and pumping muscle in the gym.
Melbourne Victory's Archie Thompson, meanwhile, had to turn down the opportunity due to his training and playing commitments.
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