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I just can’t believe how quickly the swimming program went at these Games. There was a lot of action going on and it just went so fast it was amazing. And I must say the Australian team did an incredible job with medals almost every single night - and for the first five nights of the event we had gold medals.

The woman’s team was just incredible, with Stephanie Rice’s form in the Individual Medley, Libby Trickett in the 100m butterfly and the swim of the meet for me being Leisel Jones in the 100m breaststroke. She is a very deserving gold medal winner and I’m just so thankful that she has finally got the gold.

The surprise for me was the woman’s 4x200m freestyle relay. Leading into the event if I had known the four girls who raced it were going to do so, I would have been surprised that they would win it. But now having seen them race I think they’re all incredible, they all swam well above themselves and deserve that world record and gold medal. It was one of the best surprises of the meet.

These Olympics for me will be remembered not only for the Australian girls’ results, but also the world records set and of course by  Michael Phelps. Him winning the eight gold medals makes it an Olympics to remember for a very long time. I think due to his diversity, quality of racing and ability to get world records, I believe he is one of the best athletes we have ever seen.

In terms of life at the Games, all of the talk beforehand about how the village was going to be and how the pollution was going to be seems to have disappeared. Everyone seems to have been performing very well and world records have been falling left, right and centre so I think we would have to say that that those things haven’tsn’t made a big difference.

One point I want to make is that I really think we are going to have to refer to this era as the “post-suit era”. I don’t believe that the suits are an unfair advantage as they are available to everyone across the board but I can understand the lack of acceptance by a lot of people who never got a chance to wear them, especially in their prime, I can understand their lack of acceptance of the suit.

However as it is readily available now I do think it is now part of swimming and they won’t be able to take it away now. And as it is across the board it is fair for the current crop of swimmers. I really think the better swimmer you are the more it seems to aid you, definitely. The only thing is, we simply cannot compare the times done before the suit to the times done now. Even the world record line in most races at this meet didn’t even get a “medal”. It’s amazing. Previous records are basically non-comparable to these days now. But that takes nothing away from medal performances. The medals won at this meet would have been won in the same way if the suit had have been there or not.

During the Games I have been very busy doing a lot of interviews about the racing. I certainly have seen a great deal of swimming this time around, and I kept busy sending a lot of Hero messages to my mates over there. But that doesn’t mean I miss being at the Games. My time was eight or so years ago and I am very happy in retirement. It’s a new crop of swimmers over there and it’s great to see the new guys taking it to the world and coming in with some great results.

I’m now looking forward to the watching the athletics and hopefully the Aussies will do well there. I will be cheering for Craig Mottram in the 5000m and all the other athletes. The cycling is also great, as has been the rowing. That’s just been fantastic. Plus, I’m interested in the diving, in particular Australia’s Matthew Mitchell who will be competing in the 3m springboard and the 10m platform events. I’ll be cheering for him, for sure.

On another note, I was so happy for Russell Mark who came fifth in the double trap shooting event. As a previous gold medal winner I know that he wasn’t even going to bother to try to qualify for the Games this, but his wife Lauryn was attempting to qualify so he thought he might as give it a try. Unfortunately Lauryn didn’t end up qualifying and missed out by one point, but Russell did! He’s done himself and Lauryn proud in getting through and doing as well as he did. He just missed a medal by three shots and I’m so happy for him.

I’m looking forward to a few things that I have coming up, including watching the Olympic Games and also the release of the new Samsung Omnia phone, but more on that later.

Recently Lauren and I attended the stage show ‘Wicked’. For those of you who don’t know it’s a look at what happened to the witches from ‘The Wizard of Oz’. I thought the writing and the play itself were amazing and it’s honestly the best stage show I have ever seen.

I believe it costs around $20 million to produce so a lot of cash has gone into it and it didn’t disappoint at all. I loved the flying monkeys; they were actually so close you could almost reach out and touch them.

The irony in it all was nearly six years ago to the day Lauren and I had our first date in that theatre watching ‘The Wizard of Oz’ in which both her parents, Bert and Patti Newton, were starring.

I also had the opportunity to see Patti in ‘Follies’ this week during a very short run and it’s always different to watch someone who you know perform; you have a bit of a vested interest in the play then.

I also did the opening of the ‘T Life’ store in Melbourne and that was great, as many of you know I’m a bit of a technology buff.

Which is why I am looking forward to heading to Sydney next week and having a play with the Samsung Omnia phone. Omnia is Latin for everything and believe me when I say this phone has it all.

I’m actually hoping Telstra picks it up ands I can get my hands on one. The phone has a full touch screen with a ‘Qwerty’ keyboard, Windows 6.1, full GPS and plays Div X files.

Simply put it is the phone you want!

With the Olympic Games fast approaching I am starting to follow what is happening in swimming a bit more and I noticed Gary Hall Jr. came out and talked about how easy it can be for athletes to obtain and use steroids.

The bottom line is I would be naïve to believe everyone is 100% clean, but having been as clean as they come in the sense that I never even took headache or cold tablets during my career, it would take the gloss off it to learn someone I swam against had been a steroid user.

We will never know how many people have used them, but it’s an issue which shouldn’t exist because ideally sport would be totally clean.

I was also disappointed to hear that China will not be allowing banners into the arenas. This was a great opportunity for China to show what a great event they could put on and they are taking away from it.

Some of my favourite memories are of colourful members of the crowd who waved flags and signs and to know that won’t happen in Beijing is a huge disappointment.

Matt

Anyone who knows me will tell you I love my soccer and I got to attend my first game in a long time when Italian club Juventus came to town to take on the Melbourne Victory at Telstra Dome.

I went to the game with a few guys from Samsung and was lucky enough to go on to the pitch before the game, which was an awesome feeling. When you haven’t been to a game live for a while it made me appreciate it that much more.

For the actual game I was amazed at seeing all the black and white of the Juve fans. It was like a Collingwood game, but I guess Melbourne has quite a large Italian community so it was no surprise to see the visitors get a load of support.

It actually felt like a real European match sitting there watching it. Unfortunately Juve didn’t have their full strength squad on the pitch, but it didn’t seem to matter as they went on to win the game comprehensively, although I remember thinking the scoreline didn’t reflect the game.

Outside of going to the soccer there have been more TV appearances for me. I will be on Wheel of Fortune this Friday, so look out for that. You can compare my game to that of my father in law Bert Newton who is on the show today.

I also filmed a show for the 7 Network entitled ‘The 1’. It’s a show about psychics. Basically they have a number of different psychics and give them challenges like showing them a personal item and seeing whom it belongs to.

They then whittle down the number of psychics until they get ‘The 1’.

While I was amazed at some of the things I saw that could not have been flukes in any way, shape or form, I remain highly sceptical of the industry.

Matt

I’ve recently shot an episode for a new Channel 9 game show named ‘Hole in the Wall’. The show is based on a similar Japanese game show called ‘Human Tetris’ and I believe it’s fairly popular over there.

Whether it will be a hit in Australia, I don’t know, but I certainly had a lot of fun when I was challenged to appear on it.

The show itself is a lot of fun and purely about people having a go and having a laugh at themselves, because to be honest you look quite silly dressed up in silver spandex suits.

The object of the game is to fit through, you guessed it, a hole in a wall so as you are not knocked into the pool behind you.

Basically there are two teams of three people competing against each other and they face a wall which moves towards them as it gets closer the person needs to fit into the shape of the wall to get points for their team.

The show is to be hosted by Jules Lund who I think was having a lot of fun watching some professional athletes struggle to do well on the show.

Outside of appearing on very strange TV shows, life is good with Lauren and Sam. I am really enjoying fatherhood.

Matt

It’s been a couple of weeks full of good times for me.

It began when Lauren and I attended the Melbourne premiere of Iron Man, but unfortunately there was no Robert Downey Jr in sight.

I think the mark of a good action movie is when both men and women enjoy it and this was certainly one of those. Both Lauren and I enjoyed it immensely and I can’t say enough good things about it.

The action sequences were done well and the special effects were great, but it was the performance of Downey Jr which elevated the film to a different level in my eyes.

It was actually quite funny; all the seats in the cinema had paper placed on them which read “reserved for Tony Stark’s guests.” A lot of people not knowing Tony Stark is Iron Man’s alter ego were wandering around wondering who Tony Stark was. After a bit of a chuckle I had to let them know they could sit wherever they wanted.

After that Lauren was working the Logies red carpet. It’s an event she really enjoys and I stayed home with Sam, getting him to watch his grandparents hand out the Gold Logie.

Then just last week came Mother’s Day. It was Lauren’s first so it was a special one and Sam helped me pick out a beautiful pendant for her to remember it by. My son must take after his mother who is great at choosing gifts.

Lauren, Patty and Sam actually took part in the Myer fashion parade a couple of days before Mother’s day. Being the cute baby he is, he managed to steal their thunder but I don’t think either of them minded.

It was a very enjoyable day as Lauren and both our mums were all spoilt and the day had a real party atmosphere.

As a result I am now really looking forward to my first Father’s day. I have something very interesting coming up soon so watch this space.

Matt