WINE CHATS: An interview with Olympians Elle Armit and Alice Williams

This week on the Nightly couch, we don’t have any wine but what we do have is something super special for you — an interview!

And not with mere humans or anything, but with Silver Medal winning Olympians, Elle Armit and Alice Williams, from the Waterpolo team Aussie Stingers. Please give them a big round of internet applause and let’s get stuck into it.

Billi: A huge mass congratulations on your incredible win. How do you feel? Like, what the hell? That’s amazing.

Alice: I think it’s definitely a “what the hell” for me. I don’t think I’ve really processed it entirely yet. Because it was just so intense, such high emotions all the time. The whole time we’ve been away, it was like ups and downs for eight months and even longer, you know?

So, I’m still coming down from it. Definitely.

Elle: Yeah, I agree. I don’t think I’ve processed it yet. I sent everything home with my family after the games and just went on a holiday and then came back and then I was like, oh yeah, that’s right.

Lyndsey: Oh right, that medal that I have. That most people will never, ever have.

Alice: I was the exact same. I’d sent my medal home with my family and it was just sitting on the table when I got home and I was like, wait, is that, like, I get to keep it? Oh, okay, sweet. So, like, it’s a thing that’s going to be around now in the house. It’s just weird. I can’t really explain it.

Billi: Do you have the medal? Is it there somewhere?

Alice: Oh, yeah, girl. Let’s do it.

Billi: I just want to see it. Oh, cute! In a sock?

Elle: Yeah, it has a sock. It comes in a big box. I didn’t want to bring the box.

Alice: Maybe if I put it in a different light, it’ll be gold. So let me try and find the right light.

Billi: Is it heavy?

Alice: Yeah, it’s super heavy. They’re pretty cool though. I think I get a little bit like, Oh wow, I did something, whenever I hold it because I don’t really get out and swing it around every day.

Lyndsey: I’m not a sports freak. I haven’t looked up you girls, your stats or anything. Is this your first Olympic medal?

Alice: Yes.

Elle: Yeah.

Lyndsey: That is even crazier then, right? It’s all new and exciting. That’s so cool.

Elle: Yeah, it’s pretty incredible. Aussie Stingers are known for being a top team throughout the history of the Olympics and starting with the first one, obviously, the girls won gold.

And then from there, it was just like, the standards were set. We’ve been trying to chase that ever since. And we got pretty damn close. But, yeah, Silver is just like…

Lyndsey: To me, that’s winning. That is winning.

Billi: Making it to the Olympics is winning. What you said, eight months of preparation… I, I’m not that human, I do not function that highly. I don’t understand people who can cope with that level of stress for that long. I don’t even know how you would come down off of that.

Alice: It’s definitely been an experience for me. This is my first Olympics. I did not know what I was getting myself into. We’ve had major competitions before, like the world championships that I’ve competed in. But nothing compares to the Olympics.

With all the athletes, the amount of people that watched us play as well. I’m used to playing at the Valley pool in Brisbane with my parents in the stands, you know, whereas this was like 20,000 people, plus everyone watching on TV.

It was overwhelming, but it’s just such a long period. Like you said, to be in such a high-stress state. For me, it was actually last week that I felt really sad and really flat because I was like, Oh my God, okay, now I can process all of the emotions that I’ve been feeling, but had to put to the side while I’m preparing for the Olympic games.

Billi: Elle, you almost didn’t make it to Paris. Can you tell us about that?

Elle: Yeah. So, I was still on the squad, but there were world champs in January of this year, they went to Doha. And I didn’t make that team.

So I was deselected for a couple of reasons. I spoke to the coach about it, and it really was a crossroads moment for me. I was absolutely devastated. I think I got too comfortable and it was a really big reality check.

I had to sit with it and think, am I actually going to go for this? Or am I just going to walk away right now? And it wasn’t an easy decision either. I grappled with it for a few weeks. I remember going to training with my QAS (Qld Academy of Sports) coach and just absolutely bawling my eyes saying, I can’t do this.

I can’t come here and train with the juniors while I know my teammates overseas are getting valuable experience. I have to work full time as well and do all of this and then expect to come back and make this Olympic team.

And, you know, it just took weeks of time with psychs and coaches and talking it out and making a plan that worked for me, for me to be like, okay, actually I can do this. I want to do this. This is something that I actually want. And so, when they gave me a second chance, I didn’t squander it at all.

Lyndsey: Did you have to try out again? How does that work?

Elle: So we’re in a squad the entire time, an Olympic squad.

So for tournaments, you get a team selected from that squad. Then when they came back from Doha, everyone came back into the squad. Then it was like a fresh type of thing where you went to America. I had to be chosen for this touring team to America for training games and training over there.

And that’s where I was selected. From that, I was selected for the Olympic team.

Billi: We will wrap up soon. I just wanted to ask you guys if anybody’s ever told you that you have medal-worthy feet?

Alice: Oh my God. Honestly, that is the best question I’ve ever been asked. Yes. The answer is yes. And it’s disgusting.

Elle: I get so many DM’s that are like “your feet deserve gold” or something, like, you get the gold medal for feet pics.

Alice: It’s mind-blowing. I get more feet requests than I do anything else. Like anything. It’s so bizarre.

Elle: Do you know what’s even weirder? There is this thing called WikiFeet. You’ll need to Google it after this. There is a page on there with me, with all my pictures from Instagram and people can rate your feet and there’s your shoe size and people can submit photos.

It’s weird. It’s so weird. Someone’s created this and they’ve just taken pictures off my Instagram where you can see my feet and put it on there.

I only found it by accident because one of my colleagues here at work was Googling me and he was like, hey, what’s this WikiFeet page? And I was like, sorry, what? So we’re all gathered around this computer and he’s showing us. But luckily, all my ratings are high.

Well, that took an interesting turn…

For the full interview with the girls, you can head over to winechatspodcast.com where things got real interesting as we offered them advice about how to monetize the love they receive on their feet, which is information everyone needs, no?

Thank you for joining us once again here on The Nightly and we hope you have a swell weekend!