So you think you're a Winter Olympics expert? - The Sports Agents

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0:32This is a Global Player original podcast. He kicks back on the inside, Chris Hoy. He's driving to the line and he's won it. He's won the Kieran Olympic title. Six gold medals to Chris Hoy. So Chris Hoy gave us some of the best moments of the London 2012 Games, becoming Britain's most decorated Olympian with his sixth cycling gold.

0:57Mark Pougatch:But as many of you listening will know, two years ago, at just 47 years old, Chris was diagnosed with terminal prostate cancer and he was given between two and four years to live. And Chris being Chris, he's been using a lot of that time to talk about his experience and to raise money and awareness. Welcome to The Sports Agents.

1:24Mark Pougatch:the sports agents with gabby logan and mark chapman chris hoy welcome to the sports agents thank you how are you i'm doing all right i'm doing all right yeah it's um it's been a funny couple of years but i guess you kind of it changes your perception of everything it changes perspective and you learn to kind of live more in the moment and i think in that respect i'm doing really well um i've had a bit of tumble on the mountain bike which wasn't ideal but um apart from that yeah it's just yeah i think i was chatting to somebody else this morning and and you reflect on how much life has changed in the last two years but i think anybody that's gone through a serious health diagnosis i think would say the same that you you go through that initial period of acceptance or getting to the stage of acceptance and then and then you just get on with life because particularly if you've got young kids or you've got you know responsibilities um you just have to get on with it and and it's it's not easy but you find a way through and then once you do yeah you recognize that you're still in the same position none of us know what's going to happen in the future but yeah you make the most of the time that you have.

2:37Mark Pougatch:And we speak to you within the week that it was announced, I think it was last weekend, wasn't it, that there won't be a screening programme for all men for prostate cancer. This is something that you've worked hard behind the scenes for. And actually, you've said in your statements and interviews this week that it shouldn't be down to kind of, you know, your publicity for people to be aware of this and suggesting that for younger men, younger than the age of 50, if there's a familial link or, you know, there's a high risk factor that they should be notified that they might need to go and get a PSA.

3:11Mark Pougatch:Do you feel that decision could in any way be altered? Is there a way of that changing? Or do you think that's it now? And there isn't going to be this mandatory testing? There has to be some kind of consultation or reconsideration. It's a privilege to have this position that I do have a platform to talk about it and to raise awareness and to help other men to recognize that they should be checking out their risks themselves and hopefully you know i know that thousands of men have been in touch in the last two years to say that they hadn't considered um checking their psa level they did and i found out they have prostate cancer but they've caught it early enough to treat so i don't believe it should be down to individuals or people in the public eye but it is a privilege to have that opportunity so it's not that i'm saying i don't want to do it but i think it's there should be a process a standardized process that every every man over the age of 45 receives an email or a letter even even if it's as simple as to say here's a link click this link answer these three simple questions and assess your risk and if you're in the higher risk category if you have family history you know if your ethnicity is such that you're at higher risk then go and speak to your gp and just just to raise awareness of it because there's there's 10 000 men a year in the uk who are diagnosed of prostate cancer too late so you know it's yes of course the psa test we know it's not perfect but it is it's the best we have at the moment but it's a start isn't it chris it's a start is that and look you know if you do have a slightly abnormal or raised psa then you can begin the process of finding out whether that's just one of those things or whether you need to scan and exactly so on and so forth and and three years ago maybe four years ago i i demanded a psa test actually and yet two weeks ago because i'm now 52 a bowel cancer screening kit test just drops kit yeah kit just drops through my just drops through my door from the nhs which is which is brilliant when you get to this age they will do that every two years but there's a real difference there one i had to demand one i'll be honest with you i wasn't even aware that it was a thing until it and that's for men and women by the way because i got mine about three months ago and i had no idea this was a 52 year old thing that that happens at 52 so yeah so it does seem that you know to be able to just ask that as you say we're not saying give everybody the time with a clinician or anything it's just a simple go online and check yourself and i suppose there is also in this Chris the back kind of story of proactiveness with health I think we're all just going to have to kind of be more aware of being proactive with our with our health but that's something again that you know you need to guide people towards don't you and you talking as you have done undoubtedly and as you know you know the thousands of people that have been in touch with you does make people get up and do something it does and there was almost a sense that my talking about it in the public eye was causing more hassle if you like you know like all these men are coming in asking for PSA tests and most of them don't need it and some the reason that the screening committee is saying they're not going to implement a screening process is because they say the PSA tests can give false positives we could be end up treating men who don't need treatment and then they have the side effects of that or you know we could be causing stress and worry when often you know it's the high psa might not necessarily be cancer and it can but my my point is at least have that information and then you can monitor it you can keep an eye on it you don't have to go straight in and do something drastic but to me it seems ridiculous to say we're just going to sit and do nothing as we are just now because at the moment that means that 10 ,000 men a year will suddenly discover they have prostate cancer at a point that it's beyond any treatment.

7:08Mark Pougatch:That's the thing, the symptoms generally come too late, don't they? They do, and as an example, I've always been careful with my diet, with my health, I've looked after, I've been aware of, I thought I was aware of health issues, and my grandpa had prostate cancer, my dad's had it, so it's a family history, but even then, I was told, well, when you hit the age of 50 that's the and even then that's very young you start to become aware of it maybe maybe go and speak to your doctor then i had no idea that you could get it earlier than 50 and not just that that there wouldn't be any symptoms you'd have no warnings you know and then you the first thing you would know is it would have spread to your bones it would be secondary and at that point it's incurable so it's i think that the message is if if somebody who has had a lot of care and attention to their body, which was my tool for my job for so many years.

7:58If someone like me can miss it, anybody can miss it. And I think, you know, that's why campaigns like Paddy Power's World Darts Championship campaign is so important because it's a great demographic to get men talking, to get that conversation in the open. And, you know, have you had your PSA? Have you had your PSA? What is it? You know, or just have you gone online?

8:17Mark Pougatch:Just give us a bit more info on the campaign and what they're doing. Paddy Power sponsored the World Darts Championships for, this is a third year they've raised two million pounds for prostate cancer uk and more than that they've managed to get a significant number of men to assess their risk and to go online all you've got to do is google prostate cancer uk um risk checker and these three questions will pop up and it takes you 30 seconds if you're high risk you can then go to your gp and you can ask for more information it's that simple and it you think well it's great that there is a campaign that we are doing this independently but this should just be something that the government should be doing and and it would save thousands and thousands of lives you know 12 000 men a year in the uk die from prostate cancer so it's you know one every 45 minutes it's the most common cancer for men in the uk we need to do something about it and that's why you know i'm determined not just to to accept this decision and sort of shrug our shoulders we have to keep pushing and if that means we do it ourselves independently through campaigns then so be it but i think we need we need more you know of a coordinated planned approach but burying your head in the sand gets you nowhere i never thought that you could be age 47 straight in the deep end and and be facing what yeah the night the night before kenny had his prosectomy he did a big wap bike session And he came out of the gym and he said to me, I've never felt fitter.

9:40Mark Pougatch:I've never felt better. I can't believe I'm going in to have something so intrusive done to me tomorrow. And I won't feel better after it. You know, you expect because that's that's how insidious the symptoms are. And in that you can in every other way present as a well person. So, you know, it that's why, you know, it is something that you do have to have intervention earlier than you would like to. And is there any part of you over this last couple of years that wishes you hadn't gone public? Oh, I think, you know, it's difficult having young kids, even more difficult. I think it adds a different dimension to it.

10:16There's times when you feel like you want to hide a little bit. Maybe before the announcement, loads of doubt, loads of, you know, are we doing the right thing? And Sarah and I sat in a soul search for a long time. but we realized that we couldn't we're kind of our hand was forced initially a journalist was sniffing around and had heard sort of some part of the story and the concern was that they were then going to write something that was either inaccurate or whatever so we made an initial statement just saying i'm going through chemotherapy please give us a bit of space and privacy and then you know we decided look there's going to be something will come out at some stage so let's get in the front foot let's tell the accurate story and with it you then have the opportunity to do something positive with the charity ride and to raise awareness and in these moments through my whole cycling career and through my life no matter what challenge you're in you always try and find some kind of opportunity in in difficult situations or in change or whatever you think well there must be something here that we can we can pivot on you could find to use in a positive way and this was the first time in my life that i'd i'd ever struggled to find anything because how can you find anything positive in this situation but the one thing i came up with or we came up with was we can help other people so there can be a net positive effect if you can save two lives then then there's a net gain to this but if you can save a hundred or a thousand isn't that wonderful you have to find hope you have find positivity and that's the positivity was that we could you could make a difference how's

11:49Mark Pougatch:sarah as well because of course tied up in in everything your family was going through at the time was was her diagnosis of ms yes she's doing fine it was it was the final kick in the teeth where you think you couldn't be any lower you couldn't it couldn't get any worse and then to get that news literally a month or two after after my diagnosis it was that was the lowest point really but she has she's a she's an incredible human being as you know of course i'm going to say that but she is and she's i think she's with an earshot so i don't want to say too much but um we're still pushing on and we're still having fun we've got the house all decorated for christmas the kids are having fun so we're doing really well you know it's there's times when it's tough there's times when it's it's not tough at all and you forget about it it's not it's not like it was two years ago where you know you wake up in the morning and it's the first the first thing you think about is cancer and the last thing you think about is cancer before you go to bed it's not like that anymore it's there's there's days when you know you have bad days so it's not like i'm saying you just kind of you know just just pull yourself out of it everything's fine of course it's never going to be like that but there's times where you do have to try and do that and it's it's reminding yourself the discipline of not allowing yourself to to dwell in the pit for too long.

13:08There's times where you get, you're in the pit and you find yourself there and it's very hard to get out. But once you get out of it, you remind yourself that all we have is today and you make the most of every situation. It's not easy, but equally, I'm very grateful for many things. So yeah, we're doing well and we're looking forward to Christmas.

13:27Mark Pougatch:Has sport become more important to you than ever or is it different, your relationship with, I mean, I know the Tour de Four was about a mass bike ride and that's a place you're very comfortable and you were always or from your instagram and various things i'd seen you were always training even kind of post your incredible career exercise was important movement has that has that become even more important definitely definitely it's i think it's it's understanding the benefits that it gives you mentally and physically it's understanding that the exercise for for cancer patients is it's almost like a miracle drug you know there's there's studies that came out recently to show that it can extend your time to relax it can improve the efficacy of the cancer drugs exercise in so many ways can can benefit anybody but particularly cancer patients and that was another big driver behind the two to four and a number of people that attended and took part hadn't ridden bikes for for decades or hadn't done regular exercise and were you know going through their own cancer experience and decided do you know what i'm gonna i'm gonna take up cycling i'm gonna get back on my bike because i want to take part in this event i want to be part of it i want to contribute and and it's it's wonderful i've really i've been aside from just the physical and the mental um benefits of sport or exercise for me i've been bringing my friends together going out on bike rides so the social aspect of it and your friends and and the way that my teammates not just my teammates obviously other friends and family too but my teammates in particular have kind of rallied around and supported me and sarah as well it's been it's been wonderful but then at the other end of the scale will will you go to the world darts dressed as a smurf do you know i went for the first time last year yeah you gave luke the trophy i got to present the trophy it was wonderful yeah and i everybody that had been before told me you know i said i'm going to the darts they're like oh my how did you get a ticket to that's amazing oh you're so lucky oh it's the best event and you go and you suddenly understand why and it's like the all the best parts of a football crowd mixed with the best parts of a stag do mixed with you know it's just it's got everything and the drama of the sport and the tension and the you know it's the atmosphere is incredible and it was a real privilege yeah to be on stage to to present the trophy but there's a few so with this um you know the even bigger 180 campaign that paddy power are doing there's a few extra little fun things that are included so one person who's donated to the the prostate cancer uk fundraising efforts will be randomly picked and they get to come on stage right before the final in front of the full the full crowd and they're given nine darts and And if they can hit 180 or more, they win£180 ,000.

16:16Wow. Oh, my God. Could you imagine that if you're, you know...

16:19Mark Pougatch:And that's a random, just a random audience member. Because you're going to see the darts, they could be six pints deep. Yeah. And they've got eight darts and suddenly, you know, you could pay your mortgage off. Imagine the pressure of that. Wow. That is amazing. I just don't know if I could do that. Thank you, by the way, for sending us the 10 ,000th board. You're very welcome. Thank you. that's going to improve christmas no end basically 10 000 the first 10 000 people who donate to the charity fundraiser will receive a dartboard so it's it's i think it's a there's so many fun elements to the campaign and there is a serious message behind it but you know they've raised two million pounds in the last two years i think they're going to smash that this year every single 180 scored by any of the players there's a thousand pounds to the charity every nine dart finish £180 ,000 of which is split between a random member in the crowd the player themselves and Prostate Cancer UK And you're going to have great fun at Ali Pali We're going to have a brilliant time Did you say every time there's a nine darter they'll give money to prostate people?

17:24Every nine dart finish £180 ,000 so£60 ,000 to Prostate Cancer £60 ,000 to the player and£60 ,000 to a random member of the audience Oh my god So a random member of the audience can win£60 ,000 just for being there. Wow. That's why I'm turning up, just in case it's me. It'd be a great night. That's incredible. Brilliant. Have you ever thrown a 180, Chris? No. Right. Gabby? No. God, no. Have you? You must have done that.

17:53Mark Pougatch:That's why you've asked the question. No, no, it isn't. No, genuinely. I'd love to be able to say yes, but no. God, no. No. I used to have a dartboard on the back of my door in my bedroom at home with my parents. And when I left to go to uni, I took the dartboard with me and there was just this ring of holes where I'd missed the board entirely. So that gives you more of a clue as to how bad I am at darts. Well, for aesthetic reasons, I put ours on a wall a bit like yours behind you. And of course, when you miss, it blunts the arrow because it's hitting brick. So we're going through a lot of arrows.

18:26Mark Pougatch:Kenny's like, can we get one of those big things that you have in a pub? I went, no, because it looked like a pub. who's like trying to get, you know, those big kind of rims that go around them. Did you put it in the gabbertoir? The gabbertoir. We discovered last week, Chris, on the pod earlier this week, because obviously the cricket at the moment is in Brisbane at the Gabber, which is known as the gabbertoir. Then we discovered that when Gabby's kids were younger, their homework room was known as the gabbertoir. The gabbertoir. That conjures up all kinds of images. Doesn't it, really? It's another insight.

19:04The Sports Agents

19:08Mark Pougatch:Hey, it's your ceiling vent, so I'm dripping. Could be the rain, could be the upstairs bathroom. Yikes. You could hire the guy your neighbor recommended, but I'm pretty sure that's just his cousin. Do we know if he's licensed, or does he just stone a ladder? Listen to your home. Go with Thumbtack. Upload a photo or voice note and we'll diagnose your project and match you with the right pro for the job. Thumbtack. We know homes. Hire the right pro today. The Sports Agents. With Gabby Logan and Mark Chapman. You can donate to Prostate Cancer UK on the Darts of Destiny Just Giving page. So it's been a busy week on The Sports Agents.

19:53We spoke to The Athletic's Adam Crafton on everything that's going on in the States, ahead of the Men's World Cup in the summer and the draw that took place on Friday. First of all, it's kind of unprovable. You know, Rinaldo goes to the White House to try and get out of a red card. It just seems so ridiculous. And then within a few days, it's happened. And there is no evidence that the two things were linked. But if you are sitting in FIFA, you must surely have the awareness that this doesn't look great. There isn't anybody that I have talked to in football over the last week or so who doesn't seem to be absolutely...

20:32I mean, it might be slightly different for Gabby because she was with Roberto Martinez. I was going to say, he seemed fine with it. Yeah, but in the main, there's a real fury, actually, at what they've done here. and also joining us this week patrick muratoglu who has coached many of the world's best tennis players including serena williams she's re-entered the international tennis integrity agency's registered testing pool and she's posted saying i'm not coming back the wildfire is crazy what what's your gut feeling bearing in mind you just talk about she always wants a challenge do You think she's missing the challenge.

21:15What do you think? I mean, Serena, Serena. You know, there is only one in the history. She's been able to achieve things in the past that I thought and everybody would think are impossible. Winning a Grand Slam with 40 degrees fever the whole tournament. On the paper, it's impossible. She did it. I mean, she's 44 years old, which is very old for that sport. But on the other hand, she's in perfect shape. So I would say nothing's impossible for her. that's it for another week on the sports agents if you've been listening to this on the news agents feed just search for the sports agents to listen to those episodes in full you can find them on youtube global player or wherever you get your pods remember to hit subscribe or follow you can get in touch on the email the sports agents at global.com on social media or via the link in the show notes and we have new episodes every tuesday thursday and friday the sports agents with gabby logan and mark chapman

22:14This has been a Global Player original production.

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