That countdown still resonates in my head, the feelings associated I will never forget. I can still hear Bill Harrigan clearly as if he were saying it now, as he counts us down to start the game. I’m so nervous. I’m shaking and can barely keep my anxiety and energy in check. But, I hide it well and it all dissipates as soon as the whistle blows and the competition starts. Now it is just the sheer will to win that keeps me going, clambering over obstacles, flying through the air, composing myself on the balance beam until I fly through the waterfall and fall to the mats, the show is over, I am the winner! It all seems like a dream to me now.
It all started with an advertisement on TV at about 11.30 one night back in 2007. It went something along the lines of...Gladiators is making a comeback. Come and try out at Albert Park in Melbourne this weekend if you think you have what it takes to beat the Gladiators. So, the seed was planted...
It was a crisp morning in Albert Park but at least the sun was shining. I turned up at 8.30am thinking I was really early, how I was wrong. I joined the line after hundreds of eager participants waiting for the inevitable. I was later told that 1,500 people tried out that morning in Melbourne and they were certainly an interesting lot. If I have one piece of advice I would like to pass on to anyone interested in trying out for a TV program, it would be to make sure you take plenty of food and water and a chair to sit on....it was quite a wait, I was not prepared.
After about 2 hours I finally made it inside the building to complete what seemed like a ream of paper the size of the Yellow Pages. It asked all sorts of questions like what medical history you have, what activities you are interested in, did you know anyone from the previous series of Gladiators 10 years ago....and the list goes on. We then had the pleasure of sitting inside for another hour or so before being called upstairs.
After about 2 hours I finally made it inside the building to complete what seemed like a ream of paper the size of the Yellow Pages. It asked all sorts of questions like what medical history you have, what activities you are interested in, did you know anyone from the previous series of Gladiators 10 years ago....and the list goes on. We then had the pleasure of sitting inside for another hour or so before being called upstairs.
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| The Wall |
Second exercise – Pull-ups
From my group of 50 that started the Burpees, only about 10 of us made it through to the second cut. This exercise was to jump up and hang on to a bar for 1 minute and complete as many strict pull-ups as possible without stopping or dropping off. I wasn’t sure whether I could even do a pull-up as the last time I think I did one was back when I was about 11 years old. When it was my turn to go I jumped up to the bar and the judge asked me if I was ready for him to start the clock...I instantly fell off. Apparently the bar was slippery. Oh well, thankfully he hadn’t started the clock and wiped the bar with paper towel to try and dry it. I took to the bar again and managed to do 8 pull-ups which now that I look back on it, isn’t very much at all, but enough to get me through to the next round.
First exercise - Burpees
I walked in with a group of 50 people which was soon to diminish very quickly. Our first exercise was a mass cull. It was Burpees! We were told we had to complete 100 burpees with perfect technique shown to us and that we must keep up with the count. If you didn’t reach 100, you were out. I’m not sure how many I ended up doing but I didn’t reach 100. When I basically collapsed midway through a Burpee and couldn’t stand because my quads had simply left my body to burn in the fire they had created, I thought I was eliminated...that my Gladiators journey had finished before it had even begun. Thankfully though, the test was not as strict as initially made out. I’m not sure what the numbers were in order to carry on through to the next round, but I obviously made the cut. A guy I later found out to be an ironman, was the only person in my group of 50 people to complete the 100 perfectly executed Burpees!
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| Powerball |
Second exercise – Pull-ups
From my group of 50 that started the Burpees, only about 10 of us made it through to the second cut. This exercise was to jump up and hang on to a bar for 1 minute and complete as many strict pull-ups as possible without stopping or dropping off. I wasn’t sure whether I could even do a pull-up as the last time I think I did one was back when I was about 11 years old. When it was my turn to go I jumped up to the bar and the judge asked me if I was ready for him to start the clock...I instantly fell off. Apparently the bar was slippery. Oh well, thankfully he hadn’t started the clock and wiped the bar with paper towel to try and dry it. I took to the bar again and managed to do 8 pull-ups which now that I look back on it, isn’t very much at all, but enough to get me through to the next round.
Third cut – Agility test
This exercise was awful. It started with lying on your stomach and once the whistle goes, jumping up and sprinting to the cone to the right, dropping to your chest, then popping up again and sprinting diagonally to the next cone and doing the same thing over and over again for all 10 cones. You then had to do double leg jumps over mini hurdles, touch a line, go back over the hurdles and come back through all 10 cones hitting your chest to the ground at every one. This exercise was excruciating. My heart was coming out of my chest, my legs were already numb from all the Burpees in the first exercise and I felt like I could rival Arnold Schwarzenegger with my arms after the pull-ups.
Fourth exercise – Combat, balance and strength
There were a number of exercises where we had to try and push the other person out of a square without moving your feet and/or knock them off balance using strength and what have been referred to as ‘giant cotton buds’.
Final exercise – Heights, instruction and safety
Final exercise – Heights, instruction and safety
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| The Pyramid |
This exercise was aimed to test your ability to listen to instruction, follow through with them and complete an exercise safely. We had to harness ourselves, lock into a safety rope, ask the instructor if we were able to climb the ladder, climb the ladder, balance on a balance beam and then ask the instructor if it was clear to then jump off the beam, then unharness ourselves.
Group interview
3 months later
Group interview
During all the previous exercises people had been eliminated for various reasons and I recognised only 1 from my initial group of 50. In the group interview about 12 of us sat around a leader who asked us a number of questions randomly. Presumably this was done in order to determine whether you could form a sentence in front of a group of people when nervous, how well you could speak English, whether you could look the person in the eye, how similar you were to previous contestants, etc. I imagine all of these to be an important component when filming live TV!
Individual interview
Individual interview
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| The Pendulam |
Once I reached this stage in the day it was about 6pm. I felt very alone, hungry and thirsty as most people had been eliminated prior and only a few of us remained in the room. This interview was quite daunting. I had to stand in front of a panel and answer a number of questions about myself, what I like to do, what my sporting background is, all under the bright lights of a photographer happily snapping away as i’m talking. After handing over my results for all the exercises i was promptly told I would receive an email as to whether I am going any further in the process.
3 months later
After about 3 months of no news, I had given up on Gladiators as I hadn’t heard or received an email from the producers. Then, in early December I finally received an email. “Congratulations, you have made it through to the next stage”. I was required to be in Sydney for a full week, the week before Christmas. This was insane!! I had no choice but to tell my work as there was no way they would allow me to take time off with such short notice at one of the busiest times of the year. Thankfully, they were incredibly supportive and encouraged me to continue on my Gladiators journey (oh and I didn’t lose my job either). I also told my family as it meant I would be away for my birthday as well.
Tryouts/training in Sydney
This week was a gruelling week of time trials, training in gymnastics, forward rolls, backward rolls, side rolls, being taken down via tackling, agility, safety, falling from heights, speaking, photos, climbing ropes and limited practice on the games. It was such a great week of activities, it was like being in Prep at school and having a few hours of gym every morning. I enjoyed every second of it. Out of the thousands and thousands of people who tried out for the show, they had culled us down to only 50. The challengers and substitutes were to be chosen from this final week of tryouts. 16 girls, 16 guys, 8 substitutes and the rest were going home. I, fortunately, was one of the lucky ones who received the phone call just before New Year’s Eve to tell me I would be a challenger on the program! That news just made my year!
Recording
Over the following months I travelled back and forth to Sydney from Melbourne to compete in my episodes. It was an elimination process, if you lost, you were out of the program and if you won, you went through to the next round. Every episode was as daunting as the one before. My nerves were always at their peak as I was competing in front of a live audience of 2,500 people, along with every movement being captured on film or picture, all with the dream of making it to the Grand Final.
All my competitors were equally if not more nervous than I and we shared some very anxious and funny moments backstage in the lead up to each episode. There was a lot of downtown when filming, so you really do get plenty of opportunity to get to know each other and build friendships. Surprisingly we were also very supportive of each other and a sort of rivalry with Challengers v. Gladiators was born. It seems crazy when you think about it really. As a Challenger, in the long run you are not competing against the Gladiators, they are there to just to beat you up and prevent you from getting points towards a head start in the Eliminator. Ultimately, in the end, it is Challenger v. Challenger. I loved being around all the other competitors as the majority of us were like minded people with similar interests. It was certainly a joy getting to know everyone and some of which I remain in contact with till this day.
The games I competed in over the episodes were:
· Pyramid
· Gauntlet
· Powerball
· Pendulum
· Hang Tough
· Sumoball
· Duel
· Suspension Bridge
· The Wall
· Whiplash
· Vertigo
Other than the Eliminator, I think my favourite game would have been Powerball. I loved the tackling and full contact and I got to display my speed and agility during the entire game. It is a shame we weren’t allowed to tackle the Gladiators really, that would have been a lot of fun! It did take me back to my AFL days though, that is probably why I enjoyed the game so much.
The final event of each episode though, the Eliminator, was by far the favourite and most terrifying event. It was just a great big obstacle course and race to the finish line. It started with jumping over a high hurdle, scrambling under the next, over and under again, rope climb, monkey bars, ladder climb, flying fox, balance beam and rope swing through the waterfall to finish. Whoever made it to the end first, won. All the games leading up to the Eliminator enabled you or your fellow challenger to score points, the number of points then translated to a few seconds head start on the Eliminator. All the pressure was on you for the Eliminator. It was do or die, win or lose, stay in the program or go home. I thrive on that pressure!
Hang Tough
Unfortunately we didn’t get to spend a lot of time with the Gladiators as we were kept separated off air. From my experiences with the Gladiators though I was very impressed with the athleticism of Nitro (Hayley Bateup), Olympia (Tatiana Grigorieva). Kouta (Anthony Koutoufidis) and Outlaw (Jackson Mullane). I found them to be the most versatile Gladiators, you could throw them into pretty much any game and they would have excelled, crushing their opponents. I also found them to be quite humble in victory and pleasant to deal with backstage.
All in all my time on Gladiators was certainly a memorable experience. Making it all the way into the Grand Final and winning the series certainly isn’t something I will forget too soon. There were so many variables with the show, that with one slip, miss hit, or second too late, I would have been sent packing. I feel very fortunate for having been on the show and I’m so grateful for the people I met. The insight into television, the new found belief in myself, and my unknown ability to remain and appear calm and relaxed under high pressure environments became apparent. I learnt a lot about myself during this experience. A sort of trust in myself and my goals were restored. It’s funny, I’m still somewhat shy about speaking to others about my experience on Gladiators. I get almost embarrassed. I wonder why people are so intrigued in my experience. But then again, who wouldn’t want to know what it was like to be a child again!
People often ask me whether I would do it again. Without hesitation my response is “of course I would!” If the show were to air again, I would take every opportunity I could get to be involved, whether as a Challenger, Gladiator or by some other means. Take every opportunity that comes your way, you may never get another!
I have attached a Youtube link for the Eliminator in the Grand Final... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CWDQNd3jVj4
Go Tash!!! You're awesome :)
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