XXVI OLYMPIC GAMES

August 2, 1996

Todd Woodbridge

Mark Woodforde

MARK WOODFORDE: Probably not allowed in doping. Don't want to taint our samples, as much as Tim Henman is telling me I'm going to fail. I think he wants that gold.

TODD WOODBRIDGE: I think it's pretty close to the same because I've never been involved in a winning Davis Cup Tournament and to do something for your country and win a gold for your country where the whole country is behind you and proud of you, that is fantastic. I know from sitting back watching the other athletes that have won medals so far these games the feeling is incredible.

MARK WOODFORDE: Wimbledon you're really playing for yourself and you're not sure with the time change, a whole lot of people are staying up and watching. It's focused but not as substantial as what I think the Olympics can handle, maintain, and you just know that everyone is watching, because Australia wants to get as many golds as possible. And just playing for your country is fantastic. We don't do it a whole lot throughout the year. So it's up there. It's hard at this stage to say whether it's even or better. But it's there.

TODD WOODBRIDGE: Right now it feels good.

MARK WOODFORDE: Yes, it's been for me like school camp, staying in the Village. There's always a lot happening and it's fun and I went to school camp when I was a young kid, and you're always having fun. There's so much to see and do, and I think even now probably given a couple of days to calm down from the high of winning and knowing that you've won a gold medal and it may take going back to Australia to receive some adulation away from people back there that have seen us play. I don't think I'm as skeptical as I was beginning the tournament. But obviously winning helps a great deal.

TODD WOODBRIDGE: Quite often. (Laughter.) It's a bit disappointing for an Olympics Game Final to have the crowd leave. That's pretty disappointing, especially when there's people wanting to get tickets. And you know that people are wanting to come and they go. So that's disappointing. But we had such a great support group they made up for it.

TODD WOODBRIDGE: We're paying them to go to our next Davis Cup title.

MARK WOODFORDE: That was the good job of Philippoussis, he's been my roommate the fortnight. We said going into the Dutch match, since he had a lot of time on his hands that maybe he could go out and get the swimmers to come out and support us, because we knew the Dutch guys with be there in force and they'd be vocal. And he said I'm doing it overnight, don't worry, Woodies.

MARK WOODFORDE: I think a majority of them were swimmers.

MARK WOODFORDE: Aussie swimmers, yeah.

TODD WOODBRIDGE: No one else is stupid enough to paint themselves green and gold. (Laughter.)

TODD WOODBRIDGE: The semifinal was about as intense a match as we've ever had together; my career, anyway. The pressure, the ups and downs, the highs and the lows, the disappointments in that one particular match far outweigh any other match I've ever played in. Today was harder, I felt. I struggled a little bit early because coming off of that match, coming into the final we were so glad to get through that it was hard to get focused again that you still had another match today to get the gold medal.

MARK WOODFORDE: Without taking anything away from the guys we played today, it was tough coming out against Jacco and Paul, because they've been our foes for the last few years. And you didn't want to think that you'd won the gold medal, because we'd beaten the toughest people we had to play. It was really hard to get out there today and put in an effort and maintain it. But once I think Todd settled down and I settled down it got a lot easier for us. And luckily it did. We didn't want to go through another long semifinal match.

MARK WOODFORDE: Probably what helped them is I think Broad has been working on the fitness part of his game. He seems to have improved that area and Tim is a young guy who's got a bright future ahead of him, coming off of a great Wimbledon result. I think both of them coming in are on a bit of a high. They won their Davis match as well, coming into here. That helped them. I wasn't totally surprised when they beat Connell and Nestor, a bit of youth and an old guy, which is similar to what Todd and I have, you know, goes a long ways. But in the end I think if it ever got tight, in a tight situation, we were hoping we were going to come out on top because we had been playing together a lot longer than what they had.

TODD WOODBRIDGE: We expect anything in the final. And I think that like Mark said, once we know that we can settle down and play the way we like to play, feel comfortable on the court, we feel like we're going to beat most teams in the world, even with the pressure of the Olympic final, we felt we could get through that; that sort of happened through the first set.

MARK WOODFORDE: I was saying we should get it inscribed on the back with our names on it.

TODD WOODBRIDGE: It's going to go well in a nice trophy cabinet, sit next to the Wimbledon ones.

MARK WOODFORDE: We're trying to focus on what we set out to do, without being bothered too much, without bothering too many other people.

MARK WOODFORDE: Visiting the Fox Theater.

TODD WOODBRIDGE: We might go to the Foster's Club, if we're allowed. And if I'm still allowed out.

MARK WOODFORDE: You're allowed out, but you have a tough time coming back in. (Laughter.)