The Missile has gone ballistic.
Fed up with Nine’s television presenters trying to whip up a fake war between the Australian and US swim teams, James Magnussen has taken aim at Today Show host Karl Stefanovic.
In a scathing commentary on the first episode of the Matty and the Missile in Paris podcast, Magnussen said Stefanovic’s recent public criticism of Michael Phelps was below the belt and had angered the Australian Olympic swim team heading to Paris.
“I can tell you from within the inner sanctum that they are furious about it,” Magnusson told his co-host Matty Johns.
“America doesn’t need more motivation heading into the Olympics. But above and beyond that, Matty, it’s disrespectful.”
Stefanovic tore into Phelps during a recent televised cross with Cate Campbell after the American Olympic legend responded to Campbell’s tongue-in-cheek sledging about the rivalry between the teams at the last world championships in Japan.
LISTEN: Matty Johns and James Magnussen team up for our brand new Olympic podcast Matty and the Missile in Paris
Although Campbell’s initial rant was more directed at US media and American supporters in the stands, not their swim team, Phelps said her comments would fire up the American team.
But Stefanovic raised the bar by laying into the American legend, which Magnussen said was poor form.
“You can imagine if we were sitting back here in Australia and an American pundit off a talk show just absolutely ripped into Ian Thorpe, called him a tosser, said that he needs to lay off the bongs, said that he won’t be watching the swimming, he’ll be watching SpongeBob SquarePants, said that he presents terribly, has a bad haircut, Looks like a dead shit basically,” Magnussen said.
“Americans don’t know who Karl Stefanovic is. They don’t know what tone he’s saying it in. They don’t understand the Today Show. They have never heard of Karl Stefanovic in their life.
“All they know is this guy on Australian television has absolutely ripped into a sporting icon to a guy that I believe is the greatest athlete of all time.
“I’m slightly biased because I come from swimming, but there’s an argument to be made that he is the greatest athlete of all time. He’s the greatest Olympian of all time.”
In the Today Show segment, Stefanovic’s rant was over the top and included a reference the scandal that surrounded a photo of Phelps inhaling from a marijuana pipe in 2009.
“Well he’s angry he doesn’t have a proper haircut,” he said. “Also, I just feel like he’s lost his personality. And they say that excessive bucket bombing does that to you.”
Stefanovic also urged Campbell to take another shot at the American team.
“Phelpsy’s just lost his personality hasn’t he? He’s just gone soft or something,” he said.
“He’s boring and he’s retired. I want to say this to you, you have our full backing. The country is behind you to not back down. We want you to go forward.
“I mean Phelpsy’s probably not going to watch the swimming. He’ll probably be watching SpongeBob SquarePants at three in the morning. You know what I mean, rather than be participating in all this.”
Stefanovic finished up by asking Campbell a prickly question: “So Cate, (what is) you’re absolute final message to that absolute tosser Michael Phelps?”
The rivalry between the Australian and American swim teams is as old as the Olympics itself, and is mostly nothing more than lighthearted fun, but things kicked off again last year over which country finished as number one at the world championships in Japan.
World Aquatics presented the US team with a trophy as the top country after they finished with the most medals overall but the Australians felt they deserved it because they won the most golds.
That triggered Campbell’s cheeky response about how the US are sore losers, but Magnusson said personal attacks from outsiders would make life harder for the Australian swimmers in Paris.
“I’m all for creating a stir, and I’m all for banter between athletes when it’s the athlete that then has to go and back it up,” Magnussen told Johns.
“So, for example, you know, in 2012, I had the famous line, ‘brace yourselves’, but guess who then has to go and back that up? I do. I’m the one that’s standing behind those words.
“To come from the sidelines, to come from the rafters and shoot down an icon of the country. An icon of the sport, an icon of the Olympics.
“It just felt disrespectful and the manner it was done to call him a tosser.
“That’s verbatim. Called him a tosser. That’s just not how you treat sporting greats.
“It’s not how you treat people in general, but certainly it’s not how you treat a legend of the Olympics.”
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