Welcome to The Wrap, a weekly podcast covering women's sports news.
Bez, what have we got around the grounds this week?
The Aussie women have clean swept the slopes at the Aerial Skiing World Cup.
That was a tough one to come straight back into.
I've done many weeks off.
Tyler Wright has become the first woman to win surfing's pipeline twice
and the Hockey Roos make a dominant start to the year.
For the key story, we'll discuss the breakup of men's and women's golf
at the Australian Open and how this actually means there may be
more confidence in women's golf.
My name is Chloe Dalton.
I'm joined every week on the show by my co-host, Bez.
We had a little time off, a little bit longer than normal.
A little bit longer than normal.
I think everyone needed a bit longer than normal.
There's a few monumental occurrences in the last couple of months.
Obviously, Fred's first Christmas.
Fred's first Christmas.
Cookie had a zero birthday.
Yes, Bez's wife had a big, big zero birthday.
I like that we're avoiding which zero it is.
I almost said it and then I thought she was going to listen
and get me in trouble, so we're going to stick with zero birthday.
Producer Soph had a big trip overseas.
Producer Soph has been around the world.
Yeah, it's all been happening.
What was your Christmas period highlight?
We were quite excited about Fred's first Christmas.
He was probably like two months at that point for him to like
because Christmas is a big day in our family with our cousins.
I was very excited because he'd started smiling, so I was like,
oh, he's going to be charming everyone.
And literally all he did all day was stare at the ceiling fan.
Ceiling fans are very exciting for him at the moment.
They just go round and round and round and round.
But no, it was lovely.
Had a great trip to New Zealand.
Went down the coast with you guys for Cookie's birthday.
Wanted to live down in Jarvis Bay forever.
It was beautiful.
Hey, Soph's put together a survey.
It was included in the email that went out last week,
but I'll get Soph to put it in the show notes for this week.
We'd really love.
Your feedback, you guys that listen to the podcast week in,
week out, we'd really love to hear from you.
Or feel free to reply to an email or flick us a DM with any feedback
on what you love, what you don't love,
anything you want to see more of in 2025.
We're really keen to hear from you what you want
and to listen to our fans because that's what we're all about.
We are recording on Gadigal land.
Let's take a look around the grounds.
In winter sports,
Australia's four aerial skiers have asserted
world domination at the Aerial World Cup,
clean sweeping the podium to finish first,
second, third and fourth at the tournament.
Has any other country ever done that?
Let's go with no, because it's pretty amazing.
Like not even just the podium, getting fourth as well is crazy.
Aussie Laura Peel led the way,
taking the win with a score of 87.57 points.
That was, I don't know, hard to say numbers,
to claim a third win in a row.
So what's better than one podium finish?
Peel was flanked by her two Aussie teammates on the podium
with Danielle Scott finishing second on 86.31 points,
while Abby Wilcox was third with an 81.58 result.
To top things off, fellow Aussie Ellie Frigo finished in fourth place.
For those visual learners.
Are you a visual learner?
I'm kind of a weird mix of things.
Yeah, I don't really know, actually.
I should probably.
You're a dynamic combination.
You like spreadsheets.
I do like a spreadsheet.
Yeah, I think I'm a bit of both.
Visual learning for reinforcement.
Yeah, I like that.
For the visual learners,
aerials is a freestyle skiing discipline where athletes ski down a slope
to launch themselves off a vertically inclined ramp
and perform multiple twists and flips before landing on an inclined landing hill.
Laura Peel told media one to four is crazy.
I was saying to Danielle, we've been around for a long time,
but we still get firsts and that's really cool.
Meanwhile, also in the snow,
Aussie Brie Walker has won a second World Cup Monobob gold in Norway.
She's doing she's doing well.
Walker roared off with the time of 54.5 seconds to finish second in her first heat.
She was again second quickest in the following heat with a 54.58,
only to discover she had recorded exactly.
The same combined time of 149.14 as American Keisha loved to tie for World Cup gold.
Ties are weird, aren't they?
How do we feel about draws?
I don't like draws.
Play it off for a winner.
It was the first time in the history of World Cup Monobob racing.
And also someone meddled for the first time in cross country skiing.
While you're doing that little quick bit of research.
It doesn't sound like long,
but if you actually count out 54,
let's call it a minute.
Obviously she'd be upset if we added five and a half seconds to her time,
but 54 seconds is a long time going flat chat.
Down an ice tube of death.
That's got to be the longest 54 and a half seconds of your life,
It's really scary and it's not for me.
I'd be like, can this be over?
I'm going to go into some summer sport while you're researching that.
Yeah, because I'm taking longer than anticipated.
She's a bit scratchy.
We're all a bit rusty.
So Ashes, we can't talk about summer,
even though we were talking about winter,
but we are in summer.
I kind of envy those winter girls at the moment.
It's been really hot.
It's the humidity.
Anyway, we can't talk about summer sport without talking about the Ashes,
the Aussie women's cricket team completed an unprecedented multi-format series,
clean sweep, defeating England 16-0.
How many did England score?
Sorry, I was busy.
Couldn't you tell I was distracted?
That means they won three ODIs, three T20 games,
and the four-day test match.
That's me doing a broom.
You do a lot of sweeping at home?
It's awkward to get it in the camera.
Isn't that like witch sweeping?
That's what I think of.
Yeah, it's more witch than a domestic broom, isn't it?
I'm so sorry, listeners.
It's more witch than sweeping up the grass cuttings.
Which is my least favorite part about mowing the lawn.
In case you were wondering.
Are you going to give us an update?
It must be nice to have a lawn.
So I came to the rescue.
It was Rosie Fordham.
So she claimed world under 23 cross-country silver.
So first time an Aussie has ever meddled in a cross-country event.
That's wild cross-country skiing.
It's like walking on skis, but fast.
That's definitely how they would describe it.
So back to the cricket.
The series culminated in a historic,
historic test match at the MCG,
which saw attendance records broken and names quite literally etched into
It was the first test match,
women's test match at the MCG since 1949 on the field.
Australia dominated from the beginning with England only able to make a
total of 170 in their first innings when it was the Aussies turned about
Annabelle Sutherland stood up to the English attack and broke a 90 year
drought with a score of 163 from 258 balls.
Sutherland's century saw her become the very first female cricketer on the
MCG on a board for batting.
It was really cool, wasn't it?
But the Aussies were just getting started.
We could keep a Beth Mooney made an impressive 106 from 73 balls to become the first
Australian to claim centuries in all three formats of the game at international level.
And the second innings, Australia were once again too good.
They tore through the English batting lineup, bowling them all out for 148 and sealing the
Alana King claimed a five wicket hole, finishing with five for 53.
Alana King's hero is Shane Warne.
There's a great photo of her holding the ball up in front of the Shane Warne stand.
Despite Australian dominance, English bowler Sophie Eagleston also claimed a five wicket
hole of five for 143.
Only 90 more runs conceded.
Located in the change rooms of the home and away teams, the honor boards previously held
the names of just one female, Peggy Antonio, who claimed six for 49 in the very first
women's test match at the MCG back in 1935.
And now four more women have been added to the history of the game.
In a bit of football news, Melbourne City have continued their summer-long domination
in the Women's A-League, beating Newcastle 2-0 to extend their unbeaten run to 16 games.
That's pretty decent.
That's so impressive.
After a goalless opening half, Laura Hughes broke the deadlock in the 69th minute before
Holly McNamara sealed the win with five minutes.
Of regulation time, marking her fourth goal in just two games.
Is that the young kid who's come back from a couple of ACLs?
I believe so, yes.
Well done, Holly.
In basketball news, the Perth Lynx have bounced back from their latest loss to defeat the
Geelong Supercats 95-77.
Did I know Geelong were called the Supercats?
They are a new team.
They're a new team.
Because they were, yeah.
I just, I didn't realize what their moniker was.
What do you think a Supercat looks like?
We need that on the...
I want to know what the...
I want to know what the logo actually looks like.
Keep talking because we can't get too distracted.
It's not a cat like this, just meowing.
Is that your pick?
Steph Gorman and Mila Sowa combined for nine three-pointers while the team combined to
make 54% of shots from the field.
The Wynn sees the Lynx keep their second position on the podium heading into the final round
of the regular season.
Hey, shout out to the Sydney Flames as well.
My old team that I bench warmed for.
Finals for the first time in like seven seasons, I think it is.
They've had a lean trot.
They've had a long drought.
A lot of finals, but yeah, into the semis for the first time in years.
Hey, does the bench have your name on it where you like, or just a little bum indentation?
Yeah, I think just probably my sweat marks from not even from, from being exhausted,
just from being nervous in case I did get a call up to go on the call.
In hockey, the Hockey Roos have had a dominant start to the year, winning three of their
four matches at the FIH Pro League in Sydney.
The Aussies started their campaign.
With a 4-1 win over Spain with goals to Jade Smith, Penny Squibb, Courtney Schoenel and
Mariah Williams, but it was the second match of the tournament that they should be most
proud of beating Olympic silver medalist China in a penalty shootout and not to mention getting
revenge for their quarterfinal exit at the Paris games.
Oh, the heartbreak of that one was pretty rough.
Despite only winning one of their last 10 matches against China, the Hockey Roos got
off to a flyer, taking an early one nil lead before heading into the main break ahead to
With just a few minutes remaining, China leveled the scores off a penalty corner, sending the
game to a shootout.
Stepping into goal in just her second FIH Pro League shootout ever, WA's Alicia Power
She said, I didn't try to overcomplicate it.
I thought to myself, see the ball, stop the ball, as my mum would say.
That's some solid advice.
I'm here for that.
For Alicia's mum.
That's so good though.
High pressure, simple.
She saved four of China's five attempts.
The Hockey Roos kept up their home soil dominance, beating Spain three-wheeler in the next game,
but couldn't repeat their form against China, going down 3-1 in the final game of the event.
Hockey Roos Mariah Williams told the press, this is absolutely brilliant.
I love coming home and playing in front of my hometown.
Not only is it in my state, but in Australia, the country that we love playing in front
I'm super happy it's back here.
In some more summer sport catch up in the Iron Series.
21-year-old Lucy Derbyshire has upset the series favourite to take out the 2025 Iron
Woman Series Championship.
Derbyshire went into the final ski leg in the middle of the pack around fifth or sixth,
but managed to navigate the swell and chase down the lead pack.
It was all hit with a wave.
I hate that part about surf sport.
Oh, it's so unpredictable.
It's really brutal.
Neck and neck with two other competitors.
There was nothing separating them in the water, but it was Derbyshire who got over the top
of the wave, navigating all the way to shore to clinch.
In SailGP, a penalty has cost Team Australia a shot at victory at their home SailGP event
with arch rivals Great Britain taking top honours.
Bez is angry about that.
Australia had been the dominant team all weekend, blitzing their starts on Saturday and finishing
the six fleet races with results of third, second, first, first, third, third, and first
to be on 63 points ahead of Great Britain, who were behind on 51 points.
Like, you do six races, and then it comes down to one race at the end?
It's a bit weird, isn't it?
I hate that for SailGP.
But in the final race of the weekend, the chief umpire penalised Australia for being too close
to the Canadian boat just before the start line, which opened the door for Great Britain
to get a flying start and ultimately claim the race.
I mean, is it that different, though, to, like, a team sport where you go through the
pools and then quarters finals?
And you lose a grand final.
No, it's not any different at all.
But I still hate it for the guys on the weekend, because that is an amazing sport.
We need to go watch it live.
I haven't done that yet, and I'd love to.
I got a bit stuck watching it on telly at moments this weekend, and they had...
Before the Sydney leg started live, they were showing the replay of the Auckland leg, and
Auckland had, like, this massive...
Yeah, the huge grandstand.
Like, we need to put it...
I know, like, that's obviously the best part of the harbour where they hold it, but you've
got Shark Island there, and then there's nowhere else to really watch it unless you're in a
Shout out if anyone wants to donate a boat to TIFA.
We could do with it.
Permanently or just for the sale of GP?
Well, just for random events.
We need to go back down the south coast on the boat.
In some wheelchair rugby news, Australia's wheelchair rugby team, the Steelers, have
finished fourth at the Paro Championships in Japan, going down to Great Britain 59-56
in the bronze medal match.
Nothing could separate the two sides with the scores tied at quarter time.
In the second half, Great Britain's defensive pressure caused a number of key turnovers.
So, we're going to have to wait and see.
We're going to have to wait and see.
We're going to have to wait and see.
We're going to have to wait and see.
We're going to have to wait and see.
We're going to have to wait and see.
Gifting them a five-point lead.
A renewed third quarter saw the Steelers come back to take the lead at the end of the
third quarter, but it wasn't meant to be, with the Brits taking victory by just four
I feel like the Poms are getting all their revenge from our ashes drubbing.
Yes, that's what it feels like.
I wish you just stopped after cricket.
Cancel the events.
In some Red Bull news, staying on home soil, Canada's Gracie Hemstreet has made history
winning the first women's Red Bull hardline event in Tasmania after an incredible run
Four minutes and six seconds.
Red Bull hardline is hectic.
It's considered the world's hardest downhill mountain bike race.
The 2.3-kilometer course in Tassie includes a 75-foot canyon gap jump, more than a 10-meter
vertical drop, dusty berms, I don't know what a berm is, and a vertical elevation of 575
Do you know what a berm is?
Yeah, because we spoke about it when we were away on our trip.
The berm is that, like, mound.
Oh, so I just forgot.
It's effectively a...
The mound for the ocean that we...
Yeah, it's effectively a fancy word for a mound.
Dusty mound sounds better.
What happens if you miss the canyon gap jump?
That's what I want to know.
Is it full of squishy things underneath it?
You know, like foam?
Is it a foam pit?
Oh, like a foam pit?
Yes, it definitely is.
The course is deemed too dangerous, there you go, for amateur riders.
Even then, there is a testing.
There is a testing week ahead of the official for riders to decide if they will even compete.
It's a very impressive sport.
That's like, I cannot imagine the head noise if you have to go and decide after testing
if you're going to compete.
Just heading towards the 75-foot canyon jump and being like, oh, nah.
Despite missing two days of practice due to a tweaked back, Hemstreet handled the world's
most daring mountain bike course with confidence, leading her to be crowned the first ever women's
category champion.
In Pipeline in Hawaii, Pipe is for the girls.
The freaking girls.
Sophie's written here.
Last year, how could we ever forget that after the amazing final between Katie Simmers and
Molly Picklem, Katie Simmers may be yelled out something a little more X-rated.
Pipe is for the girls.
And this year, Pipe was for the Aussie girls because Australian surfer Tyler Wright beat
defending world champ Katie Simmers.
And defending Pipe champ Katie Simmers to win the first event on this year's World Surf
I spent a fair bit of time on Sunday morning watching this because it's a good time.
It is a good time.
Wright fought off 2023 world champ Caroline Marks and American Lakey Peterson to reach
And it was like, and again, we talk about the ocean in the Iron Series and getting cleaned
Like when you watch surfing, there can honestly be, there's genuinely lulls of kind of half
an hour in the surf and give or take whatever timing.
But there, the final just went flat.
Like the two of them just, they paddled into stuff and it just, I think there was a change
that the tide was changing.
It got a bit ruffled on the surface and I felt for them because they'd both been surfing
I think that's a technical term.
That's definitely what they say.
And yeah, they got to the final and it was like, they were kind of hyping it like the
new, new kid on the block versus the veteran.
And it just went, it was sad anyway.
So that's why it was a relatively low scoring final with Tyler beating Katie Simmers.
It was 7.7 to 3.94.
Simmers had a chance right at the end.
She pulled into one, but it pinched on her.
The win sees Wright becomes the first woman in history to win two career pipeline events
and sees her break her drought, having previously not won on tour since 2023.
So she didn't have a win at all in 2024, which is very unlike Tyler.
After winning, Wright told the press what made the difference in her performance.
The whole off season, I spent a lot of time just figuring out how to get the joy back
Last year, I was injured.
I was injured a lot more than I feel people thought.
This is such a special win.
It means so much.
So they literally all would jump because this, because the conditions were pretty ordinary
and they actually ended up competing on the last two days of the waiting period.
So they finished on Sunday, our time, Saturday, Hawaii time.
The UAE wave pool event starts on Friday.
So they all were literally like going to have to jump on a plane.
Yeah, it's a quick turnaround.
It's a really quick turnaround to Abu Dhabi.
There's a lot of controversy.
Tyler's family have kind of reposted things about how you're going to keep Tyler safe
in a country that homosexuality is illegal and Tyler openly travels with her wife.
It's a really, really delicate situation.
And I know Tyler put a post up this morning saying, great to be bringing this trophy home.
So I wonder if she's not going to Abu Dhabi.
Interesting, which would be a really big statement.
She obviously surfs with the Australian flag on Monday.
She's got the Australian flag on her shoulder and the pride flag on her left other shoulder.
And she's got a point.
It is illegal to be, you know, have a wife in that country.
So if she doesn't feel safe, then she's definitely within her rights to say, I'm not going.
Yeah, absolutely.
Interesting to see how that one plays out.
Chatting Asher's whitewash in today's episode, we had an interview.
I had an interview with Phoebe Litchfield, Aussie cricketer, and she is iconic.
Like she's just a young kid who's talented and she's got real personality about her.
I don't really think of her as a cricketer.
I think of her as a career option because you don't really do that at that age.
I wanted to work at like the sports store, you know, like I was just, I just love sport.
That episode will be dropping this Thursday.
So make sure you check it out.
Let's take a look at the key story.
Golf Australia has this week announced it will separate the men's and women's Australian
Open tournaments from 2025 onwards, scrapping the mixed format that has been in place the
last three years.
So since 2022, Australian Open men's and women's tournaments have been played at the same time
Two host courses.
What this means is that players in both tournaments played the same course in alternating groups
and from different tees.
And in 2022, it was quite groundbreaking.
You know, like it was a really progressive moment that they were playing concurrently.
And it was, and obviously it was down in the Mornington in that area where there's a thousand
million golf courses.
So it's, it's quite, from a logistics point of view, it's not too hard to have both tournaments
running at the same time.
Golf Australia, chief executive, James Sutherland told Golf.
Digest following our annual event review, which included discussions with key stakeholders.
Golf Australia has made the decision to separate the Australian Open men's and women's
The statement comes following backlash from men's and women's players over the condition of the
course at the 2024 Australian Open.
One of those players was world number six, Hannah Green, who said the pins had been made easier for
the men to cater for the women.
So she was kind of putting her hand up and saying, well, you've kind of adjusted this course to suit
Um, other changes to allow.
The mixed tournament included a reduced women's field with only 30 players.
That's the kicker for me.
I don't think that we should be reducing the field for the women.
I completely agree.
To allow it to be what is effectively in my speak, a double header.
Arguably the most prominent issue for women's players was the timing of the event.
The scheduling of the event in November placed it just three days after LPGA's tour championship
in Florida instead of its previous time slot in February.
That's, that's significantly different.
There's not many people that are going to be keen to jump on a plane from Florida to,
You're still coping with your jet lag three days later.
Speaking of jet lag.
This prompted world number one and former Australian open champion Nellie Corder to boycott the
tournament while those that did compete were arriving jet lagged like Minji Lee in 2024.
She said, I'm pretty tired, but it's always nice to be here.
I definitely think the beginning of the year works better personally.
It's nice to come in fresh rather than at the end of the year where it's the end of the LPGA
And you have one more event to finish the year.
What I do like about this situation is I know that Cam Smith was really vocal in a couple
of other men's players.
And I think sometimes the articles that I was reading, they kind of took center stage
of the article, but I think it's really important that the women, it sounds like in majority
That it wasn't the right thing rather than just being like, well, the men are complaining
about the course.
Let's take the women out.
They had potentially different, they had differently nuanced arguments.
But they also want it to change.
And I think we've talked about, we've spoken about this in different sports about double
headers and how we want, we know that women's sport can stand alone.
So this is a perfect example of that.
So the original decision to bring the two events together, and this was, you know, the
caveat here, it was post COVID, things were tough.
They hadn't actually competed for a few years.
So it was a financial viability decision originally.
There was concerns that women's event being standalone coming out of the pandemic was going
to push the financial constraints of Golf Australia.
But I love the fact that now they're like, actually, this women's event deserves, A,
deserves a spot on the calendar by itself and B, can stand alone.
And I think that's the way forward for sure.
Let's take a look at what to watch.
Australia have kicked off their Invictus Games campaign for 2025 in Canada, with Australia
competing every day until the closing ceremony this coming Sunday, the 16th, 11 Aussie women
As part of Team Australia Squad, you can catch the games live and free on 9GEM and on demand
Invictus Games gets some serious, like, big names.
Chris Martin and Katy Perry opening ceremony performances.
I didn't see that.
As we spoke about the Surf Abu Dhabi Pro, the World Tour will compete in the Middle
East for the first time in history this weekend as the tour heads to Abu Dhabi.
The action at the tour's first salt water wave pool begins at 7am this Friday, the 14th
And you can watch it live on the WCBS.
And because it's in a pool, there's no waiting for conditions.
I was actually listening to the commentary on the weekend at Pipe.
They were saying how when the wave pool almost becomes like, a lot of them call skateboarding
friends because they know what's coming.
They can actually plan a run.
Whereas when you're surfing a natural wave, you've got to see what's in front of you,
play what's in front of you.
But when it's a wave pool, those waves are the same every time.
And they can literally plan a run and say,
all right, I'm going to do it.
Sick stuff there and some really super stoked stuff there.
It's definitely your niche surfing, isn't it?
I like watching it.
In rugby league, the women's Indigenous All-Stars take on the women's Māori All-Stars this weekend.
The last time the two sides met, the Indigenous All-Stars secured a 26 to 4 win.
The match kicks off this Saturday, the 15th of February at Conbank Stadium.
In Sydney at 3.30pm AEDT.
And you can catch all the action live and free on the Nine Network.
A-League women's third place Adelaide will host Canberra United this Saturday with Canberra
hoping to clinch a victory that would see them move into the top six.
The match kicks off at 4.50pm AEDT on Saturday and you can watch it live on Paramount+.
In the WNBL, the Townsville Fire host the Perth Lynx in the final round of the regular WNBL season
with both teams looking to secure second place on the table.
And a home court advantage for the semi-finals.
That's important, that home court, isn't it?
The match tips off at 2pm this Sunday, the 16th of Feb and you can watch all the action
live and free across the Nine Network.
That felt long and rusty, but I had fun.
That's all that matters.
We will get there.
See you next week.