The ABC Grandstand Team in Beijing
Gerry Collins
The Beijing Games will be the sixth Olympics for ABC Radio's swimming commentator, Gerry Collins. His major Games swimming coverage started at the 1986 Commonwealth Games and he has been in the same role at each Commonwealth and Olympic Games since. He has also been to five World Swimming Championships.
He has broadcast 17 Australian Olympic gold medal wins, including Duncan Armstrong's sensational win in Seoul in 1988, Kieren Perkins' dramatic gold medal in Atlanta and the extraordinary achievements of Ian Thorpe in Sydney and Athens.
As a rugby commentator he has covered three Rugby World Cups, including broadcasting Australia's win in the 1999 final in Wales. Gerry is also a regular rugby league and cricket commentator as well as being an occasional host of Grandstand.
He is a regular swimmer himself and enjoys surfing and attempting to master the French language.
Caroline Davison
Beijing will be Caroline's fifth Olympic Games. She started her Olympic journey at Barcelona in 1992 and since then has been to Atlanta, the Sydney Games and Athens. At each of the Games she has comprehensively covered the gymnastics competition - artistic, rhythmic and trampolining - as well as reporting on several other sports.
In Beijing Caroline will once again commentate on gymnastics, report on a variety of other events, and also be involved in the production of the broadcasts.
She has been to five Commonwealth Games – the first being in Auckland in 1990 and the most recent in Melbourne.
During the summer months Caroline is the executive producer of the Test Cricket coverage, and co-ordinates Grandstand, while in the winter months she produces the Rugby League programs.
Tim Gavel
Tim Gavel has been a member of the ABC's Olympic commentary team at four Olympic Games. His first was in 1992 in Barcelona where he called a range of sports including diving and greco roman wrestling.
In 2000 Tim called the rowing with Neville Oliver. He called the rowing and the canoe/kayaking in Athens with Olympic gold medalist Peter Antonie.
Over the course of a 20-year career with the ABC, Tim has called a range of sports including hockey, track and field and basketball.
Tim is based in Canberra where he calls rugby league and rugby union for the ABC.
Tim has twice been named ABC sports broadcaster of the year.
Tracey Holmes
Tracey Holmes will bring a unique perspective to ABC Grandstand's coverage of the Beijing Games, drawing on her experience living in China.
While in the host nation for the 2008 Games, Tracey was a persenter on China Central Television.
She is no stranger to the Olympic movement. Beijing will be Tracey's seventh Olympic Games. Since Barcelona in 1992 she has covered four summer and two winter Games.
In the lead-up to the Sydney Games in 2000, Tracey was the spokeswoman for the organising committee SOCOG.
Quentin Hull
Quentin's voice is well-known across the country as one of the ABC's most versatile commentators. Born is the sporting heartland of Wagga Wagga in southern New South Wales, he is regularly heard as a part of Grandstand's coverage of AFL and the rugby codes.
In summer he broadcasts cricket and Australian Open tennis and has twice been invited to work on BBC Radio's coverage of Wimbledon. International football and golf are among numerous other sports he has broadcast on radio and he has also worked for ABC TV commentating tennis, lawn bowls and hockey.
This will be Quentin's first Olympic Games coverage for ABC Radio after he formed a part of the broadcast team at the 2006 Commonwealth Games in Melbourne. Quentin is the current holder of the ABC Local Radio award for Sports Broadcaster of the Year.
Charlie King
Charlie King is more than just an ABC Grandstand presenter - in the Northern Territory he is an icon.
Charlie has lived in Darwin since 1966 and has been the voice of Grandstand in the Territory since 1994.
Born in Alice Springs, Charlie describes himself as an Irish-Scottish-Gurindji man.
On Grandstand, he ranges across sports as varied as Australian rules football, rugby union and the annual Finke desert race.
Charlie has been a regular part of the Grandstand team at major sporting events in recent years.
Away from the microphone he has been recognised for his work to improve the lives of indigenous people in the Territory.
Glenn Mitchell
Glenn Mitchell is known to sports fans around Australia as Jim Maxwell's partner as the voice of cricket on ABC Grandstand.
Glenn is also a key part of the Grandstand AFL team, calling matches in both the AFL and WAFL in Perth.
Beijing will be Glenn's fourth Olympics. Cycling is his Olympic speciality, and Glenn has called seven Australian gold medals in the sport.
He has also worked with ABC TV, calling the track and field on the ABC's coverage of the 1996 and 2000 Paralympic Games.
Glenn is married to fellow ABC sports presenter, Karen Tighe.
Drew Morphett
Beijing will be the fifth Olympic Games for Drew Morphett.
His first Games experience was Los Angeles 1984 with ABC Radio. Drew covered cycling as a result of a television programme he had been involved with called "Flashing Pedals".
While making that series for TV, he got to know the core of the Australian team that went to LA and went on to win the gold medal in the teams pursuit. It was Australia's first gold at those Games (beating Jon Sieben by a couple of hours) and they beat the US in the gold medal ride-off - still an all-time highlight of Drew's broadcasting career.
Drew worked at the Seven Network for 13 years and, in that time, went to three Olympics – Barcelona, Atlanta, and Sydney.
In Barcelona in 1992, he called Kathy Watt's gold medal in the women's road race. In Atlanta in 1996, Drew covered diving with former Olympian Steve Foley and cycling with Tour de France hero Phil Anderson. Sydney in 2000 took Drew back to his city of birth where he covered diving and synchronised diving.
Beijing will again cut across Drew's usual winter pastime – calling AFL football. He's been doing that for more than 30 years. As well as football, Drew has covered many sports including cricket, golf, tennis, horse racing in a career which has taken him from Sydney to Perth and now Melbourne, where he has lived for the past 34 years.
Drew will be at the Hockey in Beijing where the Kookaburras are the reigning gold medallists.
David Morrow
David Morrow has been broadcasting sport for most of the past 37 years having commenced his career in Kempsey in 1971. After attending Sydney University and spending his formative years in the bush, David joined the ABC's sports department in 1981.
David has called almost every Olympic sport either on television or radio and has been part of the ABC's Olympic team since the Los Angeles Games in 1984.
David has primarily described the athletics, football (soccer) and weightlifting while also presenting the ABC's extensive Olympics coverage.
His greatest Olympic broadcasting highlights have been covering Dean Lukin's weightlifting victory in Los Angeles, Florence Griffith-Joiner's amazing performance in the 200 metres in Seoul, Hicham El Guerrouj's breakthrough gold medal in the 1,500 metres in Athens and Nigeria's fairytale football gold medal in Atlanta.
David has won awards for broadcasting excellence for horseracing, harness racing, rugby league and cricket while he was awarded an OAM for services to sport and the media in 2005.
Simone Thurtell
Simone started her career working in television news and sport and it wasn't until the 2000 Sydney Olympic Games that she turned her hand to radio. After initially accepting an off-air support role with the ABC Olympic commentary team, she scored an ultimate highlight when the opportunity to call the women’s beach volleyball gold medal was presented to her. It still gives Simone chills to think of calling Kerrie Pottharst and Natalie Cook to victory.
After Sydney, Simone became a full-time member of the Grandstand team and has since worked on the 2002 Manchester Commonwealth Games, the 2004 Athens Olympic Games and the 2006 Melbourne Commonwealth Games, where she experienced another magic night when she co-hosted the opening ceremony.
Simone is currently working as a drive presenter at ABC Newcastle but is thrilled to be back as part of the Grandstand broadcast team, helping to bring the ABC's audience international sporting excellence.
Karen Tighe
After starting her sports broadcasting career with ABC TV, Karen moved to Grandstand in 1997 to present the programme's national show.
She co-hosted the ABC's coverage of both the Sydney and Athens Olympics and the Commonwealth Games from Kuala Lumpur and Manchester.
Her TV roles have included hosting four Paralympic Games, golf tennis and other major sporting events.
Karen is now based in Perth with husband and fellow ABC sports presenter Glenn Mitchell where they can be heard co-hosting Grandstand.
Peter Walsh
In 1992 in Barcelona the Dream Team hit the court against Angola and my sporting dream was finally realized. I had spent hours and hours at local sporting fields around the Victorian country town of Ballarat calling all sorts of sports in the hope that one day I would get to work behind an ABC microphone at an Olympics Games.
The buzz at such an event is mind boggling. You find yourself staring at athletes as they walk past. You feel the need to pinch yourself when Michael Jordan wanders past. But it's all about doing your job. The experienced broadcasters tell you to keep your nerve and don't rush things and, before you know it, you are on air. How much does an adrenelin rush cost?
The Games go quickly and you soak up as much as you can. Even your colleagues become ships in the night as they go about their own business. Party time will come later, if you manage to stay awake.
The years roll on and so too do the Games. 1996, with a can of Coke in Atlanta, 2000 at home and a Greek salad in Athens in 2004. Each assignment represents different challenges. Where are we staying, what is the transport system like and what is the venue I am working at like? I have called basketball at the four Games I have attended and you get to know the security guards and volunteers on a first-name basis.
All athletes have goals they want to achieve and so too do broadcasters. The Opals are a quality outfit and they ready to take the next step. I want to be behind the microphone when they go for gold in 2008.
Gerard Whateley
A multi-skilled media performer Gerard Whateley is establishing a reputation as one of the industry's most versatile broadcasters.
More than a decade of print (Herald Sun), television (Channels 10 and 7) and radio (ABC) experience, including extensive coverage of football and horseracing, has resulted in him winning a number of media awards.
He covered the Sydney Olympics for the Ten Network, breaking a series of stories surrounding drug use in weightlifting.
Whateley leads ABC Radio Grandstand's national AFL coverage and has assumed racecalling duties during the Spring and Autumn carnivals. He is also a television regular on ABC1 as a panellist on the Offsiders program as well as presenting twice-weekly football segments on the 7:00pm News.
