Australian English, Olympics edition: "Boomers croak in medal tilt"

"Boomers croak in medal tilt"

That's what one Aussie stated in an Australian Olympics social media group. The Aussies certainly understood what was being said here. Let me guess... you're thinking this is about baby boomers dying because the medals were leaning to one side? That doesn't make sense. Well, no surprise, it means something rather different in Australian English, so let's dissect this one...

- "Boomers"

No, this is not in reference to "baby boomers" i.e. the generation of people born after World War II. This here refers to "The Boomers", the nickname for Australian men's national basketball team. And no, they haven't been given this name because they are made up of baby boomers (despite what some vindictive Aussies in the commentariat might say). A "boomer" in Australian slang is a long-established term for a big male kangaroo, the ones that jump the highest and longest and are very tall, much like basketballers.

- "Croak"

Here, not the sound a frog makes but it is related to the somewhat negative slang term for "dying suddenly". In this case, "to croak" is when a competitor who has been leading for the whole race suddenly fails (hence "croaks") at the last moment where it all matters. So you'll have Aussies whining that the swimming gold-medal favourite, who was leading throughout the entire race but in the last ten metres slowed down and was eclipsed by the other competitors and came fourth, "croaked". The best example of this is the time Australia won its first ever Winter Olympics gold medal... when all of the other competitors "croaked".

- "Tilt"

Not meaning to make something slope, this comes from the phrasal verb "to make a tilt at" meaning "to make an attempt at achieving success in something". "Tilt" here is the act of achieving this, as in a "bid" and the goal is invariably an Olympic medal or title. "Tilt" can also mean "contender" or even "team" like in "Aussie tilt" – "She's the main Aussie tilt for a cycling medal" or "He's part of the Aussie water polo tilt". Aussies usually use "tilt" like this in an Olympics context only.

So overall, this phrase meant: the Australian men's basketball team lost in the final seconds in their bid to win an Olympic medal. Now did you expect that?

If you want to boom and hit gold in the Australian market and have your content shine so as to avoid your tilt croaking, drop a DM at info@nicknasev.com.