Where do you go when you are on top of the world?
Just ask high-flying Olympic pole vault champion Nina Kennedy, who feels she is just beginning at 27.
After struggling with consistency over a few years, the Australian made a breakthrough with victory at the 2022 Commonwealth Games.
Using this momentum, she shared gold at the 2023 World Championships in Budapest, which paved the way for the ultimate goal; victory at the Paris 2024 Olympics.
“I feel like I've only kind of just started my career,” the Australian told Olympics.com in Paris.
“For me anyway in my late 20s … 2021 was a very different story, and I guess that's kind of where the journey started. 2022, 2023, 2024 will be really good years… So definitely going to try to go to Los Angeles 2028.”
- Paris 2024 athletics: Australia's Nina Kennedy soars to Olympic gold in women's pole vault
Nina Kennedy inspired by Steve Hooker to try pole vault
Growing up in Perth, Kennedy was a versatile athlete who played several sports. But after becoming inspired by the triumph of 2008 Beijing Olympic champion, and compatriot, Steve Hooker, she went to vaulting trials as an 11-year-old and never looked back.
"When this pole vault thing came along, it was like 'Oh, Steve Hooker's a gold medallist and I basically train in the same group as Steve,” she said to ESPN.
“I kind of always wanted to go to the Olympics in something, throwing around sports like gymnastics, hockey and athletics as potential options.”
After years of dedication, Kennedy made her Olympics debut at Tokyo 2020, but an injury meant she faded to 12th in the qualifying rounds.
Two years of hard work later, it was finally the Australian's turn to smile as she landed bronze at the 2022 World Championships in Eugene, Oregon. Buoyed by this success, her meteoric rise continued a year later as she stood atop the podium, sharing gold with U.S. pole vaulter Katie Moon at the 2023 World Champs in Budapest.
“That night with Katie will go down in history as one of my favourite nights in my career, but it definitely ignited a fire within me to win an outright gold medal. It also just sparked this belief in me that it's like, ‘I do deserve to be here, and I do deserve to be on the top by myself. Somebody has to win, so why can't it be me’?” Australia’s first female world pole vault champ said.
“I made a really conscious effort to just put my goals out there. I wanted gold, I didn't want to share again. And it takes a lot of vulnerability, a lot of courage to kind of say that to the media and put your goals out there. But I kind of ran with it and, yeah, it worked out.”
However, that success came with some unexpected challenges, as trolls bombarded the pair online for sharing the title instead of going for the outright win.
The mental health challenges resulting from this period emboldened Kennedy's fight and pursuit for greatness.
Clearing 4.90m in her first attempt at the Paris 2024 Olympics, meant that Kennedy had sealed the gold medal ahead of Moon, whose 4.85m won her silver on countback.
“I was so nervous,” the Australian recalled, “But, I guess I kind of just came back to my job. ‘I have a job to do. Execute it on the biggest stage of your life. And that's how you got to win a gold medal’. So, I just kind of kept repeating that to myself.”
As her nation readies to host the Olympics for the third time in Brisbane in 2032, the Busselton native hopes her title will get more youngsters clasping poles and thumping their legs to vault.
“I hope this kind of just continues out a little bit. Athletics isn't one of the main sports in Australia, but our team is so strong, and we have people on our team becoming household names now. And you know, I just hope young kids kind of look up to us and, ask their parents to take them to that little athletics club and, and get involved in the sport, because it is such an amazing sport.”
