The triumph by Nina Kennedy in the Women’s pole vault at the 2024 Olympics was historic in more ways than one.
It was not only Australia’s record-breaking 18th gold, it was also the very first Olympic gold for any Aussie female athlete in standalone field events.
For those who are sharp on the ears, this fact was snuck in by “Mr Field and Track” Dave Culbert in his jubilant Nine Network commentary when Kennedy secured victory.
It is remarkable to think that of all the great female athletes and teams that have reached the Olympic summit for Australia, none of them were from the throwing/jumping events in the main stadium.
Until Nina Kennedy in Paris this week.
Before these games, Australia’s list of golden girls in the track and field athletics were nearly all on the track. And what a list it is.
Marjorie Jackson-Nelson. Shirley Strickland-De La Hunty. Betty Cuthbert. Maureen Caird-Jones (who won the last women’s 80 metres hurdles at Mexico City in 1968 at 17 years of age). Glynnis Nunn-Cearns (in the Heptathlon at Los Angeles in 1984 – the ultimate mix of track and field). Debbie Flintoff-King. Cathy Freeman. Sally Pearson.
Names that roll off the tongue. Nearly all Australian Sport Hall of Famers – some even have grandstands and/or statues in their honour at major stadiums around the nation.
So Kennedy joins this elite club.
Nina Kennedy of Team Australia celebrates making a clearance during the women’s pole vault final. (Photo By Sam Barnes/Sportsfile via Getty Images)
Along with the “forgotten gold medallists” Norma Croker and Fleur Mellor who were the middle legs of the 4 x 100m relay team that Strickland-De La Hunty led off and Cuthbert anchored home open mouthed at the MCG in 1956).
This has led to a deeper dive to those forgotten ladies who paved the way in the field events for Kennedy this past week.
Those who hopefully will quietly pat themselves on the back for paving that path – instead of wondering what might have been.
Primarily due to a dearth of field events for women in the early decades of the Modern Olympics compared to the blokes, Michele Brown was Australia’s first female medalist in field events as late as 1964 in Tokyo when she won silver in the high jump behind Romanian Iolanda Blas.
The controversial Gael Mulhall-Martin won bronze in the boycott-reduced shot put in LA in 1984.
Just like Raelene Boyle on the track through this period, Mulhall-Martin was against competitors from the Eastern Bloc that were suspected – or at least definitely in the old East Germany – to be juiced up to the eyeballs for a lot of the time.
Mulhall-Martin herself was also suspended for 18 months for a positive steroids test in the 1981 Pan Pacific Conference Games.
Romanian-born and raised Daniela Costian became a naturalised Aussie in the wake of the collapse of the Eastern Bloc – and in time for winning discus bronze in Barcelona in 1992.
Outstanding javelin thrower Louise Currey (McPaul) won silver in Atlanta 1996 on her way to holding an Australian record for 15 years and dual Commonwealth Games gold – paving the way for Kelsey Lee-Barber to win back-to-back world titles (also after moving to Australia from her native South Africa).
The steady stream of Aussie women paving the field events path increased in Kennedy’s own event – the pole vault – at the time of McPaul and Costian.
And it is those past pole vaulters in particular that this Roar Rookie thought of this week.
Ladies who could have – and maybe should have – made Kennedy’s breakthrough.
Like Emma George. The former circus trapeze artist who set the Australian athletics world alight by breaking the women’s pole vault world record a staggering 12 times between 1995 and 1999.
George was sadly ahead of her time. The pole vault was not introduced to the Olympic program until the Sydney Games of 2000.
A nearly broken back preparing for the 1999 world championships put paid to George winning Olympic gold at home. Although she did at least get to the compete in Sydney before retiring at just 29 in 2003.
One could say that George set her world records – which topped out 30cm short of Kennedy’s 4.90m mark in Paris – at a time when the event was not as cutthroat as it is now.
But following on from George was another memorable Australian female to almost break through for a Kennedy-like triumph. Like Costian, a naturalised one from the old Soviet bloc.
Anyone who remembers Sydney 2000 will certainly remember the name Tatiana Grigorieva.
Along with a group of other Russians who moved to Australia at the time of the collapse of the old USSR in the mid-’90s, the former hurdler certainly played her part in laying down the path for the Kennedys to follow.
Her battle with American Stacy Dragila – who took the world record from George – on the most memorable night of athletics ever held in Australia will long be remembered by anyone who was around following sport at that time.
On the same Stadium Australia finals night program that saw Cathy Freeman became a legend by winning her 400m gold on the track, Grigorieva came within 5cm of Dragila’s winning leap and had to settle for silver.
It was the closest an Aussie female pole vaulter would get to Olympic gold before Nina Kennedy.
Nina Kennedy celebrates winning the gold medal at Stade de France. (Photo by Cameron Spencer/Getty Images)
(By the way, “Jumping” Jai Taurima leapt to long jump gold for Australia and Ethopian legend Haile Gebreselassie beat arch rival Paul Tergat in arguably the greatest Olympic Men’s 10,000m final on the same card as Cathy and Tatiana that night).
Performances post her 2007 retirement in Dancing with the Stars and Gladiators came directly from her good looks.
Grigorieva’s nieces Vicki and Liz Parnov – youngsters who also came to Australia at the same time – followed on from their famous aunt into pole vaulting.
But for various reasons – bad luck, bad timing, bad officials on track (Liz having to continue in the rain in Tokyo three years ago to try and make the Olympic final) and living in the shadow of their famous aunt – never saw the Parnovs reach Tatiana’s heights.
A case can also be mounted for the likes of Alison Inverarity – daughter of former Test cricketer John and a thre-time Olympian – to have paved the way for Nicola Olyslagers and Eleanor Patterson making the Paris high jump podium.
While we all celebrate Nina Kennedy’s history in Paris, remember this: if it wasn’t for those Aussie female field athletes before her all the way back to Michele Brown in 1964, there may not have been a Nina Kennedy to break through for that first gold medal.
Hopefully, they will quietly pat themselves on the back for paving that path just as much as all Aussie sports fans have been celebrating Kennedy’s win in Paris this week.