Nina Kennedy won a world title with a broken back. Imagine what she can do in Paris
In the same circumstances – stifling heat, debilitating cramps, two-and-a-half hours of gruelling competition – Nina Kennedy would do it again, of course she would. But Australia’s pole vault world champion isn’t planning on sharing a gold medal again at the Paris Olympics.
Kennedy captured global attention at the world athletics championships in Budapest last year when, given the choice between going to a jump-off with her American rival Katie Moon and sharing the gold, she opted for the latter. Would she do it again?
Australia’s pole vaulting champion Nina KennedyCredit: Ben Searcy
“Of course I want the outright medal now, but I think me wanting that now doesn’t take anything away from last year,” Kennedy told this masthead as she prepares to open her Olympic campaign in earnest, jumping at the Australian athletics championships in Adelaide on Saturday.
“I think in the context of me and my career and that specific competition, sharing was just the right thing, there’s no doubt in my mind that that’s what I was going to do.
“I think, you know, a few weeks later, a few months later, everything settled down and you start thinking towards the Olympics and, of course, I want that [outright] gold medal. That’s what Katie wants as well.”
Katie is Katie Moon, the Tokyo Olympic champion she shared gold with in Budapest. Unable to split the pair on countback after they both missed their jumps at 4.95 metres, officials gave the athletes a choice: continue to jump, and gradually drop the height until a lone winner could be found, or share it.
‘Hey girl, you maybe wanna share this?’, Kennedy said to Moon. Both women were so spent they burst into tears as they embraced.
“Context is so important,” Kennedy said. “I could be cramping, I could be straining and taking that [shared] gold, is that the best I’m gonna get? So context is everything. You know, I could run out of poles or a pole could break. Of course, I want that outright gold medal, but I think it really depends on the day’s circumstances.”
The fact the choice on whether to share the medal or hold a jump-off for gold was put to Kennedy and Moon to decide, rather than being made by officials, made the circumstances even more rare and weird.
It raised questions about whether it was the right way to resolve deadlocks, but more personally for Kennedy in the aftermath, the question since has inevitably been: what she would do in Paris faced with the same circumstances?
Katie Moon (right) congratulates Nina Kennedy as they share the gold medal in the women’s pole vault at the world championships in Budapest.Credit: Getty
The answer? Well, first, she believes she can win outright gold and has declared so, and second, you can’t know until the moment comes.
What made her gold medal victory last year even more remarkable was that she did it with a broken back.
The 27-year-old had sustained a stress fracture at the end of the previous season and missed months in recovery. She suffered more pain during the year but pressed on throughout, determined to compete at the worlds in Budapest.
She won the gold, continued at the Diamond League meets – and won the Diamond League – before discovering at the end of the year that the stress fracture was back, and worse than before.
“During the season my back was sore, but in one way you’re ignoring it because you have to get through to worlds, but in another way it was like ‘F---, is it broken again?’ So we scanned it when I got home, and it was actually worse than the season before,” Kennedy said. “So we had quite a long time off after Budapest last year and re-set.”
She had four months off jumping altogether and tweaked things in her training program that could have been aggravating her back. Well, as much as you can when the inherent nature of the sport is physically punishing, requiring twisting, flipping five metres in the air and landing on your back.
“It is part of our sport but also genetically I do have a bit of an interesting-shaped spine, which doesn’t help. But, also, it happened a second time, so obviously something in our training program wasn’t working, so let’s come up with some new ideas, let’s try to avoid this for the third time,” Kennedy said.
The experience of going to Budapest having not been jumping particularly well during the season, of carrying a back injury later revealed to be a significant stress fracture, and still turning up and delivering has given her confidence that she is a big-time performer who can find her best when she needs to.
She also approaches this Olympics as her defining career moment. She knows that – two back stress fractures aside – at her age and experience she is in the best window of her career to peak.
“This is my one shot to potentially win [Olympic gold],” Kennedy said.
“I think in a weird, twisted way, there’s an added layer of pressure from myself because last Olympics I was underdone and [by the] next Olympics I might be too old. I really feel like this is my one shot to potentially win. So that is definitely in the back of my mind.
“I am really trying to view that pressure through a lens of privilege. I really do have to stop myself sometimes and think ,‘Oh my god’; like, I have my dream job and I am training for an Olympic medal, it doesn’t really get much cooler.
“I don’t think many people in their life get to live their dream job and get to do something as high pressure as that and I think just trying to reframe that as, ‘F--- yeah! Like, pressure is a privilege, this is awesome’.”
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