It’s not a door to the heavens but in the women’s high jump, Yaroslava Mahuchikh found the code to the next best thing. Three weeks ago in the Paris Diamond League meet, the Ukrainian leaped higher than anyone has before: 2.10m. At her first attempt.
Watching on that night just metres away were Australian competitors Eleanor Patterson and Nicola Olyslagers. The latter was the only other athlete to crack 2m. “I’ve been trying to figure out the 2.10m formula all year and she just unlocked it,” Olyslagers said after qualifying for the final on Sunday night (Monday morning AEST).
“Now that she’s done that, I’ve gone ‘that’s it’. So we started training the next day and I had such a fire in me because I’d seen with my own eyes what was possible.”
News of Mahuchikh’s clearance rippled around the athletics world. The 22-year-old had never jumped higher than 2.06m. The previous record of Bulgarian Stefka Kostadinovahad – of 2.09m – had stood since 1987.
Olyslagers said that day the Ukrainian looked particularly determined, but she didn’t try anything out of the ordinary in her routine. “When I saw her jump 2.07m, I was like, ‘oh, this girl’s got 2.10m today’, so she put it up to 2.10m and even in her first attempt, I looked and her face had such a focus and an intensity, but it was the same jump,” she said. “I went, ‘that’s it’. I don’t have to change in order to do a 5cm PB at the Olympics.”
The extraordinary feat adds an additional layer of intrigue to an event in Paris that already loomed as one of Australia’s best chances for a track and field medal. After the qualification round on Friday, Patterson and Olyslagers are poised for a run at the podium. Olyslagers cleared all of her three attempts, the highest at 1.95m, while Patterson had a single miss at 1.92m.
Patterson said she didn’t panic when she saw the bar tumble, in a round that saw a long delay between jumps. “I was like, ‘no, I know I can clear this,” she said. “I think I just rushed at the bar a little bit, just didn’t stick to my guns and so, reset.” She then cleared, and went over again at 1.95m to tie her season’s best.
But not all could overcome the conditions, which included a run up that crossed multiple surfaces in the Stade De Paris. Jamaica’s Lamara Distin, who jumped 2m in February was eliminated, as was Finland’s Ella Junnila who cleared 1.97m in June. Team GB’s Morgan Lake – ranked No 6 in the world – was another miss out. And Serbia’s Angelina Topić, who took silver behind Mahuchikh at the European Championships in June, only just scraped through.
Patterson said whatever people have jumped before, the beauty of the Olympics is they have to perform on the day, and even Mahuchikh isn’t immune from the pressure. “Obviously it [the world record] was an incredible jump, it was wonderful to see what’s humanly possible, but everyone starts from scratch.”
Olyslagers, ranked No 2 in the world, said she is on good terms with the Ukrainian. “She’s one of my favourite people to jump with, aside from Eleanor, right?”, she said. “She has such a professional mindset, but also we’re friends, when she jumps I high five her, when I jump [she high fives me] and it’s great competition to be friends with your competitors.”
The Tokyo silver medallist has been dealing with a foot complaint, but she said she felt no ill effects on Friday. “Spiritually I’m already in a place where my body now has to follow,” she said. “For the final, I’m already anticipating great things, not letting that disappointment or that fear or doubt try and steal away the victory that I’ve already won over my mind.”
Patterson, the 2022 world champion, said her nerves have been building. “As much as I’ve been around for a while, I’m human and it means a lot to me and I care deeply, and so you want to go in there and execute and just get your job done,” she said. “But... emotions and excitement and all that, it’s an Olympics it’s very… yeah, it’s very cool.”
