Nina Kennedy at the Paris 2024 Olympic Games (© AFP / Getty Images)
On top of sport’s highest mountain, Nina Kennedy can’t help but gaze through the clouds above the view. With rare air pumping through her lungs, the Olympic champion can sense a summit where few, if any, have been before.
The pole vaulter is fuelled by curiosity. With the Olympic, world, Diamond League and Commonwealth crowns all currently under her ruthless reign – Kennedy sets the scene for 2025 as a year where she has little to prove and everything to explore.
Having spent recent years exposing the limits of her rivals, the Australian is now in search of her own. Sitting eighth on the all-time list at 4.91m, Kennedy is naturally intrigued by one of athletics’ most exclusive clubs.
That club is headed by world record-holder Yelena Isinbayeva at 5.06m and includes Jennifer Suhr (5.03m), Anzhelika Sidorova (5.01m) and Sandi Morris (5.00m) – the only women in history to have cleared five metres in the event.
“What is really motivating me is the fact that I don’t know what my potential is in this sport – I don’t know what my limit is. The last few years have been all about winning when it counts and I never really had to think about heights,” Kennedy said.
“I think I can be a five-metre jumper. After that, you just go up a pole and you are attempting the world record, right? I’m not saying I’m going to do it, but it’s definitely something I have thought about.”
Nina Kennedy in the pole vault at the Paris 2024 Olympic Games (© Getty Images)
On paper, Kennedy’s Olympic campaign appears as golden as its outcome. The 27-year-old coasted to eight consecutive victories and soared over bars of 4.90m and 4.88m to win the Olympic and Wanda Diamond League titles respectively, but things were far from perfect behind closed doors.
With a stress fracture in her back from April for the third consecutive year, Kennedy was reduced to jumping once per week and a modified programme indefinitely.
“Genetically I have a pretty interestingly shaped spine and the event just demands so much force through specific joints. When I finished the season, it had cracked 80 per cent of the way through,” Kennedy said.
“I had to decide on the attitude I wanted to adopt moving forward. It would have been easy to play the victim card, but nothing was going to get in my way because no Olympic campaign is perfect.”
Embodying what it means to work “smarter not harder”, Kennedy walked the tightrope of risk and reward for months on end to become the ninth Australian woman in history to win Olympic gold in athletics – placing her name alongside modern greats Cathy Freeman and Sally Pearson this century.
“Even hearing my name out loud in that sentence is crazy to me. You think of the people who have come before you and how they are such legends, but it’s so hard to think the same way about yourself,” Kennedy said.
“When I started day one of training last year, I recorded myself saying that I was going to win the Olympic Games. I have never really shared that before but that was my thing.”
A former world U20 record-holder, there is no denying that Kennedy possesses immense talent. The punchy pole vaulter’s trademark style is founded on speed, power and coordination – but she speaks with the most pride about the weapons in her arsenal that have been earned rather than gifted.
“Anyone who wins any medal at the Olympics is talented, otherwise everyone would do it. I think about how long I have been doing this sport and the lengths that I have gone to; I have done a lot of work on myself and my life. You name it – I have worked on it,” Kennedy said.
“I have let go of the fear of what people think. I know that I’m going to be proud of myself if I do the job that’s at hand and disappointed if I don’t. I started doing things for myself and stopped caring about what might be said by other people or written in the media.”
Nina Kennedy and Katie Moon at the World Athletics Championships Budapest 23 (© Getty Images)
The World Athletics Championships Tokyo 25 to be hosted from 13-21 September is a natural goal for the Australian who shared gold with USA’s Katie Moon at the 2023 instalment in Budapest.
Compounding Kennedy’s world title defence is a return to the Japan National Stadium, where she competed at the Olympic Games and slumped to 22nd place overall in qualifying with a 4.40m clearance.
“I have definitely thought about rewriting the narrative of Tokyo and that stadium. I have some really bad memories there and it would be cool to create some new ones,” Kennedy said.
With a wealth of knowledge under her belt, the Olympic champion plans to make minor adjustments to her training by “thinking outside the square” but hopes a shift in mindset will lead to longevity and uncharted territory.
“I was so hyper focused last year to the point that it was probably a little bit toxic. That’s just the truth. It’s definitely what got me to the Olympic gold, but I know that it’s not sustainable for the next four years for me personally,” Kennedy said.
“This season I’m trying to relax, not in my training or competitions, but more just loosening up and enjoying what I do. I’m at a stage now where I’m no longer figuring it out, it’s about how high I can jump which is such a privilege.”
Despite the endless variables in one of sport’s most unique events, Kennedy finds her calmest moments on the runway. At her absolute best, the icy competitor freezes time in mid-air before landing with a solitary but prolonged first pump to her team.
Nina Kennedy celebrates her Olympic title win in Paris (© AFP / Getty Images)
And on her left arm, a tattoo of 'm/b' to remind herself of her greatest strength.
“It stands for mind over body. My time in the sport hasn’t always been roses and there were a few years where I hated it and wanted to quit. I met a really great psychologist who gave me my power back and taught me how to think properly,” Kennedy said.
“Being able to see the sport in a different light again was a really special time in my life.”
That light looks set to keep shining bright in 2025.
Lachlan Moorhouse for World Athletics
