Paris 2024 Olympics: Aussie high jumper Eleanor Patterson’s journey

Australian high jumper from regional Victoria to star in Paris Olympics.

Transcript

00:00 It's pretty cool to be bringing Aussies to the world and putting our mark on the world

00:07 as far as athletics goes.

00:08 It's wild to think that I came from such a small town where there was no athletics track,

00:13 often had to travel over an hour to get to an athletics track.

00:16 All my family's from Llangatha and that's where I grew up.

00:19 So much support from home, which is incredible.

00:21 The community always has supported me and kind of cheered me on from afar.

00:25 But yeah, it's cool to see Llangatha taking the world on.

00:31 I went to Little Laths and was allowed to join in for a day.

00:36 And then from that day on, I was hooked.

00:38 I think I did high jump on the first day and I think I broke the Little Laths record there.

00:43 I became absolutely fixated with the idea of athletics and Olympics as well.

00:48 It came very easily to me to be able to just kind of run at a bar and fling myself over.

00:54 First and foremost, I'm a big fan of the sport and I just love athletics, full stop.

00:58 And all the events, I seem a little bit biased as far as high jump goes.

01:01 The night of her life, Patterson is the world champion.

01:06 I always knew I was capable of it and then all of a sudden the rest of the world knew.

01:09 And so it was quite a lot to take in at first.

01:13 To then be able to leave the stadium and find your family and just give them a big squeeze

01:18 is one of the most special things.

01:21 They, mum and dad, especially when I was very young, drove me so far and wide to be able

01:27 to compete and do this sport.

01:30 And it's no easy feat.

01:31 It's not cheap in a lot of ways.

01:33 They never held me back as far as being able to help me achieve my dreams.

01:38 And so I kind of, yeah, when those kinds of moments happen of great successes on the track,

01:43 it just kind of makes me think back to where I've come from.

01:45 And like, you know, those kind of early days of like, wow, this is like, this is really

01:49 come full circle.

01:50 I would like to think that given results, my major championships are my bread and butter.

01:55 And so I'm really looking forward to Paris this year.

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