by Stuart Weir
This is Stuart Weir’s first part in a series on Molly Caudery, the 2024 Glasgow World Indoor pole vault champion. Molly had a challenging year in 2024, and Stuart Weir is looking at how this champion athlete overcame her challenges.
Molly Caudrey moving on from Paris.
It has been a roller-coaster year for Molly Caudery. Just over a year ago, she won the World Indoors in Glasgow. Later in the year, she set a new PR of 4.92. She took bronze at the European championships in Rome. She went to the Olympics confidently but failed to clear her opening height at the qualifying stage. In the 2025 indoor season, she cleared 4.85 in Madrid on the Indoor tour but only 4.70 (for fourth place) in the World Indoors in Nanjing.
Returning to the Olympic disaster, she commented: “I am currently in shock. I am so disappointed. I don’t have any excuse. I felt great and in the best shape of my life. I loved the big crowd; I didn’t feel overly nervous. I don’t have a reason right now for what just happened. This is going to take a bit of time to process. 4.55m is a bar that I jump day in, day out. There is no doubt in my mind that I wouldn’t clear it. Some might say I came in too high, but that’s certainly not my or my coach’s opinion. When I have been jumping 4.80 and 4.90 all year round, 4.55 shouldn’t have been a problem. It is just a miserable day”.
Six months later, she told GB athletics writers: “I think the worst part was just after the Olympics, I went off and tried to jump and hurt my calf. That put me out for a few more competitions, and then I was trying to come back for the Diamond League final, which I did, and that gave me a lot of confidence. But, of course, the Olympics were disappointing. It was not what I was expecting, not what I was hoping for. I’ve spoken to my coach a lot about it, and we can’t put it down to much more than it was a bad day to have a bad day. So I don’t have any excuses for it, but it was a good learning experience, and I’ve moved on. I’m in a better place now and excited for 2025. I don’t think it really was down to anything. On average, I may have no height once a year, or most athletes may have no height yearly or once every two years. And mine just happened to be on the biggest competition of my life. Not ideal, but what can I do now? I think all I can do is learn from it and not let it happen again.
“The week after Paris was really tough. I spent a lot of time with my family and friends, and it was almost like a grieving period. But then it’s like, what can you do? I can’t go back and change time. I can only look forward to what’s going on now, and there is no point in living in that moment for too long. I had to accept what happened and move on to bigger things. It took a few weeks to really get over it. Now, I’m in a perfect place, and that’s great.
“One thing I did get from Paris was an extra fire and desire for this year. And if that’s what I can take from it, that’s great. I took that into the winter, and I’ve trained so hard, and I’ve come out this year, and there is that extra want in me, and I think that’s a positive thing”.
She also addressed the opinion of all the “armchair experts” that she had come in too late (4.55) in Paris. “I think people who aren’t in my close circle would kind of see it that way. But for me, it’s like I always do that. Paris was no anomaly. There was no reason I should have come in earlier. I might have taken the bar before knowing what we had known. But I don’t think that would have made a difference. I just wasn’t rolling the poles through. I don’t think the actual height of the bar would have made a difference. I know what I can jump. So, no, I probably won’t change anything. I very much trust in my abilities and what I can do. If I want to jump those higher heights at the end, I must come in reasonably high.”
“It’s definitely finding a balance. I would love to try to attempt five meters this year. That’s like a number that’s pretty prevalent at the moment. To get to five meters, if I come in at four metres, there will be 10 bars to go through. I know that’s extreme. But if I come in at 4.50, it’s probably only five bars. So there’s definitely finding the sweet spot. I’m not someone who’s going to come in at 4.70. That is too high. But around that 4.50 mark is comfortable for me. And as long as I don’t do anything really crazy, like I may have in Paris, it should be fine. Like I said, that was an unfortunate anomaly. Besides that, I’m pretty confident in my abilities”.
The fourth place in Nanjing was frustrating. It was not an easy competition with the mechanism for raising the bar breaking down and causing a nearly an hour wait between vaults at one stage. Her assessment was: “It was definitely not what I wanted, but I am disappointed to say the least. It was a really tough competition, and there were a lot of technical issues, but I don’t want to make any excuses. I had some excellent attempts at 4.75m, but it has been a rocky indoors, without the consistency I would have liked, so lots to learn, but I am moving on to the next one. The wait ruins the flow, and we were all deflated after, but that’s championships for you.”
Onwards and upwards!
