Two meters and beyond with Nicola Olysagers
I always find high-jumper Nicola Olyslagers an engaging athlete to talk to. There are so many interesting things about her, from her notebooks to her analysis and assessment of every jump. Then, there was her description of training during COVID on the beach on the Australian coast. “The sea was my ice bath. I was always glad to see dolphins as it meant there were no sharks around!”
In Paris, for the second successive Olympics, she took silver. I began by asking her what made the Olympics different from a World Champs, Diamond League final, etc. if you were still just high jumping against the same people: “That’s a great question. I think what’s really special about the Olympics for me is that no matter where somebody is in the world or whatever age of life, everybody has this value for what the Olympic Games means. And you can have the best competition of your life two days before the Olympics, and nobody in the world knows. But then, when it comes to the Olympics, there’s this stage and this platform where people turn on the TV not just to see great things but also to be inspired. I really love that about the Olympics”.
1. Did your Tokyo success give you extra Olympic confidence that you could do it again?
Nicola Olyslagers: I love being under pressure, and in the Olympic Games, just once every four years (or three years now) I can really prepare in such an attitude and such a mindset to go towards the goal, and I was confident that from what I did in Tokyo there was a lot of belief involved in that, and my body shape and my athlete career since Tokyo has been, I would say, even more consistent. So yeah, it gave me hope that at the Olympic Games preparation wise, we were in a very good place.
2. Talk about the pressure of that last jump to win.
Nicola Olyslagers: I think pressure reveals what’s really deep down. It’s as if the storm reveals the strength of the foundation. So when I’m in that position with the pressure building, I learn what’s inside of me. That isn’t just the training that I’ve done, but it’s every part of me and sometimes without pressure, I would never really know deep down what is important until that moment.
3. Why is two meters so important in the sense that it is just 1cm more than 1.99 but what makes it so special? And do you remember the first time you did it? And how you felt?
Nicola Olyslagers: Yeah, absolutely. The two metre mark in Australia and around the world is recognised as the standard of excellence. In high jump there are always these numbers -1:90 barrier, the two metre barrier, the 2:10 barrier and it’s these big numbers that attract people’s attention. So for me, when I did 2 meters for the first time, it was an Australian record and as a little girl I said one day I want to be the one to jump 2 meters in Australia. No Australian had ever done it. Now we have 2 girls (Eleanor and me) and soon, I’m sure, we’ll have more. But that first time, it wasn’t just about jumping a height, it was about almost opening a door. And that that barrier had stood for so many years and was just conquered. Something in me just went as the barrier that had limited me, went when I cleared the two meters, I realised that nothing was impossible and that really it brought to life the faith that was inside of me and now it’s this continuous thing of seeing a bar over 2 metres and realising that if I could do it back then, I can definitely do it now.
4. You often talk about athletics being part of something bigger and of God’s purpose in your life. Just talk a little bit about that.
Nicola Olyslagers: When I decided to become a high jumper when I was eight years old, I recognised that back then the desires to make it onto the big stage and jump to metres and get medals was purely out of this sense of self-worth and having meaning. Like why am I 6 foot 2? Why am I created the way I am and it wasn’t until I was 20 that I recognised that no medal and no height and no number next to my name will ever give me the value that will sustain me and satisfy my soul. And that’s really where I encountered the love of God, because when Jesus. came to me and just revealed himself to me, I recognised that the value and love and attention that I was desiring from the world was actually all found in him. But I had to let go of trying to earn it because it that’s the gift of grace is it’s given. It’s received. It’s already been done. I just have to believe. And after that, my journey has been so much bigger than about sport. I feel as though the high jump is the instrument in God’s hand to mould me and shape me to the person that he’s already predestined me to become. Now excellence in high jump is done from a place of love and from a place of peace rather than for a place of peace.
