Nicola Olyslagers
Personal information
NationalityAustralian
Born (1996-12-28) 28 December 1996
North Gosford
EducationUniversity of Sydney[1]
Height1.86 m (6 ft 1 in)[2]
Weight63 kg (139 lb)[2]
Sport
SportAthletics
EventHigh jump
Achievements and titles
Olympic finals
  • 2020 Tokyo
  • High jump,  Silver
World finals
  • 2019 Doha
  • High jump, 15th (q)
  • 2023 Budapest
  • High jump,  Bronze
Personal best
  • High jump: 2.02 m (6 ft 7+1⁄2 in) AR (Tokyo 2021)
Medal record
Women's athletics
Representing  Australia
Olympic Games
Silver medal – second place2020 TokyoHigh jump
World Championships
Bronze medal – third place2023 BudapestHigh jump
Commonwealth Games
Bronze medal – third place2018 Gold CoastHigh jump

Nicola Lauren Olyslagers (née McDermott) (born 28 December 1996) is an Australian high jumper.[3] She won the silver medal at the Tokyo 2020 Olympics[4][5] and the bronze medal at the 2023 World Athletics Championships in the high jump. Olyslagers is the current high jump Oceanian record holder.

Career

Olyslagers competed in the women's high jump at the 2017 World Championships in Athletics.[6] Olyslagers also competed in the women's high jump at the 2018 Commonwealth Games, where she achieved a personal best jump of 1.91m and won the bronze medal.[7] On 20 June 2019, Olyslagers jumped a personal best of 1.96m at Mestský Stadion, Ostrava, Czech Republic.[8] Achieving a new personal best of 1.98 m in Sinn, Germany, on 29 August 2020,[9] she rose to second place in the all-time list of Australian women high jumpers.[10][11]

Olyslagers set Australian and Oceanian records with a personal best 2.00 m jump on 18 April 2021.[12][13] She improved her personal best to 2.01 in Stockholm on 4 July 2021 and to 2.02 at the Tokyo Olympics on 7 August 2021, winning silver.[14]

International competitions

YearCompetitionVenuePositionNotes
2014 World Junior Championships Eugene, United States 16th (q) 1.79 m
2015 Universiade Gwangju, South Korea 4th 1.80 m
2017 Universiade Taipei, Taiwan 7th 1.88 m
2018 Commonwealth Games Gold Coast, Australia 3rd 1.91 m
IAAF Continental Cup Győr, Hungary 5th 1.87 m
2019 World Championships Doha, Qatar 15th (q) 1.90 m
2021 Olympic Games Tokyo, Japan 2nd 2.02 m (AR)
2022 World Championships Eugene Oregon, USA 5th 1.96 m
2023 World Championships Budapest, Hungary 3rd 1.99 m

Personal life

Olyslagers is of maternal Croatian ancestry, hailing from the island of Korčula.[15][16] Olyslagers had always been tall for her age, and says that she was not good at sports in her early years due to a lack of coordination. After she was introduced to athletics at school at age of seven and won the majority of the events from shotput to 200m, her parents got her involved with Little Athletics.[17]

She studied biochemistry at the University of Sydney.[18] Her sports idol is Blanka Vlašić.[16]

Olyslagers is a devout evangelical Christian, and is a member of a Pentecostal denomination that she prefers not to name.[19] She became a Christian while attending a youth camp at the age of 16, compared experiencing the Holy Spirit "tangibly" to "electricity" going through her body, as if "colour" had come to a world she'd been seeing "in black and white".[20]

She has said that she made a conscious decision to be very public about her Christian faith, which she says is more important to her than her sport.[21] She described this in an interview as follows: "In 2017 was my big moment when it flicked the switch, and I decided to pursue God over sport – whatever comes from sport is a bonus, but I am already complete and perfect and loved as a person regardless of it. That just allowed me to soar over every high jump bar and not be scared anymore because I am loved, and that is the most important thing."[22]

Her inspiration often comes from Bible verses and inspirational messages that she writes on her wrist.[23][24] She has stated that no gold medal could bring lasting satisfaction to her heart, and that being loved by God rather than her performance determines her identity; this is the reason she says she keeps the focus on making her identity outside of sport.[25]

Olyslagers runs Everlasting Crowns, a ministry dedicated to encouraging and teaching athletes.[26][20]

She married Rhys Olyslagers in April 2022,[27] and since then has competed as Nicola Olyslagers.[28]

References

  1. ↑ 2017 Universiade bio
  2. 1 2 "Nicola McDermott". eurosport.com. Retrieved 8 September 2021.
  3. ↑ "Nicola McDermott". IAAF. Retrieved 13 August 2017.
  4. ↑ "Australia's Nicola McDermott wins silver in Tokyo Olympics women's high jump". ABC News. Retrieved 8 August 2021.
  5. ↑ "Aussie high jumper's stunning silver medal display". Yahoo Sport. Retrieved 8 August 2021.
  6. ↑ "High jump Women". IAAF. Retrieved 13 August 2017.
  7. ↑ "Result - Women's High Jump Final". Gold Coast 2018. Retrieved 14 April 2018.
    - "Commonwealth Games: Australia wins medals in javelin and high jump on final day at Carrara Stadium". ABC News. Retrieved 14 April 2018.
  8. ↑ "World Rankings: Women's High Jump", World Athletics.
  9. ↑ "Weekly Results Wrap". Inside Athletics. Retrieved 17 September 2020.
  10. ↑ "Nicola McDermott continues her rise clearing 1.98m". www.athletics.com.au. Retrieved 17 September 2020.
  11. ↑ Gleeson, Michael (3 September 2020). "Athletics Australia coach to walk out, head up UK Athletics". The Sydney Morning Herald. Retrieved 17 September 2020.
  12. ↑ https://www.abc.net.au/article/100077512
  13. ↑ "High jumper Nicola McDermott the first Australian woman to clear 2m". TheGuardian.com. 18 April 2021.
  14. ↑ "Nicola MCDERMOTT | Profile".
  15. ↑ "Nicola McDermott – the Australian high jump star with Croatian roots – excited to be competing in Zagreb". Croatia Week. 14 September 2020. Retrieved 17 September 2020.
  16. 1 2 Božičević, Vedran (7 August 2021). "Srebro dolazi na Korčulu, osvojila ga je djevojka čiji je uzor Blanka! Čudo iz Ukrajine bez zlata..." [The silver is coming to Korčula, it was won by a girl whose idol is Blanka! No gold for the Ukrainian wunderkind...]. Sportske novosti (in Croatian). Retrieved 7 August 2021.
  17. ↑ "Nicola McDermott". Australian Olympic Committee. Retrieved 27 August 2021.
  18. ↑ "Train Smarter with Science Podcast: Australian High Jumper, Nicola Mcdermott on Qualifying for Tokyo 2020 and Using Cues on Apple Podcasts". Apple Podcasts. Retrieved 7 September 2020.
  19. ↑ "Higher purpose: Faith drives evangelical McDermott to a silver medal". The Age. Retrieved 13 August 2021.
  20. 1 2 Balaranjan, Andrew (29 June 2020). "Live With Nicola McDermott #HighJumper #Encouragement #Faith". YouTube. Retrieved 15 September 2020.
  21. ↑ "McDermott set to soar to a medal in Tokyo". Perth Now. Retrieved 8 August 2021.
  22. ↑ "Nicola McDermott: The Medal is Silver But The Speech Is Gold". Eternity News. Retrieved 13 August 2021.
  23. ↑ "The inspirational message Nicola McDermott wrote before winning Olympic silver". 7 News. Retrieved 13 August 2021.
  24. ↑ ""High jump is a platform to make Jesus known", says new Australian recordwoman". Evangelical Focus. Retrieved 8 August 2021.
  25. ↑ "Our Olympic High Jumper Going for Gold and God". Eternity News. Retrieved 8 August 2021.
  26. ↑ "Ministry". Nicola McDermott. Retrieved 9 October 2020.
  27. ↑ Busy year on several fronts for McDermott, 7 News, 3 April 2022
  28. ↑ Nina Kennedy, Matt Denny and Nicola Olyslagers earn podium finishes at Diamond League meet, ABC News, 6 June 2022
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