- Nicola Olyslagers won over fans with her endearing personality.
- The Olympic athlete thrilled the crowd at the Paris Games
- But she failed to achieve her goal of winning gold on Sunday.
Nicola Olyslagers has won the hearts and minds of sports fans with her infectious personality at the Olympic Games.
Olyslagers, the first Australian woman to clear 2 metres in the high jump, faced Ukraine’s Yaroslava Mahuchikh for gold in Paris on Sunday in a dramatic final.
The 25-year-old, a devout Christian who prays before each attempt, says she jumps for “joy for Jesus.”
And he quickly won over the Stade de France crowd and the millions of fans watching from home with his positivity, cheering spectators on before his attempts and beaming with delight every time he made his mark.
But there was one act that was the most endearing, with Olyslagers being the only athlete to write in a notebook after her jumps.
He had previously called the newspaper his ‘little golden book’, and rates herself with a 10 for every effort.
“This went viral and I didn’t really understand why. But it’s my sports training diary and I think it’s like the basic athletics course,” he told Nine.
‘Just write down what you did to train every day. But I went a step further and said, well, what did I learn and what made me feel good and what do I need to change?
Nicola Olyslagers has won fans from all over the world at the Olympic Games
The infectious personality of the devout Christian high jumper was evident to all.
‘The Olympics (in Tokyo) lasted two hours and 45 minutes. It was a long time to be there and concentrate.
‘So this book filled me with inspiration and lessons I learned. I could almost write a letter to myself in the future to say, ‘Hey, you’re in the Olympics, but remember this and I’ll see it through.’
‘It was a really beautiful moment to be able to take the journal with me to those competitions and write down exactly what I was feeling at the time so I could reflect on it later.
‘I originally did it because I thought no one else would see it.
“And the next thing you know, your little doodles are making headlines. That was never really the intention.”
Olyslagers was seen writing in a diary after each jump in Paris
In the end, Olyslagers was unable to clear the 2.02m mark and had to settle for silver, while Mahuchikh took the main prize.
But fans felt the Olyslagers embodied the Olympic spirit and took to Twitter to praise the Australian.
“Nicola Olyslager’s happiness is contagious!” said one fan.
“This Australian show jumper is gorgeous,” said another fan. “I’m now a fan of Olyslagers.”
A third fan asked: ‘How can you NOT cheer for Nicola Olyslagers?’
‘Nicola Olyslagers is the cutest thing with her little journalist.’