She is a devout Christian who reads the Bible and raises her long arms in prayer before each jump and then, as she regularly says on her Instagram page, jumps with “joy for Jesus.”
It’s clear that it’s working for Nicola Olyslagers, who is the first Australian woman to clear 2m in the high jump, has a personal best of 2.03m and is ranked second in the world behind Ukraine’s Yaroslava Mahuchikh.
The 1.86 cm high barrel from North Gosford in the New south Wales Central Coast She won silver in the high jump at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics and wants to do more than improve at the Paris Games.
Olyslagers says he not only plans to win the gold medal at the Paris Olympics next month, but also wants to break the world record.
That would require the 27-year-old to clear her personal best by 0.07m, meaning she would have to clear the bar by an additional height of, say, a D-cell battery or an average golf tee to reach 2.10m.
In the world of high jumping, that’s a tall order.
Olyslagers’ main rival Mahuchikh cleared 2.06m in 2021, but the world record of 2.09m she wants to beat was set in 1987 by Bulgaria’s Stefka Kostadinova.
What gives Australian Olympic officials hope that the Olympians can achieve this is part attitude and part self-belief.
In April, instead of attempting to reach what would have been a national record of 2.04m, the 27-year-old raised the bar to 2.06m.
Nicola Olyslagers is the world number two in the women’s high jump and is one of Australia’s best bets to win an athletics gold medal at the Paris Olympics.
She fell short on her first attempt, but almost made it on the second.
“I thought, ‘How is it possible that it’s been 37 years since a woman jumped higher than 2.09? How long is that?'” Olsylagers said afterwards.
‘I noticed that when (Kostadinova) was jumping 2.09, someone else was jumping 2.07 right next to her.
‘So if you don’t have that luxury, you have to do big, bold things that most high jumpers don’t want to do.
‘I’m learning to get out of my comfort zone, to push myself to do things and to not settle for less than the best.
“I don’t think I know when my best moment is and that excites me.”
Other things that set Olyslagers apart are her slow-paced running, her acrobatic training regimen and what she calls her “little golden book,” which she has become famous for writing about in sports competitions, including the recent Olympics.
“This went viral and I didn’t quite understand why. But it’s my sports training diary and I think it’s like basic athletics,” She 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?
‘The Olympics lasted two hours and 45 minutes. It was a long time to be there and focused.
‘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.’
The 27-year-old from the Central Coast of New South Wales trains religiously and is a devout Christian, weaving her faith into her sport and hoping to break a world record in Paris.
‘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.”
As well as statistics, flower drawings and a score (she gave herself a ’10 out of 10′ in Tokyo), the book is also packed with biblical quotes and religious reflections on her sport.
Among his feelings about the day and details about his health and diet are words like, “Surrender: It is like shedding blood, sweat, and tears for a crown you freely gave up. Yet you share in the glory of the God who sees.”
Olyslagers’ Christian beliefs became closely linked to her sporting achievements in her teens, by which time she was already an accomplished athlete.
When she began competing in track and field events at the age of seven, she found she could win most of them, from the shot put to the 200 metres, and then, at the age of eight, the high jump, later saying: “Even then I thought I wanted to jump two metres one day.”
Nicola grew up with his maternal Croatian grandparents (originally from the island of Korčula, Croatia, supposedly the birthplace of Marco Polo) and one of his sporting idols was former Croatian high jump star Blanka Vlasic.
Nicola Olyslagers is pictured with her husband, basketball player and equally devout Christian, Rhys Olyslagers, whom she married in 2022.
Vlasic, the second highest jumper of all time with a personal best of 2.08m, competed in her first Olympics in Sydney in 2000 at age 16 and won silver at the 2008 Beijing Games.
Olyslagers has previously commented on his belief that: ‘Croatian genetics give a physical advantage for many sports due to the height.
“However, I think the theory can also be extended to the Croatian lifestyle, which is very familiar to successful athletes,” he said.
“We learn to work hard, value family and honor the community in which we are located.”
The other belief she says fuels her sporting success comes from when she was 16 and attended a youth camp, which was a big step toward becoming an evangelical Christian.
She changed her professional name when she married basketball player and equally devout Christian Rhys Olyslagers in 2022.
Together they now run Everlasting Crowns, a ministry dedicated to encouraging and teaching athletes.
Her religious preparations were an integral part of her build-up to the Tokyo Olympics, where she won silver in a close final and became only the second Australian woman to win an Olympic high jump medal.
On clearing the bar, as he did (above) in Budapest last year, Olyslagers says: ”When you clear the bar, there’s so much excitement… for a moment you feel like you’re flying.”
As she herself later recounted Christian media outlet ‘Eternity News’, The loss of gold did not crush her.
“Before the Olympics, I was preparing myself both spiritually and physically,” she said.
‘I knew that when I went out there, doubt would be very present, as well as the temptation to hide my faith to get sponsors or to hide my joy in case I didn’t reach the bar.
‘I wasn’t afraid because I knew that when I pursued the highest I could do at those Olympics, even if I didn’t achieve it, my identity in Christ meant that I was more than enough.’
Last year, alongside high jumper Brandon Starc, she was named Athletics NSW Athlete of the Year.
In her preparation for Paris, Olyslagers has spent the season in Europe, competing in June at the Diamond League in Stockholm, and competing in Finland and Czechoslovakia.
She will compete in Paris in the Diamond League on July 7, in the Olympic qualifier on August 2 and the Olympic final will take place on August 4.
Olyslagers and his ‘little golden book’ in which he writes about jumping, training and adds small drawings along with biblical quotes.
Olyslager’s own run up the high jump bar is something she embraces rather than dreads, arms outstretched and thinking of you-know-who.
“The moment right before I jump is something very sweet for me,” she posted on Instagram ahead of a competition in 2022.
‘It requires trust that no matter how much training and preparation has been completed, this moment is about surrendering control and trusting.
“It’s the simple faith of believing that what happens next is not what matters, but He who sustains you through it all.”
On a braver note, Olyslagers has also said that high jumping “has taught me resilience, strength and perseverance in ways that are unattainable without giving 100 percent.”
“But deep down I just want that 10 out of 10 jump,” he said.
“The day I broke the two-metre barrier in Australia was an unforgettable day. You can’t dream too much.
“When you get over the bar, there’s a lot of excitement, but also control. For a moment you feel like you’re flying, and I love that.”
