Table of Contents
Kurtis Marschall knows when his pole vaulting career hit rock bottom.
It was 2021, and South Australia stood inside Japan’s National Stadium with a third ‘x’ next to their name on the scoreboard. He had just recorded a ‘no heighter’ (not clearing any bar) in the pole vault final at the Tokyo Olympics.
“It was quite traumatic,” Marschall recalls.
“After that, it took a while to get over the demons of lack of height in the Olympics, because that’s basically the lowest in this sport.”
Marschall is sitting in the stands at WA Athletics Stadium, waiting to start a training session as he steps up his preparations for the Paris Olympics, which will be his third Olympic appearance at the age of 27.
He is sincere about what these Games mean to him.
“Considering how it went last time, this time I’m going to look for some redemption,” he said.
“People will say ‘you made it to the Olympics, that’s amazing.’
“I still cherish that experience, for the rest of my life it will be amazing. But knowing that I went into that competition in a better place than I thought and then it all fell apart…
“I didn’t know what to think. I didn’t know what the decision would be from there. It was all very emotional.”
the way back
A lot of time has passed since the Tokyo Games, something that has allowed Marschall to move forward. In 2022 he won a second gold medal at the Commonwealth Games and in 2023 he won bronze at the World Championships.
He credits some difficult conversations after Paris for improving his performances, as well as spending time with Australian sprinter Rohan Browning, who had the opposite Tokyo experience to Marschall’s.
“He had an incredible Olympic experience back then, when he ran 10.01 seconds in the heat and made it to the semi-final,” he said.
“He was opening doors for himself while I was closing them.
“With him being positive about everything and me being negative about everything, it made me realize that this is not the end, you are still young, you are still fresh, you have many years ahead of you.” you.”
He returned to Perth after some European competitions and sat down with his team, where they planned the next few years.
The history of Tokyo
While Marschall’s appearance in Tokyo will always be remembered for falling short in the final, that result was the culmination of several years of trouble.
He believes it all started in 2018 in a Diamond League final.
“I arrived at a competition in Brussels fatigued and failed on my first attempt,” Marschall said.
“I landed on my feet and broke both my heels.”
He recovered quickly from an injury, trying to get fit for next year’s World Championships and knowing that the 2020 Olympics were looming.
That resulted in a shoulder injury in early 2019, which compromised his technique and left his back vulnerable.
“That led to maybe six weeks of bad jumping, and the six weeks of bad jumping led to a stress fracture in his back,” he said.
“After that, 2019 was basically cancelled.”
‘A great learning experience’
Marschall recovered and entered 2020 in good shape, but the COVID pandemic brought the world to a standstill.
“We were basically locked out of the competitive scene around the world for that entire year. So I didn’t have that exposure to international competition that I was used to before,” he said.
When the Olympics came around in 2021, Marschall was competing against athletes he hadn’t seen in a long time, in an empty stadium. He wasn’t mentally prepared for it.
“I lost concentration. I was doing things on the field that I normally wouldn’t do, like lying down with my feet up,” he said.
“My coach was trying to give me information on how I can get over the bar and I wasn’t really getting it.
“It was quite discouraging not to have a crowd, because normally the crowd out there adds to the energy and distracts you a little bit.”
Marschall had also been considered a close contact of another athlete, resulting in him, his coach and fellow pole vaulter Nina Kennedy being kicked out of the Olympic village.
“Having that focus at that moment and switching to things I absolutely couldn’t control killed me,” he said.
“I think it was definitely a great learning experience.”
Views set in an exclusive club
Marschall has a personal best of 5.95 meters and will need to clear 5.82 at the Australian Athletics Championships in Adelaide for automatic qualification to Paris.
But he has ambitions that go beyond those heights.
You want to join an exclusive club.
Only 28 jumpers in history have surpassed 6 metres, including Marschall’s coach, Paul Burgess, and his inspiration, Steve Hooker.
“I like to compare it to the 100-meter dash. It’s like breaking that 10-second barrier,” he explained.
“If you can do that in a 100-meter dash, you’re somebody and you’re an incredible athlete in that sport.”
Drawn to a ‘crazy, strange sport’
Hooker’s 6.06 meter jump in 2008 was a pivotal moment in attracting Marschall to the sport as a child.
“Everyone thinks it’s a very crazy, strange sport, and that’s what I loved about it at first,” he said.
“Look at Steve Hooker in 2008 jumping 20 feet with a stick, like it’s something ridiculous and mind-blowing.”
Loading Instagram content
Marschall was not able to try jumping until he was 12, when he attended a trial day in Adelaide.
“I think I cleared my head height on the first day and the coach there in Adelaide told me: if you can clear your head height on the first day, you should keep coming back,” he said.
“I kept coming back, stuck, stuck, stuck, and experienced quite a bit of success along the way, because you progress pretty quickly.
“At 16 I had to leave football and specialize in pole vaulting.”
Marschall was part of a national team and went to the World Junior Championships in 2014, and from there he knew he wanted to be a professional pole vaulter.
“That’s right, you can travel the world doing this. I love the idea,” he said.
Chasing the best of all time
Marschall is competing at a time when the sport is incredibly strong. The greatest jumper in history, Armand Duplantis, continues to take the sport to new heights and Marschall wants to go with him.
“A lot of people think that competing against him could be discouraging or demoralizing,” Marschall said of being in the same field as the Swede, who holds a world record of 6.23 metres.
“But to be honest, I’m soaking up the experience of being in this era of pole vault, like it’s one of the craziest moments in men’s pole vault.” [vault] that has ever been.
“world [Duplantis] He’s breaking world records like every season, he’s attempting world records, basically in every competition, and to be a part of that is just phenomenal.
“If I’m just up there pushing the guy to make sure he jumps 6 meters clean, to make sure he has to win that competition, and I’m up there with 5,9, 6 meters, then that’s my job done.”
Duplantis will be waiting in Paris and Marschall wants to share the podium again after his bronze at last year’s World Championships.
Maybe I can even snatch victory from him.
Sports content to make you think… or allow you not to. A newsletter delivered every Friday.
Charging