Olympic pole vault gold medallist Nina Kennedy is ready to compete at the World Championships, only 80 per cent fit after cramming a four-month preparation into six weeks.
She’s been on a journey of understanding: learning to be vulnerable; learning that there’s more to sport than winning; and deciding that in the three years she has left in the sport, she’s going to give everything to become the best in its history.
Kennedy had hamstring surgery five months ago and has been racing the clock to be fit.
She hasn’t competed internationally since last September, a month after she broke through to win her gold medal in Paris.
Kennedy’s gold a fitting way for Australia to reach its greatest Olympic heights
That gold created history, making Kennedy the first Australian woman to win a pole vault gold at the Olympic Games, and the first from her country to win a field event since Steve Hooker, another pole vaulter, took gold in 2008.
On Monday, she’ll be named in the Australian team to compete at the Athletics World Championships in Tokyo, which will begin on September 13, her “season opener”.
Kennedy went under the knife after suffering three hamstring strains in six weeks.
“It was either a three-month conservative rehab, or it was a surgery rehab, also taking three months. So we went down the surgical route, and it feels back to normal, if not better,” she said.
“They cut me open. I was on crutches for quite a few weeks, and the fact that I’m rehabbed and back training, and I’m in full force to go to the World Champs, is a massive win in itself.”
Kennedy is still to regain full trust in her body after a series of injury issues since the Paris Olympics. (Getty Images: Cameron Spencer)
Kennedy said she had confidence in her rehabilitated hamstring, but an abbreviated block of training to get ready for the World Championships meant she was getting pains elsewhere in her body.
“Do I have full confidence in my body as a whole? Probably not,” she said.
“I say that because, (in) only training for six weeks, we have been pushing my body to the absolute limits to get to the World Championships.
“It’s not like I can just rock up and see how I go.
“This six-week process, what we’ve done normally takes four months, so we’ve really had to speed it up, and saying that, it creates niggles elsewhere.
“It creates niggles in my back, it creates niggles in my quad, all that stuff.
“The loading in the pole vault is absolutely insane.”
Kennedy estimated she was at 80 per cent fitness, which she believes is good enough to win a medal at the World Championships
“I’m in good enough shape and mindset to go to the World Champs and give it a red hot crack,” she said.
“We’ve really embraced the challenge, and we’d love to obviously get on the podium; that’s why people go to the World Championships.”
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But, it’s the lessons she said she’d learned through the process of the rapid training block that she believes will help her most in the future.
“A win in our books is getting to the championships, and saying we’ve done everything we can,” she said.
“You know, there’s more to sport than just winning.
“We’re being vulnerable, the lessons I’ve learned just through this process are insane.
“We’ve had the meetings, we’ve done the planning, we’ve done the training, we’ve done the mental preparation.
“If we can do all of that and I win, then great. If we can do all that and I come fourth, then great.”
Kennedy, 28, revealed she planned to compete until the LA Olympics in 2028, and in the meantime, attempt to break the long-standing world record of 5.06 metres, which was set in 2009 by Russian Yelena Isinbayeva.
“I see myself having three years left in the sport and I see myself in a position now to be pushing for five metres, to be pushing for that world record,” she said.
“I think I’m good enough and no-one has come close to it for a very long time, but I see myself as the best athlete out there, so why not?
Kennedy hopes to be able to add to her Olympic medal tally at the LA Games in 2028. (ABC News: Garrett Mundy)
“I want to finish my career knowing that I’ve done everything I can, and I wouldn’t be saying that if I didn’t believe I could do it.”
Kennedy said her biggest challenge as she prepares for the World Championships is balancing her innate competitiveness with the knowledge that she won’t be at peak fitness when she takes to the runway on September 15.
“So, I’ve really just had to channel my mongrel and channel that competitive person into this challenge of, ‘Yeah, let’s see if I can do that,’ and that is really exciting to me,” she said.
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Kennedy famously shared the 2023 World Championship gold medal with American Katie Moon after the two tied for first place, but said she’d become more single-minded since then.
“I just have this mongrel in me; I have this dog in me, and, yeah, I don’t think I’d share again,” she said.
“But then, in the same light, like sharing with Katie all those years ago, it was the perfect stepping stone, and it was so beautiful. I would never, ever regret that decision.”
She said the comeback from her surgery has prepared her for anything that might come in the future.
“God forbid if this happened before LA, we have the skills to be able to go through a surgery, go through a rehab, and still rock up to a major championships knowing that we’ve done everything we can,” she said.
