Nicola Olyslagers wins Olympic high jump silver as fellow Aussie Eleanor Patterson claims bronze
Updated . First published at
PARIS: Australians Nicola Olyslagers and Eleanor Patterson both scored medals in the Olympic women's high jump final as Ukrainian world record holder Yaroslava Mahuchikh clinched gold.
Olyslagers and Patterson won silver and bronze respectively as two Australian field event athletes landed on the same Olympic podium for the first time in history on Monday morning (AEST).
Australian athletics statistician David Tarbotton dug up that golden nugget as well as this one: Olyslagers became the first Australian field event athlete to win two Olympic medals.
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Bronze was split between Patterson and Ukrainian Iryna Gerashchenko, who recorded top jumps of 1.95 metres and could not be split on countback.
Needing to clear 2.00 metres on her third and final attempt to keep her gold medal chances alive, Olyslagers delivered to set up a battle at 2.02 in front of a 75,000-strong crowd at the Stade de France.
Nicola Olyslagers celebrates in Paris. Cameron Spencer/Getty Images
But the Gosford product, who won silver at the Tokyo Games under her maiden name McDermott, failed at 2.02 on three occasions.
Mahuchikh had failed at that height twice, but when Olyslagers knocked the bar on her third attempt, gold belonged to the Ukrainian because of her superiority on countback.
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Olyslagers described winning silver in Paris as "really beautiful", but admitted she felt she was close to getting over the bar on her first attempt at 2.02.
"If we'd moved that back just a step further [to make it 2.01]," Olyslagers said, "maybe I'd have a different-coloured medal around the neck, but that's OK because that means [in] Los Angeles we know what to do when I get to 2.02."
Yaroslava Mahuchikh soaking up her crowning moment. Julian Finney/Getty Images
Mahuchikh's victory followed last year's world championship triumph in Budapest, as well as the incredible moment she broke a 36-year-old world record last month. On that occasion, she cleared 2.10 to shatter the mark of 2.09 set by Bulgarian Stefka Kostadinova in Rome in 1987.
A touching moment followed the high jump final in Paris as the four medallists — Mahuchikh, Olyslagers, Patterson and Gerashchenko — stood arm-in-arm with the Ukrainian and Australian flags draped around them.
Mahuchikh's victory, Gerashchenko's bronze and the harmony between the four medallists must have brought great joy to Ukraine amid the ongoing war with Russia.
"I want to thank the armed forces of Ukraine and all the military, volunteers and people who support us," Mahuchikh said after her win.
"These are medals for the whole country."
Patterson was delighted to share the podium with Olyslagers.
"Obviously, it was wonderful to be able to share the podium with Nicola last year [at the world championships]," Patterson said.
"But it's an Olympics, it's the big dance, and so that's really, really special."
