Nicola Lauren Olyslagers (née McDermott) (born 28 December 1996) is an Australian

high jump The high jump is a track and field event in which competitors must jump unaided over a horizontal bar placed at measured heights without dislodging it. In its modern, most-practiced format, a bar is placed between two standards with a crash mat f ...

er. She won the silver medal at the

Tokyo 2020 The officially the and officially branded as were an international multi-sport event that was held from 23 July to 8 August 2021 in Tokyo, Japan, with some of the preliminary sporting events beginning on 21 July 2021. Tokyo ...

and Paris 2024 Olympics and the bronze medal at the 2023 World Athletics Championships in the high jump. Olyslagers is the current high jump Oceanian record holder, and the world champion at the 2024 World Athletics Indoor Championships.

Career

Olyslagers competed in the women's high jump at the

2017 World Championships in Athletics The 2017 IAAF World Championships, the sixteenth edition of the IAAF World Championships, were held from 4 to 13 August at London Stadium in London, United Kingdom. London was officially awarded the championships on 11 November 2011. Bidding p ...

. Olyslagers also competed in the women's high jump at the 2018 Commonwealth Games, where she achieved a personal best jump of 1.91m and won the bronze medal. On 20 June 2019, Olyslagers jumped a personal best of 1.96m at Mestský Stadion, Ostrava, Czech Republic. Achieving a new personal best of 1.98 m in Sinn, Germany, on 29 August 2020, she rose to second place in the all-time list of Australian women high jumpers. Olyslagers set Australian and Oceanian records with a personal best 2.00 m jump on 18 April 2021. She improved her personal best to 2.01 in Stockholm on 4 July 2021 and to 2.02 at the Tokyo Olympics on 7 August 2021, winning silver. In March 2024, Olyslagers won a gold medal at the World Indoor Championships in

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International competitions

Personal life

Olyslagers is of maternal Croatian ancestry, hailing from the

island An island or isle is a piece of land, distinct from a continent, completely surrounded by water. There are continental islands, which were formed by being split from a continent by plate tectonics, and oceanic islands, which have never been ...

Korčula Korčula () is a Croatian island in the Adriatic Sea. It has an area of , is long and on average wide, and lies just off the Dalmatian coast. Its 15,522 inhabitants (2011) make it the second most populous Adriatic island after Krk. The populat ...

. Olyslagers had always been tall for her age, and says that she was not good at sports in her early years due to a lack of coordination. After she was introduced to athletics at school at age of seven and won the majority of the events from shotput to 200m, her parents got her involved with Little Athletics. She studied

biochemistry Biochemistry, or biological chemistry, is the study of chemical processes within and relating to living organisms. A sub-discipline of both chemistry and biology, biochemistry may be divided into three fields: structural biology, enzymology, a ...

at the

University of Sydney The University of Sydney (USYD) is a public university, public research university in Sydney, Australia. Founded in 1850, it is the oldest university in both Australia and Oceania. One of Australia's six sandstone universities, it was one of the ...

. Her sports idol is Blanka Vlašić. Olyslagers is a devout

evangelical Christian Evangelicalism (), also called evangelical Christianity or evangelical Protestantism, is a worldwide, interdenominational movement within Protestantism, Protestant Christianity that emphasizes evangelism, or the preaching and spreading of th ...

, and is a member of a

Pentecostal Pentecostalism or classical Pentecostalism is a movement within the broader Evangelical wing of Protestantism, Protestant Christianity that emphasizes direct personal experience of God in Christianity, God through Baptism with the Holy Spirit#Cl ...

denomination that she prefers not to name. She became a

Christian A Christian () is a person who follows or adheres to Christianity, a Monotheism, monotheistic Abrahamic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus in Christianity, Jesus Christ. Christians form the largest religious community in the wo ...

while attending a youth camp at the age of 16, and has regularly pointed to her beliefs as a source of inspiration. Olyslagers runs Everlasting Crowns, a ministry dedicated to encouraging and teaching athletes. She married Rhys Olyslagers in April 2022, and since then has competed as Nicola Olyslagers.Nina Kennedy, Matt Denny and Nicola Olyslagers earn podium finishes at Diamond League meet

ABC News ABC News most commonly refers to: * ABC News (Australia), a national news service of the Australian Broadcasting Corporation * ABC News (United States), a news-gathering and broadcasting division of the American Broadcasting Company ABC News may a ...

, 6 June 2022

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Olyslagers, Nicola 1996 births Living people Australian female high jumpers World Athletics Championships athletes for Australia Place of birth missing (living people) University of Sydney alumni Commonwealth Games bronze medallists for Australia Athletes (track and field) at the 2018 Commonwealth Games Australian Athletics Championships winners Australian biochemists Australian evangelicals Australian Pentecostals Australian people of Croatian descent Athletes (track and field) at the 2020 Summer Olympics Medalists at the 2020 Summer Olympics Olympic silver medalists in athletics (track and field) Olympic silver medalists for Australia Olympic athletes for Australia Medallists at the 2018 Commonwealth Games World Athletics Championships medalists Athletes from New South Wales Athletes (track and field) at the 2024 Summer Olympics Medalists at the 2024 Summer Olympics Diamond League winners 21st-century Australian sportswomen World Athletics Indoor Championships winners Sportspeople from Gosford People from Gosford Commonwealth Games bronze medallists in athletics