Athletics world champs 2022: Why Australian long jumper Brooke Buschkuehl was ready to quit

Six years and four months after her previous personal best, long jumper Brooke Buschkuehl smashed it by 8cm. And it came just in time for an athlete who was ready to quit.

In the week leading up to her career-best performance, long-jumper Brooke Buschkuehl was considering walking away from the sport.

Instead, she will go into Sunday’s qualifying at the world championships in Eugene, Oregon, as the No.1-ranked jumper in the world.

One jump two weeks ago has changed the trajectory of Buschkuehl’s life.

Before she broke her own Australian record by 8cm when she jumped 7.13m in Chula Vista, the two-time Olympian felt like she was done with the sport given the previous nine months had been an injury hell.

“I was in a bit of a rut for a little while,” Buschkuehl (formerly Stratton) revealed. “I was injured going into Tokyo (Olympics), I performed pretty well over there (7th) but beyond Tokyo it has been an absolute mental battle to get myself back into the pit.

“I was over in Europe for a few weeks and got sick. I just felt terrible competing and the distances didn’t reflect what I knew I was capable of.

“It really just messed with my head a lot and during the week leading into my 7.13 jump I was actually questioning whether I was going to keep continuing on with the sport.

“I was at the point where I was almost like broken. I just needed something good to happen to be able to give me that confidence and boost that I did end up getting.”

Brooke Buschkuehl after the final of the Women’s Long jump at Tokyo Olympics.

It was some boost. The jump was the longest she’d put down for more than six years, a fact which was also contributing to her mental demons.

“I had been doubting myself and my ability for a little while, it had been six years and four months since I jumped a PB,” she said.

“So I guess anything less than what you are capable of can seem disappointing at times so my confidence is probably the highest it has ever been and what better time for it.”

Buschkuehl, 29, struggles to describe the moment at Chula Vista when everything clicked, other than it was “effortless”.

“It was definitely one of those jumps when I finished it and got out of the pit I knew it was going to be a big jump,” she said.

“I didn’t quite think it was going to be 7.13, that was beyond my expectations but I had been jumping really well the whole competition.

“I had two in the 80s and then the rest of my fouls were big jumps. I knew if I could get one on the board and put it all together then anything was possible.

“Everything came together so perfectly it almost felt like it was effortless.”

Buschkuehl’s career is littered with health battles after she announced herself as one of the world’s best jumpers in 2016 when set a new Australian record of 7.05m, placed fifth at the world indoor championships and then finished seventh at the Rio Olympics with a leap of 6.74m.

Buschkuehl in action at Tokyo.

In 2017 she finished sixth at the world championships - the highest place by an Aussie in the event - and then in 2018 at the Gold Coast Commonwealth Games she took the silver medal (6.77m).

It was around this time she found out she had two autoimmune diseases (Hashimoto’s & coeliac) which took a while to figure out how to manage and then at the end of 2020 she started experiencing knee pain.

Buschkuehl, who is coached by her father Russell in Melbourne, battled through it to finish seventh (6.83m) at the Tokyo Olympics before having surgery in September last year.

“I had a chondroplasty on a full thickness trochlea cartilage tear as well as ITB release surgery,” she said. “The road back has been pretty challenging and my knee is still not pain free but it’s getting there with time.

“I had five months of basically trying to get myself back to running, obviously the jumping was going to come beyond that but it was just a really frustrating and challenging time.

“It probably took a lot longer than I was initially told as well but I honestly think just being able to start from a fresh place has been good. I’ve just been able to work on all the fundamentals, start fresh and also recognise what my weaknesses were.

“I didn’t expect to come back in this sort of shape but thanks to all the work I have been doing it is all really paying off.”

Buschkuehl training with her coach and dad Russell at Casey Fields in 2020.

A month ago after the disastrous European competition phase, Buschkuehl didn’t think she’d get out of qualifying in Eugene. Now, she understands medals are in the equation.

“I wasn’t even sure if I was going to be able to make the final based on distances in Europe,” she said. “I felt like I was really struggling, now it has really changed my perspective on the whole competition.

“I’ve always known if I can get my body into shape then anything is possible. I have jumped seven metres before so it’s always been in me, just a matter of feeling healthy and having the consistency of training which I haven’t really had, which is why the 7.13 was a bit of a surprise to me.

“I don’t want to increase my expectations of myself, I want to go in, enjoy the experience and try to replicate what I did two weeks ago and who knows what could happen.”

Originally published as Athletics world champs 2022: Why Australian long jumper Brooke Buschkuehl was ready to quit