Paris Olympics, 2024: Kurtis Marschall, Aussie pole vaulter, defies logic to make the Games

Kurtis Marschall wasn’t expected to compete at Paris after he dislocated his ankle at the national championships in Adelaide in April. These are the extraordinary lengths he went to to save his Olympic dream.

Kurtis Marschall has only just started to stand up in the shower again.

For just under three months he has had to be inventive in how he washes himself to save his Olympic dream.

He hasn’t been able to get his left ankle wet because of the gaping wound on it. This ritual has been a constant reminder of how close he came to not making it to Paris.

The world championship bronze medallist in the pole vault last year dislocated his ankle during a jump at the national championships in Adelaide in April.

It happened as his ankle landed on his pole on the way down and Marschall was forced to push his ankle back into place himself before being carried off the mat.

It’s a near-miracle Australian pole vaulter Kurtis Marschall will even compete at Paris. Picture: Tony McDonough

“I clicked it back in myself which was insane,” Marschall says. “The adrenalin was there and it just looked like it wasn’t supposed to be there so I just chucked it back in.

“Luckily all the roadblocks that could have been in the way we just pushed past. No surgery as there were no breaks to start with, I didn’t have to put it in a cast but I got a necrotic wound on the ankle which was an issue.”

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For those who aren’t experts in the medical field, a necrotic wound isn’t a fun thing.

Marschall’s ankle and foot swelled up so much he had a blood clot in his foot. He wasn’t getting blood to the tissue so a 20 cent piece-sized necrotic wound - which is black mass of dead tissue - came to the surface.

It had to be cut out but there was no time for skin grafts so he had to let it heal naturally and do everything to make sure it didn’t get infected.

Hence why his showering process has been difficult with the wound obviously now allowed to get wet.

Kurtis Marschall has gone to extraordinary lengths to represent Australia at the Olympics. Picture: Getty Images

If you weren’t one of the best pole vaulters in the world heading to an Olympic Games, you would probably still have the ankle in a moon boot right now but instead Marschall has already competed three times with his confidence growing by the day about what he can do in Paris.

“To be honest it never really crossed my mind that the Olympics were off the table but the whole way through each little roadblock you would get through and that would be amazing but then you realise it was still so far away from where I wanted to be,” Marschall said.

“World champs bronze medal last year with a 5.95m clearance, that’s the pinnacle of my career so far and I just wanted to better that this year.

“So for this to happen . . . you just try to stay positive and hold the whole team together to make sure everyone is on the same page.”

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He quickly progressed from walking to jogging to doing jumps off a small run-up but it wasn’t until he travelled to Europe at the end of June that he put the ankle to its biggest test.

“It was just over four weeks ago where I did my first full approach run-up,” he says. “Budg (coach Paul Burgess) just screamed, I screamed, all the emotion came out because it was like I couldn’t believe what we had done.

“Then I went to a comp and jumped 5.75m with my first jump and we were like, ‘Damn, I haven’t forgotten’.

“The next comp was a 5.83m clearance and a couple of cracks at 5.91m so it was like we’re actually on track here which is wild.”

Marschall, 27, still limps around after each session with the ankle still sore and he will compete with some heavy painkillers.

“It’s a sh.t show but we are still in the fight,” he says. “It’s just about getting confidence back in it and then just getting through qualifying because then everyone is in for a fight (in the final).

“And you never know what can happen, miracles can happen.”