Eleanor Patterson becomes only track and field athlete to ban media ahead of Olympic debut
THE intrigue around Eleanor Patterson continues to grow with the high-jumper becoming the only team member to enforce a media ban in the lead-up to her Olympic debut.
Athletics
Don't miss out on the headlines from Athletics. Followed categories will be added to My News.
THE intrigue around Eleanor Patterson continues to grow with the high-jumper enforcing a media ban in the lead-up to her Olympic debut.
There is a sense of paranoia coming from the Patterson camp and she was the only member of Australia’s 60-strong track and field team to be unavailable to the media.
The 20-year-old Commonwealth champion is one of team’s best outside medal hopes with the high-jump wide open given the absence of Russian athletes.
Athletics Australia has been kept at arms length by Patterson and her coach David Green who have forgone up to $30,000 funding so they can remain independent of the sport’s governing body.
While Patterson’s management back in Australia are keen to promote her profile, it’s understood Green wants everything in lock down.
The pair decided not to train and remained out-of-sight when the team camp in Florida was open to the media last week.
Head coach Craig Hilliard has admitted there are concerns about Patterson’s form coming into Rio.
“She is frustrated at the moment because it is not happening for her but if she clicks on the day she puts herself in medal contention,” he said.
“She’s got it all there, she just has to build on what she has done.
“You don’t want to go in hoping, because hope doesn’t win you medals, but if she can find that little adjustment in one or two sessions over here to get it to click for her then she is back on track again without question.”
The Leongatha jumper hasn’t improved on her personal best of 1.96m which she set when bursting onto the scene as a high school student in 2013.
She did show her class by winning the Commonwealth Games gold in Glasgow at her first senior outing in 2014 and then made last year’s world championships final in Beijing.
Given the standard of the high-jump has seemed to plateau this season with the Russians out of the equation, a jump of around 1.96m to 1.98m will be in the medal equation.
Hilliard remains confident one of his star athletes will stand up in the heat of the Olympic cauldron.
“Eleanor is not frightened of the competition, she enjoys it,” he said.
Russia’s Mariya Kuchina won the world title last year with a leap of 2.01m while her teammate Anna Chicherova took gold at London 2012 with 2.05m.
Originally published as Eleanor Patterson becomes only track and field athlete to ban media ahead of Olympic debut
‘Nearly lost my life’: Olympians’ shock reveal
Australian Olympic athletics star Morgan Mitchell has opened up on one of the darkest moments of her life.
Round and round … and round: Aussie hero chases insane record as ‘cooked’ new challenge begins
Two years after completing a 3953km journey from Perth to Sydney, Australian cult hero Nedd Brockmann is about to embark on his next utterly insane challenge.