Gold medal hopeful Eleanor Patterson talks knitting, her career and what’s to come in Paris

Eleanor Patterson will be one of Australia’s best medal hopes at the Paris Olympics, but the high jump star knows the pressure is looming, and how best to channel the golden expectations.

Eleanor Patterson’s training kit has spilt out of her bag and on to the concrete platform adjacent to the warm-up track at Homebush Bay.

Towel, water bottle, spare shoes, some snacks. All the paraphernalia you would associate with a world-class athlete gearing up for the biggest year of her career.

There’s also a needle and yarn. Yes, you read that right. A needle and yarn. You see, Patterson has taken up knitting. She started about 18 months ago and hasn’t stopped.

Whenever she gets a spare minute and feels the need to unwind, Australia’s world champion high jumper picks up her needle and yarn and goes hell for leather.

Cardigans, jumpers, hair ties. You name it, she knits it. Among the images on social media of Patterson training hard and taking on the world, there’s even evidence of her handiwork.

A classy little cardigan number that Patterson reckons she knocked up in no time at all.

“A hot minute,” she writes.

Eleanor Patterson with one of her knitted cardigans. Source: Instagram

The image also comes with a warning – just make sure you follow the pattern.

Knitting – she has christened it one of her mannerisms – is Patterson’s way of temporarily diverting her mind from what looms on the horizon.

The chance to reach the pinnacle of her sport is closing fast and Patterson is ready to sit down on a plastic chair and unpack the year ahead, starting with the expectation that will shadow her in months to come.

“Not with a heavy heart,” she says.

“I think when I was younger, I found the pressure to be a lot more overwhelming and now I’ve been around a long while I find – and this is you know, every major is different – but I’m finding that I’m getting more and more comfortable when it comes to a major championship and it feels like it’s my bread and butter.

“It’s exciting and it’s the pinnacle of our event – a major championship or world champs, the Olympics and so.”

In other words, she feels like this is where she belongs. Going jump-for-jump with the best in the world on the biggest stage,

“One hundred per cent – that’s exactly right,” Patterson says.

“I feel like that’s what we focus all their energy towards – a major championship and medals. And so I don’t necessarily feel the pressure.

“It excites me because I like to kind of get the best out of myself. I think it’s a natural thing in a lot of ways that as an athlete, you want more.

“I’ve over the years learned to kind of take things within my stride and appreciate little wins. I’ve learned a lot over the years as far as like medals don’t define who you are.

“I’m still Eleanor, the person outside of athletics. But everything I’m doing does lean towards putting a lot of effort and my heart and soul into this, and so you hope to get out what you put in and you hope to put your best foot forward when it counts.”

Patterson is striving towards the sport’s pinnacle at the Olympics. (Photo by Ben Stansall / AFP)

It hasn’t always been that way. There was a time, Patterson admits, when she defined herself by her results. It wore her down to the point that she took a year off and worked in a school, helping others and gaining a fresh perspective on life.

She returned a different person. Still a competitive beast, mind you, but less concerned with the outcome and more driven by her own standards.

“I took a year off in 2018 and I think that year essentially I had a lot of burnout and I just was not enjoying the sport any more,” she says.

“And so when I took that year off … I was working in school, I was helping other people, I was just being myself and I think it really helped me gain a different perspective.

“It’s not the end of the world if I don’t succeed in a lot of ways. I really, really want to. I’ll put my best foot forward but those who love me will still love me at the end of the day.

“I mean, I say it as a joke sometimes but my job is to jump over a bar. It’s a bit silly when you kind of look at it in some ways.

“And so even though I put my heart and soul into it – I love it to bits – but it’s a bit silly sometimes. I think I kind of try and balance it out in my head, ‘Oh, it’s just high jump’.”

Soaring over a silly bar has made Patterson one of our great hopes heading into the Paris Games, where it would be a surprise if she wasn’t vying for a place on the podium.

A graduate of Little Athletics in country Victoria – she grew up in Leongatha – she won a gold medal at the world youth championships a decade ago but truly put the world on notice 12 months ago when she won gold at the world championships.

Patterson will be one of Australia’s great hopes at Paris. Picture: Michael Klein

She backed that up with a silver this year in Budapest when sandwiched between Ukraine superstar Yaroslava Mahuchikh and her fellow Australian Nicola Olyslagers on the podium.

Mahuchikh and Olyslagers will be among her most significant threats in Paris, her duel with her compatriot one of the more intriguing subplots as Australia prepares for France.

Patterson and Olyslagers have driven each other to new heights as the sport enjoys a golden age in this country.

“I think I enjoy just having Eleanor as Eleanor and Nicola as Nicola, but it is a beautiful thing that we have both of us coming through,” Patterson says.

“And I have such respect for Nicola. She’s a beautiful person inside and out, and she has had so far an incredible career.

“So it’s wonderful to see such strength within high jumping in Australia, not only just for ourselves to push each other, but also for the sake of like, ‘hey, guys, in Australia, like, we’re pretty good at this’.

“Even as far as the rest of the world – the Ukrainians at the moment (have been) huge talents and have been for many, many, many years – but us Australians are bringing it to the rest of the world and proving that we’re pretty handy, especially in technical events.

“It is a special time. Definitely very unique.”

Patterson has the opportunity to coat it in gold. She plans to remain in Australia until May and then head overseas, when the Diamond League meets will begin in earnest.

Her career has flourished under coach Alex Stewart, who counts male high jump hope Brandon Starc among his training group.

Eleanor Patterson (L), Yaroslava Mahuchikh (C) and Nicola Olyslagers (R) celebrate after the women's high jump final at the World Athletics Championships in 2023. (Photo by Ben Stansall / AFP)

Patterson has no shortage of brains to pick in the lead-up to Paris but it is her own mindset that may eventually separate her from the competition.

“Having won world champs, definitely that was huge, and it was a pivotal moment in my career,” Patterson says.

“It actually probably took me about six months to really kind of take it in my stride and be like I deserved that gold.

“I found I had a little bit of impostor syndrome and feeling a bit like people know me, people know who I am now. I found that quite uncomfortable to begin with.

“I think it’s because I knew I could bring such performance and a gold medal to fruition – and then all of a sudden, the rest of the world knew that I did it.

“And I found that a little bit uncomfortable and I’m quite a quiet person and quite introverted, so I think there was just kind of a little bit of discomfort there.

“And so it was uncomfortable at first but then I was like, ‘no, I did that, it’s OK to know that you did that and that it was it wasn’t a fluke instance’.

“But being in this position and performing and performing at my best at a major championship, it feels like it’s something that I was born to do or I’m capable of, and I’m bringing that to fruition.

“I’m enjoying it. I’m loving it and … obviously a world champs is huge within the athletics world, but Olympic gold is just as if not more important rooted with meaning.

“And so yeah, it would be huge. Everyone’s talented and everyone’s worked hard and you just have fun. I feel very lucky.

“I’m just really focused on this, this exact moment and putting my best foot forward trying to put really good training together to be able to be to be ready for the big dance.”

With that, Patterson is done. She walks over to her bag and begins to pack up, knitting needle and yarn included. Time to get back to work.

Originally published as Gold medal hopeful Eleanor Patterson talks knitting, her career and what’s to come in Paris