The Australian high-jumper’s quirks and routines throughout Saturday night’s Olympic final captivated millions watching on television throughout the world.
McDermott racing straight back to her seat, pulling out a journal and scribbling down notes rating each jump is a critical part of her competition routine.
“I did (think I had the gold medal),” she revealed afterwards. “The 2:04m I gave myself a 10 out 10 for that jump, the execution.
“I felt the clearance in the air but just the lack of experience for the timing meant that it just didn’t happen today.”
There are categories which she reviews after each jump including take-off, run-up, how much lean during the leap, every important detail registered.
The ritual came via her sports psychologist and helped her focus during the competition and she even took to writing them down on an Australian shirt during the final.
“The analysing really is just great to ground me, to just capture exactly what that feeling was,” McDermott explained after breaking her own Australian record, 2.02m, to finish second to three-time Russian world champion Mariya Lasitskene.
“It is a really great tool for me to learn how to jump higher because even though I jumped 2:02 I know that there are higher heights.
“If I am very strategic in the way that I write, I know in my next competitions coming up I will have that fresh on the paper and I can learn from it and hopefully get 2:04 and 2:05 next time.”
Asked exactly what she wrote down after her silver-medal performance, the 24-year-old went blank: “Good question, I actually don’t remember it. It’s a bit like a dream, you wake up and you do something and then it just goes.”
McDermott, who turned to Christianity in high school after being bullied as a child, competed with the message ‘Jesus makes all things new” written on her wrist.
“In my first world championships I came last, I didn’t clear a single bar and there is always that thought that works in my head of, Could this be the time I don’t clear a starting height?,” she said.
“But I always remember I have got a clean slate just like my past is a clean slate so is today. I just run with that, knowing I am with God and he has been with me every single training session and I am carrying a message bigger than myself, he is going to make this new.”
McDermott is dreaming about stadiums being full again with fans, not just for support but so she can reach them.
She sees it as her mission to spread the word, like US TV evangelist Billy Graham did and along with other Christian athletes has formed their own evangelist mission called Everlasting Crowns.
“I am so thankful the Olympics went ahead. I think the world needs to have some inspiration at the moment,” she says.
“Every single time I saw an empty stadium I just reminded myself that one day those stadiums will be filled and my dream has been since 2017 that it wouldn’t just be for sporting performances.
“That maybe that could have revival meetings again like Billy Graham did decades ago in Australia and people would hear things from athletes that would change their lives not just be spectators.
“That has been my drive. Those empty seats almost inspired even more than when there is a full stadium.”
McDermott’s silver medal made it three medals for Australia’s track and field team - decathlete Ash Moloney and javelin thrower Kelsey-Lee Barber won bronze.The emerging depth in the sport was the exciting part with 13 top eight performances, five Australian records broken and 16 personal bests from the team of 63.
MCDERMOTT TAKES OUT SILVER MEDAL
Religion and high jump are Nicola McDermott's passions and they combined together in beautiful synchronicity for Olympic silver in Tokyo.
McDermott has always believed the Lord gave her wings to fly and she soared into the history books, breaking her own Australian record as she came agonisingly close to Olympic glory.
In a thrilling jump-off for gold, McDermott cleared 2.02m on her second attempt to match the clearance of Russia's Mariya Lasitskene.
But the reigning world champion then cleared 2.04m on her second attempt, which the Australian was unable to match.
Rather than be daunted by the occasion, the 24-year-old from the NSW Central Coast smiled her way through the Olympic final.
Her ritual of writing down an assessment of every jump in a journal had TV viewers around the world captivated.
After every entry she also drew a yellow Christian cross on the page.
McDermott's silver medal caps off an incredible Games for Australia's athletics team with her victory coming after bronze medals to javelin thrower Kelsey-Lee Barber and decathlete Ash Moloney.
It matches Australia's previous best result in the high-jump with Michelle Brown also winning silver in Tokyo in 1964.
Adding to the history narrative, for the first time Australia had two jumpers in the top five with Eleanor Patterson finishing fifth with a best clearance of 1.96m.
McDermott became a devoted Christian in high school after she had initially been bullied as a kid because of her height - she was often called a giraffe.
When she broke the national record in April she had a passage from the Bible written on tape on her wrist.
She is also the co-founder of a ministry group, Everlasting Crowns, with other international athletes.
McDermott has literally raised the bar this year becoming the first Australian woman in history to clear the magical two-metre mark.
She was the story of the national championships in Sydney in April when she cleared 2.00m to claim the Australian record.
McDermott then improved that to 2.01m in Stockholm last month.
She didn't elect to enter the Olympic final until 1.89m which she cleared easily and immediately looked in total control.
A miss at 1.96m was soon rectified and when she cleared 1.98m on her first attempt to put herself in the frame for gold.
She then cleared 2.00m at her first attempt to put the pressure on Lasitskene who missed at her first attempt before clearing it with her next jump.
The roles were reversed at 2.02m with the reigning world champion making a clear leap first-up while McDermott missed her first before dug deep again.
RE-LIVE all the day 15 action in our live blog below
Updates
Australia superstar Patty Mills – who scored 42 points in the bronze medal win – has delivered an emotional and deeply thought-out post-match interview with Channel 7.
ON MISSION TO WIN MEDAL
We have been waiting for this moment for a long time. And it's taken a lot of experiences, a lot of ups, a lot of downs, for us to get over the hump. And it's our culture, at the end of the day, Australian culture, our Aussie spirit. It's the boys being able to hang together and understand the meaning of what it means to represent your country, and how deep the layers go. For it
to just come pouring out in moments like this. Now that we've made it over the hill, this is the standard now of Australian basketball form and, and we take nothing less. We say gold vibes only is the standard and we don't accept anything less, on the court, off the court, all of our preparation, and it pays off in the long run. I don't know whether to cry, laugh, smile, a lot of emotions.
MORE THAN WINNING A MEDAL
Definitely, but I think we have been able to build our Boomers culture in understanding the lay of the land that goes far beyond basketball. For us, that is always giving back, and where we have been able to build our Boomers culture to this point is understanding where we come from, where we see the future, you know. Living in the present, and who we represent. Our name is the Boomers for a reason, and for us to give back to our nickname, it is where we started this campaign. We are able to dig deep and find all of these, and it touched everyone. For us older guys, we have been through a lot. For the Young Boys, the new boys who have come into this, they really feel in come into this, they really feel in — and understand the meaning of what it means to be a boomer.
ON THE LEGENDS
They have been a big part of the Boomers program for a long time, they have been through just as much as we have. But we represent the past and the present and the future that is coming in, and they will know, we are only here because of all of them, you know. Right back to the
Tokyo team which first came over here, we were able to touch base with that team and what they were able to do. Guys like Andrew Gaze and Andrew Bogut and uncle Danny Moore Sue and all these people that we went and touched to make sure we revisited where the Boomers program
started.
ON HIS PARENTS
It is time to bring an Olympic medal home, back to our country, Australia, so I can hang it up at Mum and dad's house.
Australia’s Nicola McDermott has taken silver in the women’s high-jump after a magnificent effort at Tokyo’s Olympic Stadium.
McDermott cleared 2.02m to take second place behind the ROC athlete Mariya Lasitshene, who cleared 2.04.
Ukraine’s Yaroslava Mahuchikh was third with a jump of 2m.
Lasitshene and McDermott both wept tears of joy after a competition which ran for two hours in hot and humid conditions.
McDermott draped herself in the Australian flag as she ran to acknowledge her teammates in the stands.
Australia’s Eleanor Patterson finished a respectable 5th with a best jump of 1.96.
– Ellen Whinnett
The Boomers’ golden generation finally has their medal.
The elusive prize the Boomers have been chasing quite literally forever is in their hands after a Patty Mills-inspired 107-93 win over Slovenia late on Saturday night.
It’s not gold. But a history-making Olympic bronze is enough. Because it so almost could have been fourth. Again.
Mills scored 42 points, the Boomers locked down a frustrated and injured Luka Doncic, and ultimately did enough to get over the line as the Australian men’s basketball team made history inside the Saitama Super Arena.
Cannel 7 commentator and Boomers legend on Patty Mills's performance.
"Not only is it an opportunity for an historic moment with a bronze medal, but you see one of the all- time great performances by an Australian player: 42 points, 15 of 31 – extraordinary stuff by Patty Mills. Seven assists to go along with the 42."
"And this is just an incredible display of when you've needed your leader to step up. Well, he's done that and some. 48 is the all-time high by an Australian in the Olympics."
Here come the Slovenia! They're closed the gap … DANTE EXUM hit a big three and follows it with a fast-break dunk!
Aus 90, SLO 83
Exciting stuff: Nicola McDermott is set to medal in the women’s high jump, sitting on top of the leader board.
But fellow Aussie Eleanor Patterson’s Olympics is over, with the 1.98m bar proving too much of a hurdle.
McDermott cleared the 2m bar easily on her first attempt, looking to have plenty of room to spare and setting off a huge cheer from the Australians in the stands.
– Ellen Whinnett
Australia has an 11-point lead with 10 minutes to go in this bronze medal match. The Boomers’ golden generation is on the verge of picking up an elusive Olympic medal.
It’s there for the taking.
And it’s actually quite absurd that they don’t have a much bigger advantage. They’ve kept Luka Doncic to just 14 points, but have allowed Slovenia to chip away through their other starters – with the likes of Kleme Prepelic (11 points) and Mike Tobey (11 points) finding ways to contribute.
But then there’s Patty.
The Boomers’ captain is having a monster evening, with 36 points in a single-minded performance where he simply isn’t taking no for an answer.
Joe Ingles sprung to life late in the third quarter, hitting two threes to push Australia’s lead back into double digits.
Ten minutes to go. Is this their moment?
– Joe Barton in Tokyo
Great effort from Nicola McDermott who cleared 1.98 on her first attempt. That puts her initial miss at 1.96 firmly in the background. And she’s the only one to clear the bar on the first attempt.
Teammate Eleanor Patterson missed on her first go at 1.98 but still has two more tries up her sleeve. It’s a big jump for Patterson, whose personal best is 1.99. Her best so far this season has been 1.96.
Three competitors failed to make it over the 1.96 bar so we are down to nine in the finals field.
We are five rounds in and McDermott is sitting in first place, with Patterson in equal second.
– Ellen Whinnett in Tokyo
The Aussies have missed out on the medals in the men’s 1500m finals.
The King island flyer, Stewart McSweyn, ran 7th with a time of 3.31.91. Teammate Oliver Hoare was 11th in 3.35.79.
Gold medallist Jakob Ingebrigtsen, of Norway, smashed the Olympic record, clocking 3.28.32, while Kenya’s Timothy Cheruiyot, who led the race most of the way, won silver. Josh Kerr from Great Britain took the bronze.
McSweyn had been in the top three most of the way but couldn’t maintain the brutal pace when Ingebrigtsen hit the accelerator with 300m to go.
McSweyn said although the “the legs ran out of steam” in the men’s 1500m final, he was happy with his performance.
“I went in with big goals,” he said after his race.
“To finish seventh, I didn’t achieve the goal I was after but to run 3.31.91 in an Olympic final – I can’t be too disappointed.
“I put myself in the right spot (at the bell) unfortunately the legs just weren’t there but the effort was there.
“Overall I’m happy with it, the guys were too good today. I’ll have to keep trying to get better for the next major championship.”
McSweyn said he had room for improvement to bridge the gap between him and the podium placers in his race.
“I can take confidence I was in the mix,” he said.
“I was able to handle the three rounds. I was stoked to run 3.31 in the final but it’s kind of humbling. My training was at a different level coming in. The lead in races I was right there in the mix, to not do that (come in the top three) is disappointing but shows I’m not far off.
“I feel I can still get a lot better for world championships next year. We only have three years to the next Olympics, I’ve just got to keep working every day trying to get better and bridge the gap between the top guys.”
– Brianna Travers and Ellen Whinnett in Tokyo
Patty Mills wants an Olympic medal for this team more than anything in the world, and it shows.
Mills has put in a captain’s performance to lead Australia to a slender halftime lead over Slovenia in the bronze medal showdown, scoring 26 points in an offensive blitz to leave the scores 53-45 at the major break.
It’s been a bit of a one-man show on offence from Australia, with no other Boomer in double figures as the half.
But Australia has done a terrific job keeping Luke Doncic quiet. The NBA superstar, who is playing with strapping on his left wrist, has just nine points at the break and is getting frustrated with the officials.
He was hit with a technical foul at the end of the half after jawing with the refs for the final few minutes.
Channel 7 commentator Andrew Bogut was full of praise for Mills.
"Mills has 23 points here in the first half."
"He's taking matters into his own hands. 14 field goal attempts. 11, threes already in the
first half."
