Nina Kennedy’s journey from fractured back to Paris Olympic preparations

Aussie pole voler Nina Kennedy was told to stay still for a month to allow her back to heal. Then something made her forget everything and run for her life.

Nina Kennedy of Team Australia

Nina Kennedy thought she’d ruined everything. For the previous month she’d been staying still, literally.

Australia’s pole vault champion was on strict orders from her physiotherapist to limit any type of physical activity, this was all designed to prevent the stress fracture in her back from potentially wiping out the 2023 season.

“The stress fracture I had was in my L5 and L4, so my physio explained to me that it is either going to stay cracked and lots of people live their life like that,” Kennedy explains.

“Or it is going to heal back up and he was like we want it to heal back up so you have to stay still. So I literally stayed still for a month, I’m not exaggerating.

“He was like, ‘Do not wear exercise clothes’. He also told me not to carry my groceries if they were heavy and I was like, ‘How am I meant to live my life?’.

“My first rehab session was a month later and it was a 15-minute walk.”

That brings us to the second rehab session.

Kennedy, 26, was spending time on the family farm of her partner, Claremont WAFL captain Declan Mountford, when she went for a walk through the bush.

“I was going really slowly and then I almost stepped on a snake and I ran as fast as I could,” she says.

“So I rested for a month and then did this 100m sprint away from a snake. I was sure I’d stuffed the back up, but thankfully I hadn’t.”

Nina Kennedy of Team Australia competes at the Commonwealth Games.

AN EVOLVING JOURNEY

The time-out with her back injury had given Kennedy time to reflect on the best 12 months of her career.

She’d come a long way in a hurry. The promising junior who’d had forgettable experiences at her first world championships and Olympic Games, was now one of the best pole vaulters in the world.

In the space of two months in 2022 Kennedy won the bronze medal at the world championships in Eugene, the gold medal at the Birmingham Commonwealth Games and then claimed victory in the Diamond League final in Zurich with a clearance of 4.81m – 1cm below her Australian record.

It was the year she’d been expecting to happen a lot sooner but finally the former gymnast from the Margaret River town of Busselton in Western Australia felt like she belonged on the world stage.

“That is such a weird concept for athletes to understand because of course you belong, but it’s like I had never made an Olympic final, had bombed out at a world championships blah blah,” Kennedy says.

“Then I got over there (last year) and I’m coming second, I’m coming third, I’m winning. After the worlds happened and I came third I was like, ‘Oh my gosh, I belong’.

“It’s internal, it just gives you this sense of confidence that you don’t have when you are younger. You gain that as a mature athlete and then it’s like, ‘Wow, let’s go’.

“After that I was just jumping with this freedom, the pressure had kind of come off me from the major championships and then I won the Diamond League final. It was like, ‘Let’s just have some fun and just jump’.”

INSIDE THE CULTURE

Kennedy epitomises fun. She has a bubbly personality which endears her to everyone, and you certainly won’t hear her saying a bad word about her rivals.

“Pole vault is one of those special sort of events,” she explains. “This sounds silly but we’re not competing against each other, we are really competing against ourselves.

“I can’t control if you clear the bar or not, I really can’t control that, whereas in football and other sports you can impact on your opponents.

“That element loses itself and it just makes you purely focus on you and what you are doing. So you are just jumping against yourself and then hoping that you win in the end. It’s such a weird concept like that.”

Nina Kennedy has overcome an incredible injury.

She is a rare winner in Australian athletics away from the track, with Kennedy one of the few to have a full-time paying contract with Puma.

“Being a world championships medallist landed me this good contract,” she says. “It’s what athletes strive for and it was certainly one of my goals.

“Puma has really looked after me. You have to be 1, 2 or 3 in the world to actually get something, that is just our sport but I definitely pat myself on the back for that one.”

After missing the domestic season as she recovered from the back injury, Kennedy arrived in Europe in June and quickly made a statement, winning the Paris Diamond League with a clearance of 4.77m.

Those left in her wake included world champion Katie Moon and silver medallist Sandi Morris.

What wasn’t lost on Kennedy was the fact that in 13 months time she would be returning to Paris for her second Olympic Games.

A DISASTER IN TOKYO

Her first, in Tokyo two years ago, was a disaster. She tore her quad two weeks out from the event, then had to be removed from the athletes village after coming in contact with a Covid-positive athlete.

The qualifying was held in the pouring rain, where she only cleared one height (4.25m) and failed to qualify. All she remembers is being stressed out of her mind, but that wasn’t the case after winning in the French capital two months out from the world championships in Budapest.

“That (Paris 2024) hit me in the post event interviews and I kind of alluded to that if I can do it now, I can do it in 12 months. The place obviously has good vibes, good juju, so my mind definitely went there.”

She’s leaving no stone unturned for Paris, even taking up French lessons during her spare time on the circuit which she travels with training partner Kurtis Marschall who is enjoying his own career surge ahead of Budapest.

Kennedy’s demeanour briefly turns serious when the magical five-metre barrier in the women’s pole vault is brought up.

“Only three girls have cleared it, it’s an elite club but Budge (coach Paul Burgess) has said to me, ‘You’ve got this’,” she said.

“To have his belief sitting in the back of my mind, it does spark it for me. I don’t think I am a very confident person in my abilities so to have someone in my ear doing that.

“Then I’m like ‘OK maybe I can’. It might not be this year but the best girls in the world are 30 and above. I still have a lot of maturing to do in this event but it’s definitely something that is going to happen.

“I think if I play my cards right I can do it.”

And keep away from snakes.

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Originally published as Nina Kennedy’s journey from fractured back to Paris Olympic preparations