The Australian’s Australian of the Year: Nina Kennedy has ‘learnt to believe in myself’

Olympic champion Nina Kennedy is renowned for her grit under pressure and her fight – and it is the very reason she is nominated as The Australian’s Australian of the Year.

Nina Kennedy celebrates winning the gold medal in the women's pole vault final. Picture: Getty Images

As an athlete, Olympic champion Nina Kennedy is renowned for her grit under pressure and fight.

The world champion went to the Paris Olympics last year determined to soar to gold, and that she did.

“I have really just learnt to believe in myself,” Kennedy said after becoming the Olympic champion in Paris.

What the world didn’t know at the time is that the West Australian had been fighting for years, behind closed doors, to hold her former coach and abuser Alex Parnov to account.

An investigation by The Australian uncovered alleged in­appropriate behaviour by pole vault coach Alex Parnov during his two decades working at the Western Australian Institute of Sport.

Nine women, including Kennedy, have come now forward.

The WA police are now investigating the allegations.

In December, Kennedy – the latest nominee for The Australian’s Australian of the Year – said she was moved to publicly confirm her experience to support other athletes who had also been harmed by the Russian coach.

Kennedy also said she hoped by speaking out to effect “positive change” and that athletes deserved to be “protected, respected and supported – here in Australia and globally”.

“Athletes deserve to feel safe and supported,” Kennedy told The Australian.

“However, I believe the organisations responsible for safeguarding us failed to protect myself and others and enabled my former coach’s harmful conduct to persist for over a decade

“I’ve been fighting this battle behind closed doors, in my own way, while trying to reach and succeed at the pinnacle of my sport. This story has weighed on my shoulders for many years.

“The purpose in speaking out is to hold to account the behaviours and systemic failures of organisations that not only harmed me but allowed harm to persist for so many others. This win-at-all-cost mentality, deeply embedded in sporting culture, must end.”

While she fights for accountability and change, she extraordinarily also has an eye on breaking the world record and defending her world championship title (which she currently shares with American athlete Katie Moon) later this year in Tokyo, Japan.

And sometime in the next few years she would like to have a shot at Russia’s Yelena Isinbayeva’s world record of 5.06m.

“I’m still quite young in the scheme of things so maybe in the next few years, that world record will be on the cards,” Kennedy has said.