The handwritten note that inspires high jumper Nicola McDermott

When McDermott was 10 or 11, having been told by her coach she had the potential to represent her country, she wrote an ode to her Olympic dream.

The ode to the Olympics high jumper Nicola McDermott wrote as a child

Nicola McDermott will include a pad and pen among her high jumping paraphernalia when she begins qualifying in Tokyo on Thursday morning, but a handwritten note to self has emerged as the inspiration behind her pursuit of an Olympic gold medal.

When McDermott was only 10 or 11, having been told by her coach Matt Horsnell that she had the potential to represent her country, she wrote an ode to her Olympic dream.

News Corp has obtained a copy of the note, which was written on lined paper and includes a drawing of McDermott raising her hands in triumph.

“I’m standing out there alone but I’m not afraid,” it reads. “The sun is shining, there is no shade. Everyone is cheering. I can’t believe what I’m hearing. I wish I could fly.”

On it goes, ending with McDermott writing: “We all feel like cookies and cream, Going to the Olympics is my greatest dream.”

More than a decade later, the dream has been realised and McDermott will enter the high jump qualifying round among the favourites to finish on the podium.

She is deeply-religious and a deep thinker. The latter trait prompted her and long-time coach Horsnell to come up with ritual that will see her write notes in a notepad between jumps.

As her opponents fly or fail, McDermott will have her eyes down, either detailing her thoughts and feelings, or revising those she has already written.

Horsnell takes up the story.

“She is quite smart — she is doing biochemistry at university,” Horsnell said.

“It’s the way it is with smart people sometimes, if they look at (other) athletes they over-analyse. So what we got her to do is not look at athletes when they jump.

“She only looks up after they have finished jumping. She looks down and looks elsewhere so she doesn’t take that in as a metal image.

“She only has to think of what she is doing. The other thing we found was for her to sit down and write in a book.

“She can focus on herself. She writes in that and gets the image of what she thinks is a problem or might have done well.

“Then she comes and talks to me and we reaffirm what she feels and what she thinks. It is a really good learning curve for her.

High jumper Nicola McDermott at the announcement of the Australian track and Field team in Sydney this year Picture: NCA NewsWire/Bianca De Marchi

“The reason why she writes it down was she was doing some comps and jumped 1.96m when I wasn’t there. Afterwards she couldn’t remember because she was in a zone.

“She couldn’t remember what she felt or what she did. She couldn’t even remember jumping some of the heights because she was so focused.

“You get into a really good zone and you don’t want to be over-thinking “

Horsnell insists McDermott is in the best shape of her life as she prepares to kick off her Olympic campaign. Not only is she physically prepared, but Horsnell believes she has taken her mental game to another level.

“We went to a competition in Townsville,” Horsnell said.

“We got there and there was no one there, no crowds. I was thinking this is going to be so hard. I am there with her.

“She has looked at me and said, ‘don’t talk to me, I need to get ready for this comp’. Afterwards, she said she was thinking the same as me.

“The people who were in the comp were out at 1.45m. She was jumping by herself. She started jumping 1.85m and had no misses until 1.98m.

“I thought that is insanely, mentally superior for an athlete. I have never seen anyone do that before — jump by themselves and do that.

“That was a moment when I thought she is at a superior level.”