Montag pays tribute to grandmother who fled Auschwitz for Paris after emotional bronze

Jemima Montag’s determination to go on was never questioned. Not here. Not in the city her grandmother fled to from the death camps of Auschwitz after World War II to find refuge on her way to Australia.

Montag carries that personal history with her whenever she walks, tinkling lightly on her wrist. It’s a bracelet made for her and her family members, previously her grandmother’s necklace, cut into three.

But there was a special poignancy about today, winning a bronze medal in the women’s 20 kilometre walk in a course under the Eiffel Tower that literally had her walking in the footsteps of her grandmother.

“This is the city that my nana and her father sought refuge [in] after the Second World War,” Montag said.

“I was feeling extra levels of strength and resilience today. She passed on all of those amazing traits to my dad, who’s passed them on to my sisters and me, and boy today took all of those things.

“It was hot, the course was [ten laps of a] 1km [loop] with a dogleg, cobblestones, noise that was so loud where the crowd was, and different women were making different moves.

Jemima Montag paid tribute to her grandmother after winning bronze in the walk.Credit: AP

“So I needed every bit of courage and grit that I had. And that comes from family.

“I always think sport’s gruelling, but it’s something I choose to do.And I want to make the most of life. I mean, you never know how many Olympics you’re gonna get.”

Montag now has an Olympic bronze medal to go with last year’s world championships silver.

“It feels like a dream come true to say that I’m an Olympic medallist and the first [Australian woman] since Jane Saville,” she said.

“I think an Olympics is different to worlds ... It’s emotional, everyone relates to it back home. ”

Make no mistake, this was a gutsy performance. She appeared gone and drifting three-quarters of the way through the race.

At the 10km mark, the world record holder and former world champion from China, Jiayu Yang, made her move and opened up a half-minute break on the lead pack.

Montag didn’t try to go with her.

“Today it was hard to know what the move was. Sometimes it’s a lot more clear cut. We were a big pack until 15 last year and then there was one gunshot and I went with it and that was the decider. But today everyone had a crack.

Australian race walker Jemima Montag treading the streets of Paris.Credit: AP

“It was almost like, which one is the winning move? I was back in fifth at about 15km and really questioned my desire for a minute. But I could hear my sister, who had almost lost her voice at that point. Just saying, ‘This is yours’ … her voice was cracking.

“About 17km, I could see third and forth in front of me, I was in fifth and I went past them.”

In that final five kilometres she blew away the rest of the chasing pack, hunted down third place and closed the gap on silver to just six seconds.

She trimmed nearly 20 seconds from the gold medallist Yang, who won in 1:25.54, 25 seconds from Spain’s Maria Perez and Montag in bronze six seconds later in the time of 1:26.25.

“It feels like I have made it. Saville, [Nathan] Deakes, [Jared] Tallent, [Kerry] Saxby – they are the names you grow up as a little athlete looking up to. Never in your wildest dreams would you imagine being up on that podium and at their level,” Montag said.

Earlier, in conditions that felt more Brisbane 2032 than Paris 2024, rolling thunder and lightning delayed the event by half an hour.

A day after the delayed men’s triathlon ran through the same stunning course underneath the Eiffel Tower, the race walks were also put off. Safety first seemed appropriate, as the course took the walkers under the world’s biggest lightning rod.

For three-quarters of the race, Declan Tingay kept a sneaky medal hope alive.

He sat in the lead pack for 15 of the 20 laps, but it was always a matter of how long before the group broke. The answer for Tingay was about 15.5km, which was the point he was dropped from the lead group, which in the space of the next kilometre fractured and spread out.

Tingay finished eleventh, 1.09 mins behind the winner, Ecuador’s Brian Daniel Pintado (love an Ecuadorian called Brian), who won in 1:18.55.

Rhydian Cowley, who was 16th after 15km, pushed hard in the final five kilometres to finish 12th, eight seconds behind Tingay. Fellow Australian Kyle Swan finished 35th in 1:23.32.

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