Nina Kennedy wins gold medal in Olympic pole vault (2024)

Absolutely nothing was going to stop Nina Kennedy winning what turned out to be a history-making Olympic pole vault gold medal.

Not a back injury earlier this year. Not a change of coaching structure. Not a record-sized field that caused the final to drag on beyond three hours. Not a malfunction in the mechanism that raises the bar at the worst possible time.

Not anything.

A year after the 27-year-old famously shared top spot on the podium with American friend and rival Katie Moon at the world championships in Budapest, Kennedy had a gold medal all to herself.

She found out afterwards that it was the 18th gold won by Australia at a single Olympics, beating the previous mark of 17.

So Kennedy made history for her nation too.

But this was really about fulfilling her own sporting destiny in an exacting discipline she first took up aged 11 in 2008 after watching Steve Hooker claim Australia's first - and until Wednesday night Australia's only - Olympic pole vaulting gold medal.

"Everything I feel like was thrown my way, even to the last second with the (malfunctioning) stands, it was kind of just like, I hate to say this, but I haven't come this far just to come this far," she said.

"So just throw anything at me and I will handle it.

"And what I was thinking was 'I have gone this long, handling setbacks, handling pressure, handling everything'.

"So just bring it on."

After an early miss at 4.70m, the 27-year-old Kennedy was flawless at her next three heights, going over 4.80m, 4.85 and 4.90m at the first attempt.

She missed her first attempt at 4.95m but it didn't matter, with 4.90m enough to secure the gold.

Moon (4.85m) claimed the pole vault silver on countback from Canada's Alysha Newman.

Ever since tying for the gold at last year's world titles, Kennedy said she had thought of little else but claiming top spot on the Olympic podium all on her own.

"That was the question I had been asked the very most 'are you going to share the medal?'" she said.

"And deep down, I knew I wasn't going to.

"I wanted that outright gold medal.

"And I became really confident in talking to the media and and it was really, really scary, really vulnerable, to lay it all out there and say it.

"What's so special about an Olympics is that it happens every four years, and we have known this date, it has been in my calendar for so long, to the hour, to the minute, to the absolute second.

"You have to piece it all together, and that's what I did."

Kennedy had a delayed start to her 2024 campaign due to a stress fracture in her back.

Then in April, her coaching situation changed when long-time mentor Paul Burgess resigned from his role at the West Australian Institute of Sport, where she is based, due to a buildup of issues not related to Kennedy or her training partner Kurtis Marschall.

Burgess stayed on as her coach, with the support of Athletics Australia, and was among the first people she celebrated with at Stade de France on Wednesday night.

Matt Denny claimed bronze in the men's discus on Wednesday evening, only a couple of minutes before Kennedy's gold.

It lifted Australia's tally of track and field medals in Paris to six - one gold, one silver and four bronzes - with four days of competition still to come.

It was the most by the green and gold athletics squad since the six Olympic medals won at the 1968 Mexico City Games, although that included two golds - to Ralph Doubell in the men's 800m and Maureen Caird in the women's 80m hurdles.

Australian Associated Press