Jessica Hull crosses the finish line during the women’s 1,500-meter preliminary round at the 2024 Summer Olympics. (AP: Petr David Josek)
Athletics has made headlines in Australia many times in 2024.
Nina Kennedy won gold medals in the pole vault at both the Paris Olympics and the World Championships.
Jessica Hull breaks the world 2000m record and takes Olympic silver, finishing just behind the greatest runner of all time.
Meanwhile, 16-year-old Gut Gut broke the country’s longest-standing adult record in the men’s 200m, running faster than Usain Bolt did at the same age.
There’s a sense that the sport is shifting and Australians who used to only attend athletics every four years are now really starting to take notice.
Now the news has made the front page of the newspaper, dominated the back page of the newspaper and dominated the sports bulletin on the 7 o’clock news.
Gut Gutt won the 200m final in record time at the Australian Schools Track and Field Championships. (AAP: Jono Searle)
All this is because these athletes that track and field fans have known for years have risen to a new level, capturing the attention and imagination of the nation.
This year has been the best year in sports we have ever seen, maybe even the best year ever.
“I feel like if you had said at the beginning of the year we were going to have seven Olympic medalists .. multiple Paralympic medalists… 10 world junior medalists and an age world record to beat Usain Bolt, you would have quickly said that was bullshit,” track and field commentator Mitch Dale said.
“It’s something we haven’t seen in Australia, at least not in the last 30 or 40 years.”
Nina Kennedy reacts after her success in the women’s pole vault during the 2024 Diamond League final in Brussels in September. (AP: Frederic Sierakowski)
A history-making Olympics
The Paris Olympics were the best performance for the Australian athletics team since the 1956 Melbourne Olympics.
The team won seven medals – one gold, two silvers and four bronzes – the best Olympic performance in 68 years.
It is difficult to describe in a few words what happened in Paris.
Kennedy won the pole vault gold medal with a clearance of 4.90 metres, the first gold medal for an Australian woman in a field event.
But she wasn’t the only woman to dominate the field – Nicola Ollislages and Eleanor Patterson won silver and bronze in the high jump respectively.
Even though Hull won the silver medal, to many it felt like gold.
Silver medalist Jessica Hull celebrates with others during day 15 of the Paris Olympics. (Getty Images: Michael Steele)
She was beaten only by world record holder Faith Kipiyegun, who won her third consecutive 1500m Olympic title.
This is the first time an Australian woman has won a medal in this event at the Olympics.
Dick Telford, a renowned middle-distance running coach, said athletes like Hull already had the discipline to show for themselves.
“We have a lot of middle-distance and long-distance runners, both men and women, who are revolutionizing athletics.
“It’s really exciting .. records will be broken as we find new ways to train, people with better genetics, better shoes and so on.”
The Paralympics were another sign of Australia’s success in athletics, with Australian athletes winning three gold medals.
Two of these were by James Turner, who broke the men’s T36 400m world record and 100m Paralympic record.
Veteran Vanessa Lowe also set a world record in the women’s T61 long jump with a stunning 5.45m.
James Turner celebrates after winning gold at the Paris Paralympics. (Reuters) – Photo credit: Stephanie Lecocq
The next generation
We cannot deny the results of the Melbourne Olympics, which is still the best performance of the Australian team.
But what has differentiated this year from the success of previous years is the depth and success of the Australian teenagers.
This year’s World Under-20 Track and Field Championships in Peru cemented the Australian teenagers’ status as some of the best emerging talents we have ever seen.
The team won 14 medals, ranking second only to the United States.
Torrie Lewis checks the results screen after competing in the women’s 100m final at the Maurie Plant Games in February. (Getty Images: Daniel Pockett)
Medals included gold in the long jump for Delta Amidzovski, as well as silver in the 1500m for Cameron Myers and in the 800m for sprinters Torrie Lewis and Claudia Hollingsworth.
Keep in mind that several of these athletes had competed in the Olympics just months before.
“If I look at this in its entirety, and I’m not a full-time historian, the depth of what we have in this country is the deepest we’ve ever had,” Dell said.
“We are now surveying people from 16-year-olds all the way up to some of the major award winners who are approaching 30.”
A good time to watch athletics
Gout Gout wins the under-18 200m final in a national record of 20.04 seconds at the 2024 Australian Schools Track and Field Championships. (Getty Images: Cameron Spencer)
With so much talent currently available in Australia, it’s hard not to be excited about the future – especially looking ahead to the 2032 Brisbane Olympics.
When Gutt crossed the finish line en route to breaking the Australian men’s 200m record, it was like watching the future and the present simultaneously.
It all seems a long time ago, but we can’t forget 19-year-old Tori Lewis, who broke the Australian women’s 100m record in January.
The Australian Sports Commission seemed equally excited and increased its funding for athletics, making it one of Australia’s best-funded Olympic and Paralympic sports.
“These guys are 16 to 18 years old, so if you think about eight years from now, they’re 24 to 26 years old, which is the prime age,” Dell said.
Claudia Hollingsworth wins the women’s 800m at the 2024 Australian Track and Field Championships. (AAP: Matt Turner)
“If you can get these athletes first of all healthy and second of all enjoying the game and get them enjoying that moment of playing at home, I can’t even quantify what could happen.
“We need to embrace them and really support them and their individuality, support them for who they are and encourage them to be the best version of themselves.”
While the Brisbane Olympics are still a few years away, it will be here soon and now is the time to get familiar with these names.
Not just Gout Gout, but Torrie Lewis, Cameron Myers, Peyton Craig, Claudia Hollingsworth, Delta Amidzovski, Izobelle Louison-Roe and so many other talents in Australian sport right now.
Watch the competitions more often, turn on the live broadcasts of the National Championships in April and the World Championships in September, and enjoy the exciting moments as a track and field fan.