Speaker 1: Hey, welcome to Healthy Ish. I am Felicity Harley and
Speaker 1: today you're listening to an extra special episode of the
Speaker 1: Body and Soul podcast. Yes, this week we are celebrating
Speaker 1: our superstar Olympians and joining me on this episode is
Speaker 1: high jumper Eleanor Patterson, who I caught up a couple
Speaker 1: of weeks ago online from Spain. She explained the intricacies
Speaker 1: of her event, her pre Paris training load, and how
Speaker 1: she's approaching the Olympics the third time around. Make sure
Speaker 1: you're listening to extra Healthy Ish, where she talks about
Speaker 1: how she finds extreme focus in the middle of her event.
Speaker 1: You can catch that one wherever you get your podcasts.
Speaker 2: Eleanor. Really nice to have you on the pod. How
Speaker 2: are you.
Speaker 3: I'm wonderful, Thank you, thank you for having me, and.
Speaker 1: I should say congratulations and well done on another Olympics
Speaker 1: and thank you for champione US in Australia at these games.
Speaker 4: Yeah.
Speaker 3: No, it's it's super exciting and so any kind of
Speaker 3: ability to hype up the Olympics and even just the
Speaker 3: individual stories around athletes. I'm all about it for sure.
Speaker 2: Oh good, me too, That's why I've got you on.
Speaker 4: But tell me.
Speaker 2: You're a high jumper. What do you love about high jump?
Speaker 4: There's so much to me that I love.
Speaker 3: It's such a strange thing to think that my career
Speaker 3: is running and jumping at a bar and trying to
Speaker 3: clear it and playing this game of chance in a
Speaker 3: lot of ways. But I was always a very hyperactive
Speaker 3: kid in a lot of ways, and I love sport.
Speaker 3: I just love the outlet in which it creates for people,
Speaker 3: the community it creates creates for people, but also for
Speaker 3: me personally, especially as an individual athlete, which just as
Speaker 3: an athlete or you know, as a person that I'm
Speaker 3: able to find this as a hobby as a kid,
Speaker 3: essentially that it was, you know, this challenge but also
Speaker 3: exciting outlet for me to challenge myself in every facet,
Speaker 3: whether that beef is you play emotionally and mentally, and
Speaker 3: so it's that outlet for me, and especially because I'm
Speaker 3: the one out there competing, there's no way to hide
Speaker 3: from whatever's going on inside your head. You've got to
Speaker 3: really back yourself and you've got to run and I
Speaker 3: guess obey a lot of physics to run around a
Speaker 3: curve and see if you can jump over a bar.
Speaker 3: And so it's many, many years of hard work, dedication,
Speaker 3: but at the same time, it's just you know, you've
Speaker 3: got to rock up on the day and be your
Speaker 3: best self and express your best self.
Speaker 1: You know, I probably didn't appreciate how much of a
Speaker 1: mental game high jump is as well. I mean, we
Speaker 1: know it's physical, you have to run and jump and
Speaker 1: you want to have power and speed, but the mental
Speaker 1: side of it is I mean every sport is, but
Speaker 1: particularly high jump, because you've got to get yourself over
Speaker 1: the bar.
Speaker 4: Yeah, yeah, it really is.
Speaker 3: It is very mentally engaging, and you're out there sometimes
Speaker 3: for two hours even more, and you start at a
Speaker 3: low height and you're slowly increasing and you've got to
Speaker 3: be at your best at the end of the competition,
Speaker 3: and you're most mentally engaged, and you know, you might
Speaker 3: have really big jumps early on, but then it's what
Speaker 3: counts at the end as well, and at those final
Speaker 3: moments when you're tussling for a PB or a season's
Speaker 3: best or a medal or a first place.
Speaker 1: Yeah, god, medal. What does your training involve, I mean,
Speaker 1: we're talking to your Madrid at the moment. What does
Speaker 1: it evolve leading into Olympics.
Speaker 4: So yeah, it's quite a busy schedule in a lot
Speaker 4: of ways.
Speaker 3: At the moment, I have one last competition about three
Speaker 3: and a half weeks out until the Games right now.
Speaker 3: But I have one last competition this weekend in Germany.
Speaker 3: From then on, it's just a normal programming and just
Speaker 3: training essentially. We're in a phase now where we'll start
Speaker 3: to like it's a competition season, so we're tapering off,
Speaker 3: so like the load is lightning. We as a training group,
Speaker 3: my training group, we tend to do two gym sessions
Speaker 3: a week and two running sessions and one technical session,
Speaker 3: so the technical being jumping or bounding and.
Speaker 4: Things like this.
Speaker 3: But yeah, everything's kind of getting stripped back now. Like
Speaker 3: usually in the gym we lift, being a power event,
Speaker 3: lift quite heavy, but everything's becoming shorter and sharper and
Speaker 3: lighter weights, and so everything's starting to strip the weight
Speaker 3: off as far as like the load that in our
Speaker 3: legs essentially, And so yeah, coming into the Olympics, we're
Speaker 3: stripping that that workload off and so then when we
Speaker 3: can come into the Olympics and I can come into
Speaker 3: the Olympics, I can be at my best and the
Speaker 3: freshest possible and just fly.
Speaker 2: Essentially, they why do you strip the low back?
Speaker 1: Is that just to let your legs kind of I
Speaker 1: suppose breathe, or just to give you your body a
Speaker 1: bit of time to rest.
Speaker 4: Yeah, I guess it's more the rest element.
Speaker 3: There's definitely that sweet spot where you want to be
Speaker 3: able to have a certain weight where it's heavy enough
Speaker 3: to activate yourself. But it's also if you're under too
Speaker 3: much weight and you're lifting weight, or if you're doing
Speaker 3: to a heavy workloads, it's very exhausting on your legs
Speaker 3: and it makes it hard to be springy. Essentially, a
Speaker 3: lot of our event is very much involved in, you know,
Speaker 3: the central nervous system and being able to just fire
Speaker 3: and be able to be powerful and springy and really
Speaker 3: alert with our movements.
Speaker 2: So yeah, that explosiveness and the springing. I like that.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I like that word. Now, you've been to two Olympics.
Speaker 1: How are you approaching this one is a bit different?
Speaker 1: Or are you going in with the same a similar mindset?
Speaker 4: Definitely quite different in a lot of ways. I feel
Speaker 4: like I've.
Speaker 3: Been around for a long time. I'm only twenty eight
Speaker 3: right now, which in athletics, terms. Isn't crazy old at all.
Speaker 3: It's not, that's for sure, even though my young training
Speaker 3: partner who's nineteen, she always much around and calls me old.
Speaker 4: But it's just all all fun and game. Not old, No,
Speaker 4: not at all.
Speaker 3: And yeah, being my first one was when I was
Speaker 3: twenty the second when it was when I was twenty
Speaker 3: five in the end in Tokyo, and I feel like
Speaker 3: I've got so much experience coming into this one, that's
Speaker 3: for sure. I know what to expect. I think, especially
Speaker 3: in the last four years, I've been around the circuit
Speaker 3: a lot, especially for athletics in Europe, and the Diamond
Speaker 3: League competitions is where it's where it's at as far
Speaker 3: as like constantly competing against the best.
Speaker 4: In the world.
Speaker 3: And then I've been to many major championships, and so
Speaker 3: I feel like going into this one, it's obviously still
Speaker 3: so exciting and there's a lot of bells and whistles
Speaker 3: and it's just a lot of hype and it's you know,
Speaker 3: it's important to see that, but not besuaded by that.
Speaker 3: And so I feel like having just a number of
Speaker 3: years under my belt as far as this exposure to this,
Speaker 3: it's it feels far more second nature than it did
Speaker 3: when I was twenty, that's for sure, which is obviously given.
Speaker 1: But what are you most excited about when it comes
Speaker 1: to Paris is going to Paris Olympics.
Speaker 4: Oh so many things.
Speaker 3: Obviously, you know, competing that's very exciting and just seeing
Speaker 3: you know, there's the epitome of athletics. But I think
Speaker 3: as well, for me, as much as it's you know,
Speaker 3: it's that end game, it's that goal, it's what we
Speaker 3: work towards for every four year cycle or three year
Speaker 3: cycle for this time around. But and it obviously means
Speaker 3: so much, but more often than not, it's about the journey.
Speaker 3: And I also love the periods of time when we're
Speaker 3: in the village and you're hanging out with some of
Speaker 3: your really close friends and you essentially to live in
Speaker 3: each other's pockets, which and then you were able to
Speaker 3: live in the building with everyone in the Australian teainment.
Speaker 3: It's those moments where you're just able to hang out
Speaker 3: and just have breakfast together, enjoy a coffee together. That
Speaker 3: really kind of over my many years in the sport,
Speaker 3: other moments that were really important for me. I think
Speaker 3: another thing that I'm really looking forward to is the
Speaker 3: fact that some of my family are coming across and
Speaker 3: being able to watch me compete, and so that's really
Speaker 3: really exciting for me. It means the world to have
Speaker 3: the support of my loved ones and they've not actually
Speaker 3: been able to watch me compete all that much in
Speaker 3: the last four years, and so it's going to be
Speaker 3: really really special. But I think it's just those moments
Speaker 3: where you share with people that makes everything mean so
Speaker 3: much more.
Speaker 1: I've got one final question that actually comes from my
Speaker 1: ten year old son who's just made the regionals for
Speaker 1: high jump, and here he wants to know, what's your highest
Speaker 1: jump that you've ever done?
Speaker 4: Incredible.
Speaker 3: My highest jump that I've ever done is two meters
Speaker 3: and two centimeters. That's my personal beast and amazing.
Speaker 4: Hopefully that can fall this year.
Speaker 3: I feel like I'm in korey best shape, so who knows,
Speaker 3: but yeah, two meters and two centimeters.
Speaker 1: Well, all the best, and thank you for coming on
Speaker 1: healthish and good luck.
Speaker 4: Thank you very much.
Speaker 3: Good luck for your son at the regionals as well.
Speaker 1: Thank you you like watching high jump I do just
Speaker 1: the competition and the extreme focus is quite amazing and inspiring. Hey,
Speaker 1: we do have a special Paris hub on bodyansoul dot
Speaker 1: com dot.
Speaker 2: You, so make sure you jump on there.
Speaker 1: Plenty of interviews and news about our fantastic Olympians. If
Speaker 1: you did enjoy this chat, tell us, rate and review
Speaker 1: well this episode, or you can of course subscribe to
Speaker 1: this podcast.
Speaker 2: Make sure you're listening tomorrow.
Speaker 1: We have got another great Olympian coming up. Are you
Speaker 1: following us on socials? Please do, or you can grab
Speaker 1: our print edition which is out in your local Sunday
Speaker 1: paper and until tomorrow, go Aussie and stay healthy