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September 5, 2024 35 mins

Eliza McCartney, an Olympic bronze medallist in pole vaulting, joins Sienna and Ben to share her incredible journey through the highs and lows of a career in athletics.

In this episode, they explore:

  • Discovering your passion: How experimenting with various activities at a young age can lead you to unexpected talents and passions.
  • Overcoming adversity: Eliza's experiences of battling back from injuries and coping with the disappointment of missing out on goals she was determined to achieve.
  • Life on the world stage: What it’s like to compete in the Olympic arena at a young age, the thrill of success and how your social media can blow up afterwards!

About The Show:

Sienna Boyce is 13 years old and constantly tells her Dad, Ben Boyce, what she wants to be when she grows up – an actor, scientist, rugby player, singer, chef or politician. 

Each episode of ‘When I Grow Up’ aims to showcase inspirational females from around Aotearoa and shine a light on them, what it takes to do their job and learn about their story of how they got to where they are so that Sienna can help make up her mind.

This is a podcast to help the teenager in your life dream big.

Follow The Podcast on Socials:

TikTok: Ben | Sienna 

Instagram: Ben | Sienna | The Hits

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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Transcript

Episode Transcript

Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
The Heads podcast network mine never seeing it and this
is my dadmin Hi, And when I grow up, I
want to be a TikTok start right, or a sports
player okay, hang on, yeah, even a fashion designer actually
maybe in all the players Okay.

Speaker 2 (00:17):
Okay, slow down.

Speaker 3 (00:18):
Maybe we should talk to some amazing females who inspire
you and who you want to be like, yeah, and.

Speaker 4 (00:23):
We can find out what they did to get where
they are.

Speaker 2 (00:25):
Yes, and let's do it as a TV show.

Speaker 4 (00:28):
No, Dad, only old people watch TV. Let's do it
as a podcast.

Speaker 2 (00:32):
Okay, yeah, yeah, I guess that works.

Speaker 4 (00:34):
This is when I grow up.

Speaker 1 (00:37):
Our guess on this episode is Eliza McCartney, who is
an amazing pole voter, whole voter, want the whole volta
and he's just been to the compete, Oh my god,
and it's just been to compete in the Paris Olympics.

Speaker 2 (00:53):
You what you are nailing this start.

Speaker 3 (00:55):
We watched the lives of performed for New Zealand. It
was easy, incredible to watch it, especially after the chat
you're about to hear, and we talked about how much
she's gone through to be back out there.

Speaker 1 (01:04):
Yeah, Eliza was just nineteen years old. And she went
in an Olympic bronze at her first.

Speaker 2 (01:09):
Ever Olympic nineteen. What were you doing in nineteen? I
had a sweet goki. Oh my god, yeah, I said
it was very good.

Speaker 3 (01:16):
Do you hear about the amazing times like Eliza going
to her first Olympics, but also the times where things
don't go as well when leaving her in tears, and how.

Speaker 4 (01:24):
Your social media can change from just being there.

Speaker 3 (01:27):
I know that was a crazy story out it just
blew up. We also asked you some pole volting questions
that we thought were pretty stupid, but actually they weren't
quite as stupids.

Speaker 2 (01:34):
We thought.

Speaker 1 (01:35):
Yeah, I learned heaps from Eliza that I think you
can apply to anything in your life.

Speaker 2 (01:40):
You even't learned how to say pole vaulting, didn't you.

Speaker 5 (01:42):
Yes?

Speaker 1 (01:43):
I thank you, Hey Dad, When I grew up, I
want to be an athlete like Eliza McCartney.

Speaker 3 (01:50):
Well, Eliza, it's funny you say that every time that
someone comes in with Eliza's here right now?

Speaker 1 (01:55):
Yes, and Eliza, I know you're off to quite an
important sporting event.

Speaker 4 (01:59):
In Paris pretty soon, so thank you so much for
being here.

Speaker 6 (02:02):
Oh it's an honor. I'm stoked to be here today.

Speaker 2 (02:05):
It's really cool to have you here.

Speaker 4 (02:06):
Now.

Speaker 3 (02:06):
I always put Senna on the spot at the start
of the real again, why would you want to be
someone like Eliza McCartney. What do you admire about Liza?

Speaker 1 (02:12):
Well, I just admire how you're an athlete who's won
like such an incredible title at the Olympics, you want
to meddle and at such a young age, which is
really amazing. But also just I admire how much you've
fought through those tougher moments like getting injured and then
like having your dreams taken away but fighting back and
now you're going to Paris.

Speaker 4 (02:33):
This year, which is actually amazing.

Speaker 6 (02:35):
Yes, thank you, well, thank you for having me on
your podcast. I'm very excited to be here. But yeah,
I really appreciate that. It's as you can imagine, it's
been a tricky journey. But it's really cool that if anything,
if nothing else, really that I can show other girls,
particularly teenage girls, because we don't have a lot of
teenage girls continuing in athletics and we want more of that,
but show them that it's possible. You know that you

(02:57):
can do it, and there's nothing nothing bad about it.
There's something bad about being fit and strong, you know,
all of those sorts of things. I love that. Part
of my job is to show that that's something that
you can do. And yeah, so it's really cool to
hear that from you.

Speaker 3 (03:11):
What's that feeling like to be admired something I can
only dream more of? That's not true, you know as well.
But yeah, but pretty cool as well. Of course you
brought up the bronze medal, but spoiler alert, I'm only
up to see the Olympics.

Speaker 2 (03:23):
In nineteen eighty eight.

Speaker 3 (03:23):
I haven't got to the the latest one I've been
been to watching the Olympics. I'm not up to Rio
just yet. No, So, yeah, a pretty cool moment. But
I'll throw it back to you.

Speaker 4 (03:33):
You grew up in.

Speaker 1 (03:34):
New Zealand, right Auckland, and you played a lot of sports. Okay,
I've got a big list yet sports you played, yes,
very snipball, cross country, basketball, tar, rugby, squash, tennis, swimming,
water polo, then into track and field and pole voting.
That's a very busy schedule.

Speaker 6 (03:52):
It is a bit. Yes, I mean, as you can tell,
I was an active good Yes, I loved any sport
anything that kind of came across my path was like,
you want to give it a go, and so that's
why I just ended up playing all sorts of things,
which I think is really important as a kid, right,
because if you just kind of narrow down into one
sport really young, you don't get to develop skills and

(04:13):
all sorts of things. It's kind of a bit intense.
If you do that as well, you know that that
variety is really good for skill development, for social development,
and then just also getting to know what you're good at.
I mean, I started polvot. It was the last sport
basically out of that whole list that I did.

Speaker 1 (04:26):
And I was seeing you like thirteen or fourteen, like
around my age. It was just like you didn't start
when you were younger, So like, was that a lot
harder to pick up?

Speaker 6 (04:35):
No? I think when I started about thirteen years old
is probably about right in some ways. I mean, you've
got people like the current world record holder Mondo and
the men's polvot who started when you're able to walk,
and really, yeah, so you do have yeah, yeah YouTuber
clean up there.

Speaker 4 (04:53):
Really that's so.

Speaker 6 (04:55):
I mean you have people like that in every sport
probably as well. But no, that's not what I did.
But I like I I said, I played so many
sports that I had a lot of like skill development
by the time I start a pole volt And actually
thirteen was quite a good age, I think personally, because
I was just old enough to really get the hang
of something bit more technical and a bit more intense
like pole vulture.

Speaker 2 (05:12):
I also think about your parents.

Speaker 3 (05:14):
I mean, you had a busy schedule, but Geese as
a parent, I'm looking at les, going, that's a busy
schedule driving you around everywhere. The parents are really like
unpaid uber drivers at some stage, aren't they, you know?
And they must have been like, oh, now, Eliza was
to take up pole vaulting. I mean, geez, you know
were they're like that or they're very very supportive of you.

Speaker 6 (05:30):
They were so supportive. I was so fortunate to have
parents like that, because it was still sorry parents.

Speaker 2 (05:37):
Like that I had.

Speaker 6 (05:38):
I had two brothers as well, who also played lots
of sports, and not just that, we played instruments and
you know, we just did a sort of things.

Speaker 1 (05:44):
And so I'm guessing you had like every single hour
but oh go to go, Sorry, I can't hang out.

Speaker 6 (05:49):
Well, I mean I didn't play all those sports at once,
but they certainly over the times. Yeah, but no, I'm
very grateful for my parents because they're the ones that
basically allow you to get into sport, like get the
level if you didn't have someone that could before you
have a license. Obviously, I had to be driven everywhere. Yeah,
you know, so they they're so critical.

Speaker 2 (06:08):
They were sports.

Speaker 3 (06:08):
They had sports as well, didn't they track and fields
to the background as well.

Speaker 6 (06:12):
Yeah, particularly my dad for track and field. He did
a lot of high jump when he was younger, and
so when I showed an interest in high jump, he
started coaching me, and it.

Speaker 2 (06:19):
Was down if she wants to be like you, and
I don't have any skills.

Speaker 1 (06:24):
And so bad at high jumping.

Speaker 4 (06:28):
I can let long jump my middo a high jump.
I actually hurt my dad because I always hit the past.

Speaker 6 (06:34):
Oh yeah, no, that's not good. I think I've still
got a bit of a scar or something jumping. Yeah,
just smashing it far too hard obviously.

Speaker 1 (06:41):
And people love to mention that you're in the same
year and went to the same school as Lord.

Speaker 2 (06:46):
They do.

Speaker 6 (06:48):
I get as les all the time, but right now
I don't know, not particularly well anyway. Obviously I went
to school with her, but that's about it.

Speaker 2 (06:56):
Does the school have like your photos up on both
of you? Like who's more proud of at the school?
You surely you know you know you both achieved amazing things.

Speaker 6 (07:05):
Yeah, I don't know if I could quite compare to
someone le stage like that Ross Taylor, the cricketer cricket.

Speaker 3 (07:12):
Yeah, he went to the same school as me, and
anyone who achieves anything gets their photo on the back.

Speaker 2 (07:16):
Wall of the school. He three times. I'm not even
close to any war of the school.

Speaker 3 (07:23):
I'm like, you're definitely paaning it out with three D anyway,
not about me, It's more about.

Speaker 1 (07:27):
You, okay, bag to pole vows and when you were
so you were saying you were thirteen when you started,
but didn't you follow a friend of pole vaulting like
sessions or something?

Speaker 4 (07:35):
Can you tell us about that? Yeah?

Speaker 6 (07:37):
Absolutely, So I started athletics and obviously when you when
you start athletics, lots of kids don at school for
your athletics day.

Speaker 2 (07:44):
So I did that.

Speaker 6 (07:45):
But also then I joined an athletics club and the
club that I was at, TUKPNA Ethnics Club didn't have
pole vault but ahead all the other events. And so
I was training in high jump and I started going
to competitions for high jump, and at those competitions I
saw po I was like, what sport? Like, this is amazing.
I want to do that. I don't want to use
my own body weight to jump over a bar when

(08:05):
he's a pole to jump over, but that it's way better.
And so I was like really hooked when I saw it.
And then Yeah, a school friend of mine wanted to
be a decathlete and the kathlon you have to do polevolt.
It's at some point he had to start pole volt.
And when you did, I was like, can I come
along please? I literally just followed him along one day
and yeah, went went to the training session. I loved it.

(08:27):
That was it.

Speaker 2 (08:28):
That's very cool. It does seem like a sport that
a lot can go wrong.

Speaker 4 (08:32):
Yeah, like really it does it? Is it quite hard
to master? Is it really like you just like push
over the pole?

Speaker 6 (08:38):
Definitely hard to master?

Speaker 3 (08:40):
How long does it take you to actually, like on
your first it's like how long until you can actually
get the pole in the thing and get up over
that over the bar?

Speaker 6 (08:47):
Well, you could do that technically on like day one
if you wanted to. Yeah, I mean so if I
take you back a step. You don't start by bending
a pole. But what you do is you start with
what we call straight pole, and so you're gripping super
low on a pole. It basically just what you can
reach from standing, and so the pole is not going
to bend, and you can do a couple of steps
and you can learn how to plant it into the

(09:07):
box without the pole bending. You literally just like walk
onto the mat, so like you can you can basically
start and then you can go over a bar if
you want straight pole, which is a little bit hard
to do, but you could do it one day, could yeah, because.

Speaker 2 (09:19):
It seems like a lot could go on.

Speaker 3 (09:21):
You see those shots on YouTube, the pole snapping people
are going back the other way. I mean, how much
that's the stuff's happened to you?

Speaker 2 (09:28):
Oh yeah over the years, Yeah, it's all.

Speaker 6 (09:31):
It's for sure. Although I've been vaulting, well, how where
are we? I was thirteen, I'm twenty seven now, so god, yeah,
fourteen years half my life, I've only snapped one pole.
So it's not like and to be fair like I'm
probably maybe down the lower end of pole snaps for people,
like some people snap more poles. But it's not something
that happens all the time, is what I'm trying to say.
It It is reasonably rare, and if it does happen,

(09:54):
usually what happens is you've run so fast at the
box and you planted the pole, that you've got all
this forward momentum. If it doesn't, you keep going forward
and land on the mats. So it's not you know,
it's not too bad as long as everything else goes
all right. But back to your question, I guess about like,
it looks like lots of things can go wrong. I
totally get that, but it is more controlled than it looks.

(10:15):
I think, Oh yeah, I think it looks a bit hectic, right,
what happens There's.

Speaker 1 (10:20):
Like a hole in the ground that you have to
put Yeah, so what happens if you missed the pole,
like the hole in the ground.

Speaker 6 (10:25):
It's pretty hard to do that. So basically you have
a box. It's about twenty centimeters wide and maybe about
almost a meter long, and basically like starts at the
level of the ground and it slopes down and then
the mats right around the edge of ittcha. So if
you don't put it in the box, you put it
on the mats. Basically, yes, I have seen that heaviden.
It's not great, but it's pretty hard to do. So

(10:47):
the missing is not the problem. Missing the box is
not the problem. It's more the yeah, making sure that
you're doing everything else correctly and safely. But of course
that's what we train for, that's what we do, and
it's yeah, like I said, it's very controlled. You pull
out if it's not you're feeling right, you know, like
there's a lot of points where you can just stop
and pull out and you have to finish a jump
and land on the map, sorry, on the track like

(11:08):
you can. You know, you can have a bit more
control than that.

Speaker 2 (11:11):
Well, with pole.

Speaker 4 (11:12):
Vaulting, you got really really good, really fast.

Speaker 1 (11:14):
And did you ever think when you started, oh, I'm
going to make it to an Olympic level like.

Speaker 2 (11:19):
In nineteen, yeah, nineteen, long after you started.

Speaker 6 (11:23):
Not really, it's not absolutely right, no, it was. You know,
it's so sunny. I don't mean to like it's a
funny thing to say, but lots of people right right
now we're having the Olympic selections for all sorts of
events for Paris and lots of people like it. You know,
it's need my dreams inside the chart, and that's that's amazing.
I really love that. But I was just not one
of those people. It's kind of weird. I just did
sport for the love of sport. I wasn't so worried

(11:44):
about like I, you know, I want to be a
professional athlete, I want to be an Olympian. Like that
didn't really cross my mind. And I know it's kind
of weird to say, because right now, you know, I
want to be an Olympia. I'm like, that's that's very
much my life. But it's not what got me into sport.
It was just the joy and the love of doing sport.
So when I was younger, yeah, you're right, I did.
I progressed quite quickly, but again it was like, well

(12:06):
this is cool, great love this. And again it wasn't
so much like, oh, yeah, one day I want to
go to the Olympics. I'm sure it kind of probably
crossed my mind as a cool thing to do, but
it wasn't like my driving force. Yeah, and I think
that kind of helps in some ways, just to develop
such a love for what you do, because as you've
alluded to I've had some pretty tough times in my sport.
And if you don't love what you do and you

(12:27):
don't want to get back to God, your motivation for
I'm sticking with it's going to be pretty low.

Speaker 4 (12:34):
This is when I grow up. So you have to
like qualify for the Olympics, Right, there's like a hype.
You just think, what's like, how do you like qualify for?

Speaker 2 (12:43):
It is whole nother like tournament, was multiple chances right
to do it?

Speaker 4 (12:48):
Yeah?

Speaker 2 (12:48):
Yeah, yeah.

Speaker 6 (12:49):
So the way it works in track and field, and
it is different for every sport, but in track and field,
basically we get a period of time where we can
qualify in and it started like on one July I
think last year, and goes through to about July this time,
so almost a year. Right, And any certified competition, if
you do the qualification standard, you've essentially qualified. That's it.

(13:10):
So is it like a height, Yes, So in Polvot
we have to jump for height. It is four point
seventy three meters for Paris. If you jumps out height,
you're essentially yeah, you've been, you've been, You've qualified yourself.
But then there's another step for an Olympics. Once you've
qualified yourself, you then have to be selected by your nationals.

Speaker 2 (13:27):
So you'd still qualify and then he's younger. Nah, not
sendy yet, absolutely, you know, really is the thing.

Speaker 6 (13:35):
So yes, and track and feel. At the moment, our
qualification standards aim to get like maybe twelve to fifteen
athletes and then the rest of the field. So in
polevots thirty two are made up from the rankings, So
if you haven't jumped for seventy three, that doesn't mean
you not going. If you are ranked within the top
thirty two, I think it is by the cutoff date,

(13:55):
then you've also qualified yourself. So there's there's a you know,
a couple of ways you can do it.

Speaker 3 (14:00):
So you're nineteen years old, Like I was just thinking
back to me embarrassing myself at nineteen with many things.

Speaker 2 (14:05):
But you're nineteen.

Speaker 3 (14:06):
You're at the Olympics, you know, and there's all these
great we're looking yesterday. There's Michael Phelps, is there Kevin
Durant the basketball someone bi, I mean, there's all these big,
amazing athletes. You're in the village.

Speaker 6 (14:16):
What was that like?

Speaker 2 (14:17):
You know the fans are you kind of like, yeah,
do you think about that when you're there?

Speaker 6 (14:21):
It's exactly what you.

Speaker 2 (14:24):
Yeah, it's so cool. Yeah, it's so cool.

Speaker 6 (14:27):
I mean I'm not the biggest sports fan, but even
I was like, wow, look at all these people, like
the different body types, like the human like phenomenal athleticism
that you see at an Olympic.

Speaker 2 (14:38):
Right, You've got the weightlifters as the gymnast all sorts.

Speaker 6 (14:40):
Of incredible like and you just get this amazing array
of humans that just do amazing things and each of
their disciplines and you go to like the food hall
and there's just basketball is like like the little gymnasts
and everything in between. It's incredible and it is fun.
Like I just I didn't feel overwhelmed. I just left
it up, you know, almost like a puffy You're just

(15:01):
like this is so cool.

Speaker 4 (15:04):
So were you one of the younger people there?

Speaker 2 (15:06):
They're like, yes, yeah, I think so, I an.

Speaker 4 (15:08):
Age limit they have to be over to go to
the Olymbit.

Speaker 6 (15:10):
Yes, it definitely is. Remember I think in athletics it's
something like sixteen.

Speaker 2 (15:15):
Oh yeah something like that.

Speaker 6 (15:16):
Yeah. I knew at the time was a young and
very naive so I was just enjoying the experience, you know,
just happy to be there in many ways.

Speaker 4 (15:22):
And isn't there a rumor that you can get free McDonald's.

Speaker 2 (15:25):
After what you can get? What is true? After you
got your bronze, just because you could? Right, yeah, yeah,
I like you.

Speaker 6 (15:36):
Apparently it was because I didn't go to the Tokyo infects.
But apparently it wasn't in Tokyo, but certainly in Rio.
McDonald's was a sponsor of the International Living Committee, I
think it is. And so yes, there was free McDonald's.
This is a McDonald's set up in the village. It's great.

Speaker 4 (15:49):
And so what did you do after you won your medal?

Speaker 3 (15:51):
Yes, so the medal? When when that happens, because we're
watching that yesterday. You you got into third place. Here
I am man splaining it. No one was really man,
we got the third place in the Australian Computer You
still had a chance to knock you out of the
middle ceremony and but we're watching all light in the
back of mind, you're like, wow, I'm probably not going
to win. I'm not going to get a bronze, right.

Speaker 6 (16:12):
Well, yeah, of course that's a slightly south deprecating yeah.

Speaker 4 (16:16):
Right, yeah, how high was that jump that you had
to get over.

Speaker 6 (16:19):
Yeah, So we both jumped four point eight meters, which
at the time was an equal PB for me, and
that like to do that, to do an equal PB
or a PB at a major chance is pretty hard,
like not many people would do that. So I was
stoked to jump for Ay and we both went to
four eighty five and I was ahead of her in
the jump order. So I did my third attempt at
for eighty five. I missed it done. That was me

(16:40):
out of the competition. But the way Paul, what works
and the same for like vertical jumps with high jump
is if you jump the same height as someone, they
go to a countback to decide who comes what place.
And the countback works by looking at how many total
misses an athlete had versus another athlete, but also the
misses had on the previous height. So I jumped for

(17:02):
eighty first attempt. That's great for me. That's that's that's
really really important. What do you really want? In fact,
I jumped every hight first attemp.

Speaker 2 (17:09):
H you pretty much now through.

Speaker 6 (17:12):
Else was great timing to do that in the Olympics. Yeah,
but yeah, and so I had set myself up the
best possible way. And Alana Boyd the Australian had had
some misses, so if she didn't clear eighty five, she
would sit below me in the placings, even though we
jumped the same height. And that's what happened. She jumped
after me. She missed for eighty five, and so I
was ahead of her in the count back, and so

(17:35):
I came third and she came forth. And that was wild.
That was just not at all what I expected. Like
I would have been stoked with fourth, like not. You know,
fourth is often a place where people like, you know,
don't feel happy about it. But I was nineteen. I
would have been like, great, I'll take fourth, like yeah,
So to come third was like I was like, I'm
sure this is not going to happen. She's experienced, she
knows what she's doing. Yeah, but you know, there's always

(17:57):
a bit of luck involved in these things, of course.
And yeah, it was just the most unexpected thing. It
was so surprising that I just didn't almost know what
to do about it. Like I even walked over to
the crowd where my family was, my coach and everybody,
and I remember just like holding out, I figures me,
like this right, what happened? Just checking before I get
really excited.

Speaker 4 (18:18):
What is it like to have something that you've dreamed
of just like come into place? Is that just like amazing?

Speaker 6 (18:24):
It's so surreal. It is so surreal, Like I just
don't even know how to describe it, Like it is
so emotionally overwhelming. Yeah, sport is one of those crazy
things where you just have you can have incredibly low
lows and then you can have these like insane highs
and everything in between, and even on a single day,
and sport too perfectly honest, and so that high in

(18:45):
Rio was just like nothing I'd ever experienced, and I
don't know, maybe it will be like nothing I ever
experience again. It was just one of those things where
like you just cannot believe what's happening, and then you're
rushed through everything. So like the competition probably finished it
like eleven pm at night, right, and then you go
you do your victory laugh and you pack everything up,
and then by the time you get taken back through

(19:06):
post event, you do like one hundred media interviews and
then you have to do your doping controls, you have
to go and test, and then I remember we went
straight into a press conference. It would have been like
midnight or something like a press conference, and then you
kind of whisked this place and that place, and the
next day you whisked to this place and that place,
and you're just like rushed everywhere, and it's just insanity almost,

(19:28):
Like that's what it felt like to me. I was like,
I cannot believe this is happening right now, Like I
just don't, you know, it's so surreal, so surreal.

Speaker 3 (19:35):
Wow.

Speaker 4 (19:35):
So where do you actually keep your bronze middle above
your bed?

Speaker 6 (19:40):
Obviously just somewhere very handy because I like to be
able to just you know, whip it out and bring
it to whatever. Like I took it out for just
a couple of days ago for something, and I reminded
me how warn it is, Like it's really worn. Yeah,
all the like fits sets stuck out obviously on the
middle are like fading, what do you call it? You know,
they've just it's pretty here and it's pretty cool because

(20:03):
I mean I really like that. I like that it
is getting touched by so many people that I can
bring it and everybody gets to share it. I just
think that's so cool. So I just have it some
super handy, so I can just pull it.

Speaker 3 (20:14):
Yeah, Like I guess in some ways that was a
life changing moment, right. We were like listening to Between
two B It's another great podcast that you're on as well.
I'm seeing that you were interested about social media blew.

Speaker 6 (20:24):
Up what like like fifty and then like seventy or
something just like.

Speaker 2 (20:29):
That overnight pretty much. Yeah, yeah, it was.

Speaker 6 (20:32):
It was overnight. I remember like I was sitting in
the stands watching athletics the day afterwards. I think I
was waiting for the middle ceremony and I just like
opened up Instagram, which I obviously hadn't done until that point.
I think, I, you know, I hadn't had a chance
really and I opened it up and it said like
fifty can. I just remember being like, what, like that's
a mistake, Like I have like five thousand followers. It

(20:54):
was crazy, and it just like went up so fast
from there as well. It was, Yeah, that was pretty widow.

Speaker 1 (21:00):
So now everyone knows you in New Zealand, and you
also get the Silver Road the Commonwealth Games, and then
things didn't go as well.

Speaker 4 (21:07):
You got injured, and then you're dreamed of the Tokyo
Olympics didn't happen. How hard was that moment?

Speaker 6 (21:12):
Like being there? Yeah, pretty hard because at this point,
like my identity was wrapped up and being an athlete
and not just an athlete, like a pretty high performing athlete, right, Yeah.
And I had all of these plans for myself, like
I thought I knew what my life would be like, Like,
you know, I was really like locked in and I'm
very much a planning for this and I don't like

(21:34):
plan b's and c's, like I like to be in
control of what's happening. That's six months leading into the
Tokyo Olympics was pretty tough because I felt like my
life was kind of unraveling a bit, like I didn't.
It's almost like a little minor identity crisis of like
if I can't even get to these Olympics if I'm
not an athlete, like what am I doing? Like what
am I doing with my life? Who am I? Like

(21:55):
that sort of stuff kind of Yeah, And that's really
hard to manage for anybody obviously, And I know it
might seem a bit frivolous sometimes just talking about sport,
but yeah, really raps into who you are. It's like
my income, you know, it's yeah, and you know, you
try hard not to let it be everything because of
these reasons that you don't want to have an identity

(22:15):
crisis when you leave sport, but it is it's hard
to do it because it is what you do, and
it's hard. You know.

Speaker 3 (22:21):
I think we're reading about yesterday because you're such a bubbly,
smiley person, but you know you're in tears at the
end because you didn't make you didn't get to go
into the Olympics.

Speaker 2 (22:29):
That must be so hard, you know, do you not
give up after that?

Speaker 1 (22:32):
Life?

Speaker 6 (22:33):
I think what d with a couple of things. Firstly,
I'm very persistent, like I was not going to give up,
and I still feel that way. Like you know, people
go easily into them early thirties as pop volters, and
you know, part of me is like, well, of course
I'm going to do that. Are pretty stubborn, and I
think there were times leading into the Toky Olympics where

(22:53):
that stubbornness was too much, almost like I probably should
have just been like, right, this is clearly not going
to happen. I need to just relax. But that was
one of them, for sure, the stubbornness. But I think
The other thing is that I've just for a long
time been so clear on what my potential is in
pole Vault, and I just feel I still feel very
clear on that. And when I say I know what
my potential is, like I feel good about that. I'm

(23:15):
not saying that it's guaranteed. There's you know, in fact,
the chances I probably won't reach my potential. You know,
there's just something that happens in life. But knowing it
and wanting to strive for it is something that really
motivates me. And I can't leave this almost half done.
Like until I've given this a real crack and just
got real close to what I think is my potential,
I'm not going to be done. And part of that

(23:36):
was also aged, like I was like, I'm young enough,
I can keep going. So there's a whole lot of
things when I'm not done.

Speaker 3 (23:41):
So how much sweet it was it to get to
you know, to Paris, to going in you know a
couple of months time, having gone through the highs and
then the lows.

Speaker 6 (23:49):
Yeah, it really makes you so grateful everything, every little moment,
and it's so just not taken for granted, I think,
particularly because it almost in some ways feels like something
you know, I could have I could have retired, I
could have stopped, it could have become too much for me,
but I didn't. And in some ways, it's it's almost
like the concept of like borrowed time. I'm like, well,
you know, who knows it might not work out again,

(24:10):
so I'm just going to really make the most of
this every aftunity I get. And it's surprising, Like I like, well,
I am an emotional person, so it's not that surprising,
but it's when I was selected last week, it was
surprisingly emotional. Even though I'd done the qualification, I did
it almost a year or you know, eight months ago.
I knew it was coming, but still when it finally happens,

(24:31):
I was quite surprised at how emotional that was. It's
just another step and it's something to celebrate. And you know,
nothing's guaranteed going forward. You need to get the healthy, fit,
firing ready to go. Like that's not easy either, but
to celebrate this, this little step of being selected or
not little step of being selected, it was quite emotional.

Speaker 4 (24:51):
This is when I grow up.

Speaker 1 (24:55):
Well, obviously we see you at competitions, but we don't
see all the work that goes into it. So like,
how much does it take? Do you like watch, we eat, sleep,
train all that stuff.

Speaker 6 (25:04):
Yeah, everything you do is towards being an athlete. Yeah,
so people obviously think about the physical training that might
take up three to four hours in a day, say,
but then everything else you do basically in your life
is building towards being an athlete. So yes, I'm very
particular about how much, how many hours of sleep I get,
about what I'm eating. Am I getting enough protein in

(25:26):
my diet because it's one that I'm not very good at.
And you know, not going out hiking for the weekend
because that's going to wreck me and I'm not gonna
be able to vault on Monday. And like everything that
you do is about being an athlete. And so yes,
there's a physical training. I only do five days of
training physical training a day a week. Sorry at the moment,
I used to do six and a lot more hours,
but I'm not quite the teenage robust that I was

(25:51):
in the past. But yeah, so yeah, about five days
a week of training, and in between that lots of
other things. I've got huge support teams, my coach for
physio medical doctor, I've got nutritionist, life advisor, sports psychologists
like huge, amazing team, and so that of his takes
up lots of time as are, because you're doing all

(26:12):
sorts of things to supplement your training.

Speaker 3 (26:14):
Can we ask you a few quick fire questions around
pole vaulting because we don't know a lot about it,
you know, so these might be dumb questions. Do you
travel with your poles like you do? You don't just
arrive at a composition and there's a whole lot you take.

Speaker 2 (26:27):
Carry them on the plane, must pain.

Speaker 6 (26:31):
They are, I would wouldn't recommend it. Well, yeah, so
so we do travel with them.

Speaker 2 (26:37):
You don't have to.

Speaker 6 (26:38):
You could send your poles. Lots of people these days
actually have poles in various locations around the world because
it's just easier than trying to travel long haul with them.
But mostly I travel with my poles. They are the
poles that I use at the moment. Are four point
six meters long, so tubes like four point seven They
don't hate down, they're no, it would be great if
they so, yes, I turn off as quite comedic. I

(27:00):
took up at airport and on my shoulders like this
five meter long bag that like you're swinging around the
place and people are ducking and getting all the way
and oh god. But basically you've got to be onto it.
Book with the airline, be very sensible about what you're doing,
because not all the airlines take them. So we treasure
very much the airlines I do take them and then
and I just treble basically on the same air line
all the time because they always take my poles and

(27:22):
they're amazing for it, and I'm very grateful for that.
But it's yet, it's not particularly easy.

Speaker 4 (27:26):
Do you instantly know and something's going to be a
good jump, Like you're like, oh, yes.

Speaker 2 (27:30):
Here we go.

Speaker 6 (27:31):
Yeah, you kind of do, you kind of do yeah,
because there's a lot of elements that are happening, and
if everyone keeps getting kicked off through the whole jump,
you're like, oh, okay, here we go like this, you know,
and it's it's a real like you know, you have
a feel for it right, you know, if you've taken
off too close, too far away, you know, if you
haven't run as fast, you know, if the poles moving
in the right way, all of those things.

Speaker 3 (27:51):
Because you do it indoor and outdoor, because guessing the
wind would play apart as well.

Speaker 6 (27:56):
Right hundred percent, Yeah, massive party. To be perfectly honest,
if you of a howling tailwand and you can control
your run, you're probably going to jump pretty high that
day because you're going to get onto a bigger pole,
and a bigger pole is going to put your own
into the air.

Speaker 2 (28:08):
These hasn't been stupid questions yet. It's so funny.

Speaker 4 (28:13):
Does Poland have the best pole?

Speaker 2 (28:17):
I don't know. I don't think so.

Speaker 6 (28:19):
There are some comps that I have yet to be
but I'll let you know one more.

Speaker 2 (28:23):
When you're up there, you're like, do you notice anything else?
You're like, well, I can see my house.

Speaker 3 (28:26):
Or anything, like you're up a thing or you're just
basically concentrating on where you're at.

Speaker 6 (28:31):
Yeah, pretty tunnel vision.

Speaker 4 (28:33):
Not going to lie.

Speaker 6 (28:33):
Pretty tunnel vision because it was.

Speaker 2 (28:35):
A coach where we heard it also on the podcast
that you Yeah, it made you tell jokes for a
while as well as your training.

Speaker 3 (28:41):
I didn't quite get the connection to why it would help,
but just to probably a nice break this sort of thing.

Speaker 4 (28:46):
Was it?

Speaker 6 (28:46):
Yeah, it's to keep you present and not going down
rabbit holes of thoughts that are just going to not
be helpful, Like, I mean, I'm very susceptible to overthinking,
and you just don't want to overthink, and you can
kind of imagine that you don't want to be thinking
about all things that can go wrong. For example, Yeah,
you're not going to jump at you, you're going to
be paralyzed with fear. And so part of it was

(29:09):
to stop me overthinking it. Just keep me coming in
the moment and make me laugh. And as you can tell,
I'm someone who likes to laugh and smile, and so
if I'm not out there having fun, I'm usually not
in a great place. And so I almost sometimes need
that external help to just remind me that this is okay,
it's just sport. You can relax, you don't, you know,
almost trivialize it. It's all good, like the world's not

(29:30):
going to end, Like just stay calm, just do your thing, enjoy,
don't worry about it.

Speaker 4 (29:34):
Yeah, So what next after Paris?

Speaker 6 (29:37):
Another four year Olympic cycle? I guess yeah, I mean, yeah,
that's how it works with sports we work on We
work on four year Olympic cycles. I mean the immediate
short term after Paris is there, our season continues. The
last competitions like mid September, and the Olympics are in
early August, so yeah, it's another almost month and a
half of competitions if you want to do them. I mean,

(29:58):
that's my current planner is to do them, and then
I have a good whack of time off, probably because
it's the best time at at the beginning of a
four year Olympic cyclist time to have some time off.
And then yeah, beginning straight back into it. We've got
our World Indoor Championships again next year. It's a delayed
one since from COVID, so we've got one in March,

(30:18):
and then we've got our World Outdoor Championships in July August,
I think next year. Never.

Speaker 3 (30:24):
Now we're trying to actually speaking of your jokes, before,
I was trying to find a pole vaulting joke on
the It's not many pole volting jokes. No, the only
one I thought was okay, but it was pretty much
in the dead joker department. Why do pole vaulters make
terrible comedians because their jokes always full flat, You're falling flat?

(30:48):
That was the best I could find of pole voting jokes.

Speaker 6 (30:51):
That's the best of her.

Speaker 2 (30:54):
It's not something as well.

Speaker 4 (30:56):
Well, so I'm about the Olympics. Why is it every
four years?

Speaker 2 (30:59):
Why? Four years?

Speaker 4 (31:01):
Yeah? Why, that's just like a random time.

Speaker 6 (31:03):
That's a little fun. I don't even know if I
can answer that.

Speaker 4 (31:06):
I don't know what's four years stranders?

Speaker 6 (31:08):
Yeah, yeah, I guess it's definitely it was every two years,
you'd be like, oh, yeah, but every four years almost
like adds to the prestige, right, yeah, because some people's
athletics careers are you know, any sport can be pretty short.
So to get to an Olympics can be timing, it
can be luck, it can be you know, obviously I'm
not trying to discount that you have to work incredibly hard,
but like, you know, if you happen to peak next

(31:31):
year and then by the time the twenty twenty eight
Olympics come around and you're you know, dropping off your peak,
that sucks.

Speaker 2 (31:37):
Like that's just I don't know.

Speaker 6 (31:39):
Maybe it adds to the prestige of what it means
to go to an Olympics, Yeah, I guess.

Speaker 4 (31:43):
So Okay, before you go, we got the quick fire questions.

Speaker 3 (31:47):
This or that, Okay, okay, just to find out if
you want to be like a love to watch. You
can pass on these as well too.

Speaker 5 (31:54):
Really, okay, this is this all that TikTok or Instagram,
TikTok no Instagram, Harry Potter all all of the rings,
easy camping or staying in a hotel, camping, bubble tea.

Speaker 4 (32:09):
Or a frappucina.

Speaker 2 (32:10):
Oh my god, I don't even know what is.

Speaker 4 (32:17):
Faulty, jendles or crocs, gendles, phone call or takes message.

Speaker 6 (32:21):
Fun, cal cool, absolutely real. I don't match my generation.

Speaker 4 (32:29):
Sunrise or sunset, sun it, kindle or real book, real book,
ear pods or a zero point five photo, winning a
middle or go on this podcast.

Speaker 6 (32:45):
That's not fair. I've already won a mile.

Speaker 4 (32:49):
Eliza, thank you so much for your time.

Speaker 1 (32:51):
I think you've shown us young people you can achieve
anything from your dreams in such a small country like
New Zealand. You are really inspiring and good luck for
your Olympics twenty twenty four.

Speaker 6 (33:02):
Oh, thank you so much, and thank you for having
all the podcasts.

Speaker 2 (33:05):
No, that's pretty cool.

Speaker 3 (33:05):
Well, you have to find a bit of advice for
your people, because I guess you know, for me, just
listening to what you do, it's like enjoy what you do.

Speaker 2 (33:11):
Is a big part of what you're do. Find something
that you love and you want to do is a
big part of it.

Speaker 3 (33:16):
And there's probably going to be ups and downs no
matter you know. You get, you succeed and then you
kind of go through a bit of below that happens,
but you can get.

Speaker 2 (33:23):
Back up again.

Speaker 6 (33:24):
Yeah, I think being at peace with that, that would
be my advice. The enjoyment and the being at peace
with the fact that it's not going to be perfect
all the time no matter what you do in life,
obviously not just sport, and being really okay about that,
because otherwise you're just going to ride that emotional roller
coaster every single time. Yeah, that's not particularly helpful, right,
So yeah, being at peace with effect they've will go
up and down, that's okay, We're okay with it.

Speaker 2 (33:45):
And try a lot of things as well too.

Speaker 3 (33:47):
I guess it was a good at this, I mean
because pop voting is probably not something that people get
an opportunity to try it, and if you've never tried it,
if you'd never gone to.

Speaker 6 (33:53):
That, yeah, yeah, that's what I mean. That's like you're saying,
luck so big part of these sorts of things you
never know how good you could have been. You think
of all these things you could be good at you
just don't know.

Speaker 4 (34:03):
Say that song Ontopias.

Speaker 6 (34:11):
Yeah, absolutely, I totally agreed. Try it, ll do something
you enjoy, don't try and just you know, force yourself.
If you don't like it, you're not going to carry
on forever, right And if you like it, you're going
to put the hard work and you're going to be
okay with the ups and downs. It's going to help
you move through whatever it is in life that you
want to do with. You're an artist, you're an athlete,
you're a whatever.

Speaker 4 (34:30):
You know.

Speaker 6 (34:30):
I think that's really important.

Speaker 2 (34:31):
Well, thank you so much, no, I thank you.

Speaker 6 (34:33):
Happy to be here.

Speaker 4 (34:35):
Eliza is so lovely.

Speaker 3 (34:36):
Yeah, she's awesome and I can see after chatting to
her why you want to be like Eliza McCartney. Although
I don't know if you're random Zootopia, Try Everything.

Speaker 2 (34:44):
Song was as remembered as much by us as.

Speaker 4 (34:46):
It was you finished the lyrics.

Speaker 2 (34:50):
Try Everything, great song?

Speaker 4 (34:54):
All right, saiddle?

Speaker 3 (34:55):
Do you want to be like Eliza McCartney? But I
know now we'll also be chatting to someone next time
to hear their inspirational story.

Speaker 1 (35:02):
That's right, and if you have any suggestions for people
that you would love us to chat to, hit me
up on social media.

Speaker 4 (35:08):
See in a spot
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