September 12, 2024 • 9 mins
If at first you don’t succeed, try again.
A common sentiment, but particularly relevant for athletes, and one Hamish Kerr is familiar with.
The Olympic high jump gold medallist told Mike Hosking that his first attempt at the Fosbury flop left him with a bloody nose, as he hit his nose against his knee on the way over.
Kerr’s come a long way since that first jump, and now his goal is to leap 2.4 meters – four centimetres higher than his medal winning 2.36 meters.
“For me it’s just about getting stronger and faster and that’s something we really worked on this year,” he told Hosking.
“Probably the most we’ve done of that in my whole career, and that’s, that’s why I’ve done so well.”
The world record is 2.45 meters, and if he continues the way he does, Kerr thinks the goal is within reach.
“If I have another four years of that, then there’s no reason why I wouldn’t be getting better.”
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
There was one Olympic story that came out of nowhere.
For a lot of us. It was Hamish Care of course. Suddenly,
seemingly out of no where, we had the sort of
the best high jumper in the world. He was going
to be competing this weekend in Belgium apparently, but he said, no,
bugger it, I need to come and see Mike. So
he has and he's with this very very good morning
to you. Good morning, and I'm very well in congratulations
to on On all that's happened to you. I'm endlessly
(00:22):
and I suspect most people are endlessly fascinated by the
high jump, because we all did it at school sports.
And we started out with the scissors, didn't we, And
then at some point we realized there was no going
any further for us. But you presumably went nut, I
can do more.
Speaker 2 (00:40):
I'm definitely the primary school kid who just kept on
going and come here.
Speaker 1 (00:44):
Was it an attraction to you as a sport, Not really,
you know.
Speaker 2 (00:51):
I did athletics at a club at a young age,
and high jump was always the event that I was
best at, for sure. But I think the thing for
me was that every year I just got a little
bit more serious as I wanted to jump higher. So
every year I was said, like, Okay, I'm going to
jump a new personal best and jump tens into me
just high this year, And to do that I kind
of just had to be a little bit more serious
(01:12):
about it. So I think over the years, I've sort
of just slowly gotten more and more into it, and
then and then obviously the last fe years I've been
pretty serious.
Speaker 1 (01:19):
But I can't remember the name of the term. So
do you start with the scissors? What's the one where
you roll forward over?
Speaker 2 (01:26):
That would be called the western.
Speaker 1 (01:27):
Role, the western roll. So occasionally we got into the
Western role because the height was too high for the scissors.
How to showing your age, mate, how do you trainsfer?
At what point is day one of the Fosbury Flop?
Speaker 2 (01:45):
Yeah, it depends on a lot of things, Like I
think that we all try to do it at some
point when we were really young and don't really do
it properly. But for me, it was when I was
about eleven. I went down to my local athletics club
and signed up and there was a coach there who
was able to help me do the technique properly, and
the ever since then, that's the main.
Speaker 1 (02:05):
Do you remember your first one?
Speaker 2 (02:09):
Yeah? I do. Actually I was in year four. It
was actually in the school hall at Mongofo Primary School
and I went over two meters. Oh no, sorry two meters.
I went over one meter ten and hit my nose
against my knee as I was falling over and I
got a blood nose and I cried. I cried, and
that was my first experience.
Speaker 1 (02:27):
Of high jump and next stop a gold medal at
the Olympics. It's not fair at ay. So how professional
is the sport in terms of a living that you
can make, a tour that you can participate in.
Speaker 2 (02:38):
Yeah, it's I mean, look, it's definitely a hard grind,
that's for sure. You don't you don't get into track
and field thinking that you're going to make millions. But
at the same time, when you do sort of start
getting up into the top ranks, there are opportunities. We
obviously earned quite a lot of prize money, you know,
private sponsorship, overseas sponsorship and then also government funding. So yeah,
(02:59):
we we sort of juggle a few different income streams
to make insmeets.
Speaker 1 (03:03):
Where where is it big globally?
Speaker 2 (03:05):
It's big in Europe, So that's where we do most
of our competing for high jump, particularly it's quite big
in Germany and actually through Eastern Europe. I sort of
spend quite a bit of time in the Czech Republic
and Slovakia and various little places like that. So it's yeah,
it's it's it's definitely takes you to some interesting places.
But there's some people are pretty keen on it.
Speaker 1 (03:24):
You're a tall guy, Is that a prerequisite?
Speaker 2 (03:28):
Not really, Like I wouldn't say that there are any short
high jumpers, Like, if you're sort of under six foot,
you'll probably probably need to go find another event to
be good at. But yeah, I would definitely be one
of the taller guys. What are your six what I'm
sex sex?
Speaker 1 (03:39):
What are your wigh?
Speaker 2 (03:40):
I'm about eighty Well at the Olympics, I was about
eighty two.
Speaker 1 (03:43):
Is that about right? Yeah?
Speaker 2 (03:45):
I mean, look, it's it's always a constant debate, right, Like,
I'm one of the heavier high jumpers for sure. A
lot of the other guys would be. You know, there's
a guy that I'm really good friends with, the Korean
who's he'd be probably a couple of cinameters shorter. Than me,
so maybe one and weigh sixty seven kgs.
Speaker 1 (04:02):
So yeah, that's my way.
Speaker 2 (04:04):
There's some very different athletes out there, but I think
for me, you know, the body that I have really
works for my technique.
Speaker 1 (04:10):
So what is it you need? My way of power?
So if you're slight, how do you generate the power
through your legs to get up?
Speaker 2 (04:17):
So if you're really slight, so if you're like a
sixty seven kg guind of guy, you have to run
really fast and in order to you know, to generate
that speed and then convert it into upwards momentum. Whereas
someone like me, being a little bit heavier, I use
my strength, so I don't run quite as fast, but
when I come into take off, that's when I really
generate a lot of power.
Speaker 1 (04:34):
Where's the magic at the takeoff point? So I became
mismerized by this. At the takeoff point, you're up and
it's all timing at that point. It's not necessarily that
it's the timing when you go back arch flick your legs.
That's that's everything, isn't it.
Speaker 2 (04:51):
It is everything once it gets to there. But I
would say the most important thing for me is actually
the curve so that's.
Speaker 1 (04:58):
Sort of the as you run it.
Speaker 2 (04:59):
Yeah, it's about the third stride to the last stride,
which is my seventh stride.
Speaker 1 (05:04):
Do you know where?
Speaker 2 (05:05):
Yeah, yeah, you do know.
Speaker 1 (05:06):
Yeah, And that's why some of them pull out and
just run underneath or yeah, it doesn't even look like
it's going to happen.
Speaker 2 (05:12):
Yeah, yeah, I mean you don't. You don't want to
get into the habit of pulling out of jumps, and
it's not something that we probably do all the time,
but it's definitely you know, you can put your foot
down and and kind of suspect that you're going to
have to try and really do something in the air,
but you can also you can chuck your foot down,
and I did in the final put my foot down
and just go, yep, we're in the right place.
Speaker 1 (05:31):
Does it when you're when you're over the back backwards
arching about to kick, does it feel right?
Speaker 2 (05:36):
Yeah? Yeah. I mean that part of the jump is
probably the most standardized. Like it's it's not something that
we really react to or anything. It's not like we
feel like we're over the barn and then kock our legs.
It's it's just part of the timing of Wow.
Speaker 1 (05:48):
That's amazing, isn't it? Has it changed dramatically since you've
been doing it in any way?
Speaker 2 (05:53):
Not really, And I think it's it's funny. Actually, I
came into the sport, or sort of grew up in
the sport where there was a lot of guys jumping
two meters forty, And since I've actually come into it,
no one's jumped to forty for about ten years now. Yeah,
so you could say stuff or something, Well, I don't know.
I I you know, I want to expect, you know,
(06:15):
I suspect the best for those guys. But there was
this time where there was just some amazing jumpers and
I think now is the time to really sort of
cack on again.
Speaker 1 (06:23):
And so we're at peak human? Do you reckon's? What's
the top number? What's your best? So my best is
two thirty six, which is the interesting thing. You don't
you can win a gold not necessarily jumping too third.
You don't have to jump too thirty six to win
a gold because it was an attrition thing at the Games,
which I find fascinating. So you keep going basically until
the other guy falls over and can't do it anymore.
Speaker 2 (06:44):
Yeah, yeah, I mean it's a it's a brutal sport,
that's for sure. I mean, you can you can be
absolutely dominating the start of the competition and clearing all
the bars first attempt and just looking like your marm's over.
But ultimately it's it's the last jump that counts, and
that's the that's the scary thing is you know, you
do all this power work and then two three hours later,
how do you how to kind of get up for it?
Speaker 1 (07:04):
Exactly? It's two thirty six yt or ish for anybody
and we peak human.
Speaker 2 (07:11):
So so the world record is two forty five, which
was done about twenty five years ago now, so it's.
Speaker 1 (07:19):
There's something about that's suspicious.
Speaker 2 (07:22):
It's quite a Yeah, it's quite a big record, but
I think I think that it's possible, Like it's it's
definitely going to happen.
Speaker 1 (07:27):
Some What would you need to do for me?
Speaker 2 (07:31):
It's just about getting stronger and faster, and that's something
that we really worked on this year, probably the most
we've done of that in my whole career, and that's
that's why I've done so well. And so I think that,
you know, if I have another four years of that,
then there's no reason why I wouldn't be getting better age.
Speaker 1 (07:47):
Where does that put them?
Speaker 2 (07:48):
Ah? Yeah, well I'm not getting younger, that's for sure. Yeah.
I think for me so I'm twenty eight now, thirty
two would probably be probably be it the back for me,
not the back. A lot of guys have back of
shoes for menci ankle. We put about ten times our
body weight for our ankle when we take off, so
you can imagine that that it does take a wee
(08:08):
bit of a beating shoes.
Speaker 1 (08:10):
So are you carrying injuries at any given time? Or
you're pretty clean?
Speaker 2 (08:15):
I mean define injuries right like I think stuff that hurts.
I think I think that every athlete goes into major
events with stuff that hurts. And that's something that we
we deal with constantly. And the way I kind of
look at it is if you you know, if you're
if you're not hurting, you probably haven't trained hard enough.
Speaker 1 (08:31):
Good on you. I like the attitude. Most important questionable
why do you wear baggy shorts when you're going over
the back and it's so tight? Why are the baggy
shorts there?
Speaker 2 (08:41):
I have never had a bar come down because shorts
and I have never seen it happen. So the time
it does happen, I will, I will, I will come
back to you and I will say, but yeah, that's
definitely for me.
Speaker 1 (08:54):
It's notice you're good on you. Are you living your dream?
Speaker 2 (08:57):
Yes? Absolutely, it's it's been a whirlwind and I'm just so,
you know, so grateful for the opportunities that gives me.
Speaker 1 (09:02):
And course for the country. It's fantastic because when kids
see because as I said, all everyone's done school sports,
they didn't do high jump well, generally, didn't do the
shop put well. Most of us had to crack at
the long jump. A bit of running was good. When
they see you, they see anything's possible, presumably.
Speaker 2 (09:18):
Absolutely, And I think I think that's my kind of messages.
As for me, I didn't have anyone to look up to.
You know, the first time I jumped to thirty was
was or first time I experienced anyone jumping too thirty
was me jumping it. The first time I held an
Olympic gold medal, it was my medal. And so you know,
just go out there and strive your own own you
know what, if your dreamers go and go and find
that path and just.
Speaker 1 (09:37):
Go for it, terrific to me you make go, well,
we'll talk you you in LA Yes, absolutely, okay, we'll
talk to you after that. Another gold Hopefully no apprecire it.
Speaker 2 (09:47):
For more from the Mike Asking Breakfast listen live to
news talks it'd be from six am weekdays, or follow
the podcast on iHeartRadio
There was one Olympic story that came out of nowhere.
For a lot of us. It was Hamish Care of course. Suddenly,
seemingly out of no where, we had the sort of
the best high jumper in the world. He was going
to be competing this weekend in Belgium apparently, but he said, no,
bugger it, I need to come and see Mike. So
he has and he's with this very very good morning
to you. Good morning, and I'm very well in congratulations
to on On all that's happened to you. I'm endlessly
(00:22):
and I suspect most people are endlessly fascinated by the
high jump, because we all did it at school sports.
And we started out with the scissors, didn't we, And
then at some point we realized there was no going
any further for us. But you presumably went nut, I
can do more.
Speaker 2 (00:40):
I'm definitely the primary school kid who just kept on
going and come here.
Speaker 1 (00:44):
Was it an attraction to you as a sport, Not really,
you know.
Speaker 2 (00:51):
I did athletics at a club at a young age,
and high jump was always the event that I was
best at, for sure. But I think the thing for
me was that every year I just got a little
bit more serious as I wanted to jump higher. So
every year I was said, like, Okay, I'm going to
jump a new personal best and jump tens into me
just high this year, And to do that I kind
of just had to be a little bit more serious
(01:12):
about it. So I think over the years, I've sort
of just slowly gotten more and more into it, and
then and then obviously the last fe years I've been
pretty serious.
Speaker 1 (01:19):
But I can't remember the name of the term. So
do you start with the scissors? What's the one where
you roll forward over?
Speaker 2 (01:26):
That would be called the western.
Speaker 1 (01:27):
Role, the western roll. So occasionally we got into the
Western role because the height was too high for the scissors.
How to showing your age, mate, how do you trainsfer?
At what point is day one of the Fosbury Flop?
Speaker 2 (01:45):
Yeah, it depends on a lot of things, Like I
think that we all try to do it at some
point when we were really young and don't really do
it properly. But for me, it was when I was
about eleven. I went down to my local athletics club
and signed up and there was a coach there who
was able to help me do the technique properly, and
the ever since then, that's the main.
Speaker 1 (02:05):
Do you remember your first one?
Speaker 2 (02:09):
Yeah? I do. Actually I was in year four. It
was actually in the school hall at Mongofo Primary School
and I went over two meters. Oh no, sorry two meters.
I went over one meter ten and hit my nose
against my knee as I was falling over and I
got a blood nose and I cried. I cried, and
that was my first experience.
Speaker 1 (02:27):
Of high jump and next stop a gold medal at
the Olympics. It's not fair at ay. So how professional
is the sport in terms of a living that you
can make, a tour that you can participate in.
Speaker 2 (02:38):
Yeah, it's I mean, look, it's definitely a hard grind,
that's for sure. You don't you don't get into track
and field thinking that you're going to make millions. But
at the same time, when you do sort of start
getting up into the top ranks, there are opportunities. We
obviously earned quite a lot of prize money, you know,
private sponsorship, overseas sponsorship and then also government funding. So yeah,
(02:59):
we we sort of juggle a few different income streams
to make insmeets.
Speaker 1 (03:03):
Where where is it big globally?
Speaker 2 (03:05):
It's big in Europe, So that's where we do most
of our competing for high jump, particularly it's quite big
in Germany and actually through Eastern Europe. I sort of
spend quite a bit of time in the Czech Republic
and Slovakia and various little places like that. So it's yeah,
it's it's it's definitely takes you to some interesting places.
But there's some people are pretty keen on it.
Speaker 1 (03:24):
You're a tall guy, Is that a prerequisite?
Speaker 2 (03:28):
Not really, Like I wouldn't say that there are any short
high jumpers, Like, if you're sort of under six foot,
you'll probably probably need to go find another event to
be good at. But yeah, I would definitely be one
of the taller guys. What are your six what I'm
sex sex?
Speaker 1 (03:39):
What are your wigh?
Speaker 2 (03:40):
I'm about eighty Well at the Olympics, I was about
eighty two.
Speaker 1 (03:43):
Is that about right? Yeah?
Speaker 2 (03:45):
I mean, look, it's it's always a constant debate, right, Like,
I'm one of the heavier high jumpers for sure. A
lot of the other guys would be. You know, there's
a guy that I'm really good friends with, the Korean
who's he'd be probably a couple of cinameters shorter. Than me,
so maybe one and weigh sixty seven kgs.
Speaker 1 (04:02):
So yeah, that's my way.
Speaker 2 (04:04):
There's some very different athletes out there, but I think
for me, you know, the body that I have really
works for my technique.
Speaker 1 (04:10):
So what is it you need? My way of power?
So if you're slight, how do you generate the power
through your legs to get up?
Speaker 2 (04:17):
So if you're really slight, so if you're like a
sixty seven kg guind of guy, you have to run
really fast and in order to you know, to generate
that speed and then convert it into upwards momentum. Whereas
someone like me, being a little bit heavier, I use
my strength, so I don't run quite as fast, but
when I come into take off, that's when I really
generate a lot of power.
Speaker 1 (04:34):
Where's the magic at the takeoff point? So I became
mismerized by this. At the takeoff point, you're up and
it's all timing at that point. It's not necessarily that
it's the timing when you go back arch flick your legs.
That's that's everything, isn't it.
Speaker 2 (04:51):
It is everything once it gets to there. But I
would say the most important thing for me is actually
the curve so that's.
Speaker 1 (04:58):
Sort of the as you run it.
Speaker 2 (04:59):
Yeah, it's about the third stride to the last stride,
which is my seventh stride.
Speaker 1 (05:04):
Do you know where?
Speaker 2 (05:05):
Yeah, yeah, you do know.
Speaker 1 (05:06):
Yeah, And that's why some of them pull out and
just run underneath or yeah, it doesn't even look like
it's going to happen.
Speaker 2 (05:12):
Yeah, yeah, I mean you don't. You don't want to
get into the habit of pulling out of jumps, and
it's not something that we probably do all the time,
but it's definitely you know, you can put your foot
down and and kind of suspect that you're going to
have to try and really do something in the air,
but you can also you can chuck your foot down,
and I did in the final put my foot down
and just go, yep, we're in the right place.
Speaker 1 (05:31):
Does it when you're when you're over the back backwards
arching about to kick, does it feel right?
Speaker 2 (05:36):
Yeah? Yeah. I mean that part of the jump is
probably the most standardized. Like it's it's not something that
we really react to or anything. It's not like we
feel like we're over the barn and then kock our legs.
It's it's just part of the timing of Wow.
Speaker 1 (05:48):
That's amazing, isn't it? Has it changed dramatically since you've
been doing it in any way?
Speaker 2 (05:53):
Not really, And I think it's it's funny. Actually, I
came into the sport, or sort of grew up in
the sport where there was a lot of guys jumping
two meters forty, And since I've actually come into it,
no one's jumped to forty for about ten years now. Yeah,
so you could say stuff or something, Well, I don't know.
I I you know, I want to expect, you know,
(06:15):
I suspect the best for those guys. But there was
this time where there was just some amazing jumpers and
I think now is the time to really sort of
cack on again.
Speaker 1 (06:23):
And so we're at peak human? Do you reckon's? What's
the top number? What's your best? So my best is
two thirty six, which is the interesting thing. You don't
you can win a gold not necessarily jumping too third.
You don't have to jump too thirty six to win
a gold because it was an attrition thing at the Games,
which I find fascinating. So you keep going basically until
the other guy falls over and can't do it anymore.
Speaker 2 (06:44):
Yeah, yeah, I mean it's a it's a brutal sport,
that's for sure. I mean, you can you can be
absolutely dominating the start of the competition and clearing all
the bars first attempt and just looking like your marm's over.
But ultimately it's it's the last jump that counts, and
that's the that's the scary thing is you know, you
do all this power work and then two three hours later,
how do you how to kind of get up for it?
Speaker 1 (07:04):
Exactly? It's two thirty six yt or ish for anybody
and we peak human.
Speaker 2 (07:11):
So so the world record is two forty five, which
was done about twenty five years ago now, so it's.
Speaker 1 (07:19):
There's something about that's suspicious.
Speaker 2 (07:22):
It's quite a Yeah, it's quite a big record, but
I think I think that it's possible, Like it's it's
definitely going to happen.
Speaker 1 (07:27):
Some What would you need to do for me?
Speaker 2 (07:31):
It's just about getting stronger and faster, and that's something
that we really worked on this year, probably the most
we've done of that in my whole career, and that's
that's why I've done so well. And so I think that,
you know, if I have another four years of that,
then there's no reason why I wouldn't be getting better age.
Speaker 1 (07:47):
Where does that put them?
Speaker 2 (07:48):
Ah? Yeah, well I'm not getting younger, that's for sure. Yeah.
I think for me so I'm twenty eight now, thirty
two would probably be probably be it the back for me,
not the back. A lot of guys have back of
shoes for menci ankle. We put about ten times our
body weight for our ankle when we take off, so
you can imagine that that it does take a wee
(08:08):
bit of a beating shoes.
Speaker 1 (08:10):
So are you carrying injuries at any given time? Or
you're pretty clean?
Speaker 2 (08:15):
I mean define injuries right like I think stuff that hurts.
I think I think that every athlete goes into major
events with stuff that hurts. And that's something that we
we deal with constantly. And the way I kind of
look at it is if you you know, if you're
if you're not hurting, you probably haven't trained hard enough.
Speaker 1 (08:31):
Good on you. I like the attitude. Most important questionable
why do you wear baggy shorts when you're going over
the back and it's so tight? Why are the baggy
shorts there?
Speaker 2 (08:41):
I have never had a bar come down because shorts
and I have never seen it happen. So the time
it does happen, I will, I will, I will come
back to you and I will say, but yeah, that's
definitely for me.
Speaker 1 (08:54):
It's notice you're good on you. Are you living your dream?
Speaker 2 (08:57):
Yes? Absolutely, it's it's been a whirlwind and I'm just so,
you know, so grateful for the opportunities that gives me.
Speaker 1 (09:02):
And course for the country. It's fantastic because when kids
see because as I said, all everyone's done school sports,
they didn't do high jump well, generally, didn't do the
shop put well. Most of us had to crack at
the long jump. A bit of running was good. When
they see you, they see anything's possible, presumably.
Speaker 2 (09:18):
Absolutely, And I think I think that's my kind of messages.
As for me, I didn't have anyone to look up to.
You know, the first time I jumped to thirty was
was or first time I experienced anyone jumping too thirty
was me jumping it. The first time I held an
Olympic gold medal, it was my medal. And so you know,
just go out there and strive your own own you
know what, if your dreamers go and go and find
that path and just.
Speaker 1 (09:37):
Go for it, terrific to me you make go, well,
we'll talk you you in LA Yes, absolutely, okay, we'll
talk to you after that. Another gold Hopefully no apprecire it.
Speaker 2 (09:47):
For more from the Mike Asking Breakfast listen live to
news talks it'd be from six am weekdays, or follow
the podcast on iHeartRadio
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