Nicola Olyslagers: Why one of Australia’s best medal chances at the Paris Olympics will NOT be satisfied if she wins gold

She is a devout Christian who reads the Bible and throws her long arms up in prayer before each jump, then, as she often says on her Instagram page, she jumps for “joy for Jesus.”

It’s clearly working for Nicola Olyslagers, who is the first Australian woman to clear 2 metres in the high jump, has a personal best of 2.03 metres and is ranked second in the world behind Ukraine’s Yaroslava Mahuchikh.

The 1.86 cm high cannon from North Gosford on the New South Wales Central Coast won silver in the high jump at the 2020 Olympic Games in Tokyo and wants to do more than just perform best at the Games in Paris.

Olyslagers says she not only plans to win the gold medal at the Olympic Games in Paris next month, but also wants to break the world record.

To do this, the 27-year-old would have to improve her personal record by 0.07 metres. This means that she would have to exceed the bar by an extra height of, for example, a size D battery or an average golf tee to reach 2.10.

In the world of high jump, that’s quite a challenge.

Olyslagers’ biggest rival Mahuchikh already jumped 2.06 meters in 2021, but the world record of 2.09 meters that she wants to improve was already set in 1987 by Bulgarian Stefka Kostadinova.

What gives Australian Olympic officials hope that the Olyslagers can achieve this is part attitude and part confidence.

In April, the 27-year-old did not attempt a national record of 2.04 meters, but raised the bar to 2.06 meters.

Her first attempt failed, but her second attempt almost succeeded.

“I thought, ‘How is it possible that it’s been 37 years since a woman jumped faster than 2.09? How long is that?’,” Olsylagers said afterwards.

‘I recognized that then [Kostadinova] jumped 2.09, someone else jumped 2.07 right next to her.

‘If you don’t have that luxury, you have to do big, bold things that most high jumpers don’t want to do.

‘I’m still learning how to step outside my comfort zone, how to push myself to do things and settle for less than the best.

“I don’t know what my best quality is, and that’s what excites me.”

Other things that set Olyslagers apart are her fast run-up, her acrobatic training regime and what she calls her “little golden book,” in which she has become known for scribbling sporting events, including the last Olympic Games.

“This thing went viral and I didn’t really understand why. But it’s my sports training journal and I guess it’s like Track and Field 101,” she told Nine.

‘Just write down what you did every day before training. But I took it a step further and said, okay, but what did I learn and what felt good and what do I need to change?

‘The Olympics, they were two hours and 45 minutes. Such a long time to be there and be focused.

‘So I had this book full of inspiration and also these lessons that I learned. I could almost write a letter to myself in the future to say, hey, you’re at the Olympics, but remember this and I can look at it.

The 27-year-old from the NSW Central Coast trains religiously and is a devout Christian, combining her faith with her sport and hoping to break a world record in Paris

‘It was a beautiful moment that I could take the diary with me to those matches and write down exactly what I was feeling at that moment, so that I could think about it later.

‘I originally did it because I thought no one else would see it.

“And then, before you know it, your little scribbles are in the headlines. That’s not what it was ever meant to be.”

In addition to the statistics, drawings of flowers and a score (she gave herself a 10 out of 10), the book is also full of Bible quotes and religious reflections on her sport.

Interspersed with her feelings on the day and details about her health and diet are words like, “Surrender: It seems as if you were shedding blood, sweat, and tears for a crown you willingly gave away. Yet you are partaking of the glory of the God who sees.”

Olyslager’s Christian beliefs became inextricably linked to her athletic achievements in her teens, by which time she was already a successful athlete.

When she began competing in track and field at age seven, she discovered she could win most events, from shot put to the 200-meter dash, and at age eight, the high jump. She later said, “Even then I thought I wanted to jump two meters one day.”

Nicola grew up with Croatian maternal grandparents, who came from the island of Korčula in Croatia, reportedly the birthplace of Marco Polo. One of Nicola’s sporting idols was former Croatian high jumper Blanka Vlasic.

Nicola Olyslagers is pictured with her husband, basketball player and fellow devout Christian, Rhys Olyslagers, whom she married in 2022

Vlasic, who has a personal best of 2.08 meters, is the second best female jumper of all time. She first competed at the Sydney Olympics in 2000 at the age of 16 and won silver at the 2008 Games in Beijing.

Olyslagers previously expressed her belief that: ‘Croatian genetics give a physical advantage in many sports because of the height.

“However, I think the theory also applies to the Croatian lifestyle, which is very well known among successful athletes,” she said.

“We learn to work hard, value family, and honor the community in which we live.”

The other belief she believes fuels her athletic success stems from when she was 16 and went to a youth camp, which was a big step in becoming an evangelical Christian.

She changed her professional surname when she married basketball player and fellow Christian Rhys Olyslagers in 2022.

Together they now run Everlasting Crowns, an organization dedicated to encouraging and educating athletes.

Her religious preparations were an integral part of her build-up to the Tokyo Olympics, where she won silver in a thrilling final, becoming only the second Australian woman to win an Olympic medal in the high jump.

About clearing the bar, as she did (above) last year in Budapest, Olyslagers says: ”When you clear the bar, there’s so much excitement… for a moment you feel like you’re flying”

As she later told Christian media channel ‘Eternity News’, missing out on gold didn’t break her.

“In preparation for the Olympics, I prepared myself both mentally and physically,” she said.

‘I knew that if I went there, the doubt would be great and that I would be tempted to hide my faith in order to gain sponsors, or to hide my joy in case I missed the bar.

“I was fearless because when I reached for the highest I could achieve during the Olympics, I knew I was more than good enough, even if I didn’t make it my identity in Christ.”

Last year she was named Athletics NSW Athlete of the Year along with high jumper Brandon Starc.

In preparation for Paris, Olyslagers spent the season in Europe. In June, she competed in the Diamond League in Stockholm and played matches in Finland and Czechoslovakia.

On July 7 she will participate in the Diamond League in Paris, on August 2 in the Olympic qualifying competition and on August 4 the Olympic final will take place.

Olyslagers and her ‘little golden book’ in which she writes about jumps, training and adds little drawings together with Bible quotes

Olyslager’s own approach to the horizontal bar is something she enjoys rather than dreads, arms raised and thinking about you-know-what.

“I love the moment just before the jump,” she posted on Instagram ahead of a 2022 competition.

“It requires trust that no matter how much training and preparation has been completed, this moment is about giving up control and trusting.

“It’s the simple belief that it’s not what happens next that counts, but who gets you through it.”

Olyslagers also said that high jumping “taught me resilience, strength and perseverance in ways that are impossible if you don’t give 100 percent.”

“But deep down I just want to make that 10 out of 10 leap,” she said.

‘The day I broke the 2m barrier in Australia, that’s a day. You can’t set a dream too high.

“When you reach the bar, there’s so much excitement, but also control. For a moment, you feel like you’re flying, and I love that.”