Image
Eleanor Patterson

Eleanor Patterson

Age

27

Place of Birth

VIC

Hometown

Leongatha, Victoria

Junior Club

Leongatha Little Athletics

Senior Club

Sydney

Coach

Alex Stewart

Olympic History

Rio 2016

Tokyo 2020

Career Events

Athletics Womens High Jump

 

Eleanor's Story

Fast Facts 

Sport: Athletics 
Event: High Jump 
Olympic History: Rio 2016, Tokyo 2020
Coach: Alex Stewart 
Year Born: 1996 
State Born: Sydney, NSW 

About Eleanor

Eleanor Patterson’s start in athletics came when she was eight years old, after a sleepover at a friend’s place. She accompanied her friend to Little Athletics and fell in love with the sport.

Patterson grew up in the South Gippsland Shire town of Leongatha, located 135km south-east of Melbourne, with a population of just 5000. She could only train on a grass track, as the closed synthetic facility was an hour away, but her teacher at St Laurence O'Toole Primary School in Leongatha, VIC, noted her passion for athletics and encouraged her.

London 2012 Olympian Kaila McKnight (1500m) was an inspiration for Patterson as McKnight lived in a neighbouring small country town. Seeing her compete at the top level, coming from a small country town, helped Patterson believe it was possible for her to do so too. 


At 13, Patterson was already winning national high jump titles. She became prominent when she won gold at the 2013 World Youth (U18) Championship in Donetsk, Ukraine. Later that year she broke the World U18 record clearing 1.96m. She followed this with gold at the 2014 Glasgow Commonwealth Games while completing her final year of schooling, with a clearance of 1.94m. 

Her amazing international record continued at the Beijing 2015 World Championships, when Patterson placed eighth to become the first Australian female in 24 years to make the high jump final.

Selected for her Olympic debut in Rio 2016, she cleared 1.89m and missed qualification for the final. In 2017 she declined selection for the world championships and in 2018 missed selection for the Commonwealth Games, where she would have been defending champion. 

Out of high jumping for a time, she remerged in the later part of 2019.

She had relocated to Sydney to train with Alex Stewart, “he welcomed me into his squad and has fostered me and allowed me to grow not only as an athlete but more importantly as a person,” she said.

In late 2019, Patterson cleared a promising 1.90m but missed selection for the 2019 World Championships, then in the summer of 2020, she was in incredible form, leaping 1.96m, 1.96m and 1.94m, ahead of breaking the Australian record with a clearance of 1.99m in Wellington New Zealand. 

Due to injury, she made a late start to her 2021 campaign, clearing 1.87m in her season debut in March. In June in European she was in terrific form clearing heights of 1.93m, 1.94m and 1.96m. 

Selected for Tokyo – her second Olympics, she maintained that consistency and was rewarded with an excellent fifth place with a height of 1.96m. However she had hoped to exceed her seasons best and finish on the podium.

Read More