Kurtis Marschall

Fast Facts

Sport: Athletics
Event: Pole Vault
Olympic History: Rio 2016, Tokyo 2020
Highlights: Commonwealth Games champion
Coach: Paul Burgess
Year Born: 1997
State Born: Adelaide, SA

About Kurtis

As an 11-year-old in 2008, Kurtis Marschall was inspired by Steve Hooker's gold medal heroics at the Olympic Games in Beijing. He then at 12, attended a 'come-and-try,' day in Adelaide where he jumped just two metres, but it was the beginning of his journey in athletics.

Marschall started training with Alan Launder in Adelaide and by 16 had already vaulted over five metres.

Marschall was devastated when in 2014, Launder tragically passed away. Kym Simons, who had also been assisting Marschall then coached him for the next few years. That same year, Marschall made his international debut at the World U20 Championships.

He continued to improve in 2015, then in 2016 in Germany, ahead of his second World U20 Championships appearance, he cleared 5.70m, locking up Olympic qualification. It was the highest vault by a junior in the world for three years.

At the World U20s, Marschall won silver and three weeks later in Rio 2016, missed qualifying for the Olympic pole vault final on countback. Aged 19, he was the youngest in the field by three years.

In 2017 he was 11th in the final at the World Championships, then a year later at the 2018 Gold Coast Commonwealth Games, he claimed gold for Australia. Marschall was now a 5.86m vaulter, regularly top-5 in the Diamond Leagues and entrenched amongst the elite.

In late 2018 his good run of no injuries came to an end when his pole plant went wrong at the Brussels Diamond League, resulting in him landing on the base of the uprights. He fractured his heel bones (calcaneus) on both legs. He rushed back into competition in early 2019, but coming back from the injury too soon led to a niggling pain in his shoulder, which turned out to be a tear in the tendon of his rotator cuff. He was using parts of his back too much, loading it with acute pressure, and that caused him to get a stress fracture in the L5 disc of his spine.

After a period of rehabilitation, seven months later he returned. In his first competition of 2020, he cleared 5.80m, but then COVID closed down the season. Marschall took time to nurture his back, his shoulder and his feet then, returned to competition over the summer of 2020/21, clearing a best of 5.80m.

Kurtis had a good summer season in 2021 with two 5.80m clearances domestically. Although he no heighted at nationals, missing automatic nomination to the national team, he was still selected in April for his second Olympic team.
A 5.80m and a couple of 5.75m prior to departing for Tokyo continued the summer form. But in Tokyo there was a hiccup when he had to isolate from the Australian team, outside of the village after a COVID scare. He had been at the same training venue as American pole vaulter Sam Kendricks, who would later test positive for COVID.

"There was an hour where I was absolutely stressing, the Games could have been over if I wasn't vaccinated, and I wasn't wearing a mask. Luckily, I was and luckily protocols have supported me in the Games."

All clear he took his position in the qualifying rounds. A first attempt clearance at 5.50m was followed shortly thereafter by an anxious third attempt clearance at 5.65m, before cementing his spot among the top-12 with a first attempt clearance at 5.75m.

But in the final things didn't go to plan as Kurtis no heighted at 5.55m.
"It's as simple as me not executing my queues; I used the same pole, the same stands, the same everything from the qualifying round. I came down on the bar the first time, brought the stands in, the same thing happened again and then it all happened again. Three unforgivable mistakes that I'll learn a lot from," Kurtis said.