BIOGRAPHY
Triple jumper Connor Murphy’s journey to becoming an Olympian seemed a given a few years ago, but progress seemed to stall until Connor and his dad/coach Andrew Murphy, a three-time Olympian, made some technical changes and Connor himself refocused. It led to a series of brilliant performances in 2023 and 2024 and the longest leap by an Australian in over a decade.
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Connor Murphy was destined to be an athlete and triple jumper, growing up around athletics where his father Andrew Murphy, an Olympian, was a track and field coach and athletics master at Trinity Grammar school, the leading school sports program in Australia.
Connor started in little athletics around 6-year-old.
“I remember right from the start I loved it, but was not very good being extremely lanky and uncoordinated,” he recalled.
His love of the sport grew. “I always saw making the Olympics, like my dad, the ultimate goal. I naturally gravitated towards the jumping events as they were what I seemed to be best at and ironically it was triple jump that I was the best at, even before really having trained in it at all.”
A turning point was when he was in his mid-teens. “I feel that I really started viewing athletics seriously after I won my first national title when I was 15.” I started to believe I could be alright at this triple jump thing. He continued to get better and ‘started properly training at around 17 years old’.
Around the late/post pandemic years 2021/22 we expected Connor to make great leaps forward, but there were changes going on his life. Like adjusting to moving out of home and university. “I struggled a bit in 2022 and that I believe was a major turning point. It was the first year in my life where I did not improve, I really questioned whether I could be an elite athlete after that season and was questioning if I had what it took to become a 17+ metre jumper. This was particularly challenging. We broke everything down and looked into what it would take to become an elite level triple jumper. I would say that after 2022 was when everything changed and I became much much more dedicated and driven.”
They analysed his physical development was ahead of his technical development and it took almost two years for these changes to kick in.
At the 2023 Nationals he leapt a massive 39cm PB of 16.61m, for equal first place. Mid-year he was fourth at the World University Games, then in December won the Pacific Games with a windy 16.85m jump. On to early 2024 he again raised his PB to 16.82m – the longest jump by an Aussie for 12 years as he moved up to number 9 Australian all-time. He won the Australian title and in June in Europe leapt 16.74 and a windy 16.90.
Idol: This is probably a bit left of field - Marcus Aurelius because I really resonate with the stoic philosophy he taught and love the idea of constantly improving yourself in a holistic way and never settling…Biggest Influence: This is easy for me. It is definitely my Dad, with him being my coach, a role model and obviously also my father he has been there every single step of the way through my career and development and his relentless attitude to providing everything I have required to become better has made all the difference…Advice to your younger self: I would definitely say to enjoy the ride, competitions themselves are great and striving to do your best at them is important. But it is also important to really enjoy the experiences you get from this sport and savour the friendships you make. There will be plenty of time to take athletics seriously, so don’t stress to hard about it when the stakes are lower…Hobbies: reading non-fiction book and time with friends some who are outside of the sport…Occupation: Uni Student and Athletics Coach…Education: Studying Biomedical Engineering and Neuroscience at Sydney University and hopefully will graduate around 2026/7…Other sports: I was decent at AFL, where I played as a ruck and did so until I was 17…Biggest challenge faced: probably in 2022 when I had a terrible season and was the first year in my life where I did not improve, I really questioned whether I could be an elite athlete after that season and was questioning if I had what it took to become a 17+ metre jumper. This was particularly challenging, because at the time we could not figure out what was going wrong and why I had gone backwards…Interesting facts: My mum’s cousin was Australian fast bowler Ray Lindwall, dad Andrew Murphy is a 3-time Olympic triple jumper and the second best in Australian history.
@ 29 June 2024 david.tarbotton@athletics.org.au
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