Eleanor Patterson

BIOGRAPHY

During a landmark 2020 summer Eleanor Patterson raised the national high jump record to 1.99m. But the following 12 months were lean with injury and a limited COVID effected competition schedule. Domestically in 2021, the injury restricted her to just one competition where she cleared 1.87m, but in Europe she gathered momentum with a few 1.96m clearances. Selected for Tokyo – her second Olympics, she maintained that consistency and was rewarded with an excellent fifth place.

In early 2022 Eleanor was in scintillating form in Europe with three wins from three competitions, including raising the Australian Indoor high jump record to 1.99m and to lead the World Indoor Rankings for 2022. Her competitions have included wins over her leading competition, Tokyo gold medallists and now ineligible to compete Russian Mariya Lasitskene and Olympic silver medallist Yaroslava Mahuchikh of the Ukraine.
At the World Indoor Championships in Belgrade in March, 2022 Eleanor was terrific, clearing a new Australian Indoor record height of 2.00m to win silver. The height was her second Indoor Commonwealth, Oceania & Australian record in 2022. It was Australia’s first high jump medal at the World Indoors and would have won gold at the 2012 and 2016 World indoors.
In just her third outdoor competition of the year, Eleanor was smoothly through the qualifying round at the World Championships in Eugene in July. In the final, she was going well, but looked likely to place fourth, until she miraculously cleared 2.02m and on her first attempt to secure the gold medal and world title. She equalled the Australian record and won Australia’s first global high jump gold medal.
Two weeks later things didn’t go to plan at the Commonwealth Games where she could have created history winning the event, she had won in 2014 as 18-year-old. In Birmingham she placed second with a jump of 1.92m. 
In 2023 on an Indoor tour in Europe, while warming-up for a competition in Slovakia on February 14, unfortunately Eleanor injured herself. She suffered a fracture to her fifth metatarsal in her foot.
“It was a very, very light warm-up, a few drills, something I would do day in, day out almost, and I was doing some drills on a curve and my foot slipped and crunched my fifth metatarsal and fractured it immediately.” It required surgery and a titanium plate in her foot.

Ahead of attempting to defend her world title in 2023 in Budapest, she resumed competition in July and cleared a best of 1.96m in her three competitions before Budapest. But she was again tremendous at a global meet, placing second with a height of 1.99m. It was her third consecutive medal at a global meet – a tremendous achievement. In early 2024, after a few sub-par jumps, she withdrew from the World Indoor Championships team. In April she cleared a solid 1.95m to place second at Nationals and at the end of the championships was named in her third Australian Olympic team.

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Eleanor Patterson’s start in athletics was initially through a friend when she was eight. After a sleep over at a friend’s place she accompanied her friend to Little Athletics. Patterson’s Primary school teacher at St Laurence O'Toole Primary School in Leongatha noted her passion for athletics and encouraged her. 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.

Growing up in the country, London 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 really 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, 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.” In late 2019 she cleared a promising 1.90m, but missed selection for the 2019 World championships.
But 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.

Biggest challenge you've faced: Not making the 2018 Commonwealth Games team and the trials and tribulations of the following year, stepping away from athletics. Although it all happened to lead to the place I am in today…..Best moment of your sporting career: Jumping the Australian Record of 1.99 in February 2020, it was a much sweeter moment in my career after the challenging previous two years and to do it with Alex (her coach) was wonderful …..Advice to your young self: Trust in yourself and listen to what you know deep down to be the right things for you to be happy and grow.

@ 7 June 2024 david.tarbotton@athletics.org.au