Liam Adcock

BIOGRAPHY

After playing sport all his life an injury at aged 16 would require a rethink and planning by Liam Adcock as to in what sport he could pursue his Olympic dream.
“My stepbrother and I specifically chose triple jump to focus on.” They build a sandpit in their backyard with a 20m run up and registered with Athletics Queensland in year 12 at school.

At 21, Liam made his Australian debut at the 2017 World University Games but a few years of injury saw him nearly walk away from the sport. He resumed competing in 2022 with a view to deciding if he wanted to continue in the sport. He dashed to Europe and jumped a season’s best 7.87m in Denmark. It launched him into a breakthrough 2023 campaign where he exceeded 8 metres in nearly every long jump competition, won the National title and six years after his debut, put him back on the National team for the Budapest World Championships where he missed qualifying for the final by 1cm leaping 7.99m – a distance that would have placed seventh in the final.

He compiled a strong series of performances in 2024, starting with second at Nationals (8.03m) and a win at the Oceania Championships (8.05m).
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Liam Adcock did Little Athletes from age seven for a few years before quitting to play other sports including rugby union, soccer and tennis. He had an Olympic dream after watching the Athens 2004 Games as an 8 year old. “Track and field was the most appealing but I was pretty sure I didn’t have the raw talent,” as he wasn’t even the best in his age group at Little Athletics.  So he choose to focus his efforts on a more technical sport being Tennis from around 13/14. After playing for around two years, he was experiencing elbow pain. It turned out he had an undiagnosed fracture in his humerus with floating bone in his elbow joint as well a cyst that had grown around the fracture. On his 16th birthday he had surgery and was told he would not get normal use of his elbow back as there was missing cartilage. 

“I still hadn’t given up my Olympic dream, I just had to find a new sport.” He and his stepbrother analysed triple jump was an opportunity and build a sand pit in their backyard to train. They did not know how the sport worked “at this point I had no idea QLD Athletics or AA existed”. He eventually joined Athletics Queensland and started competing. Stilling just training in their back yard he did get some tips from a coach watching him compete, however the advice included to focus on the long jump. His first Nationals was the juniors in March 2013 where he placed 8th in the long jump and 5th in the triple jump and then started training with in Gary Patterson in Deception Bay. At the end of the year he had jumped a windy 7.07m, but didn’t go to the Australian All Schools as he sprained his ankle at schoolies.

By 2015 he was hooked on athletics and moved to Brisbane for university and training with some other good athletes 
including Brandon Herrigan and Shemaiah James. He went to his first Nationals in 2016 but didn’t make the final. After a great 2016 winter season, in 2017 he improved dramatically, winning the QLD title with a jump of 7.90m and placing second at Nationals. He competed in the long jump qualifying rounds at the World University Games. 
The following year he was second at the 2018 Nationals/Commonwealth Games trials, but not selected for the Games. “After that I was really burnt by the sport and took about six months away and then joined a different squad.” 

He had a lot of injuries in 2019 including ankle surgery on his take-off leg which took a long time to recover from. He didn’t compete at nationals in 2019, 2020 (COVID) or 2021 due to various injuries. He resumed competition in 2022 and while in Europe got within 3cm of his PB and was enjoying his sport again. “It motivated me to keep going and I decided I’d give it one last crack to try and make the Olympics with the first step being qualifying for the 2023 world championships.

His 2023 season was terrific. His first 8 metre jump came in Auckland in terrible conditions, with a 8.05m jump and windy 8.18m leap with a just illegal 2.3m/s wind. 8.03m at the Brisbane Track Classic then won an enthralling National competition with 8.06m. At the Australian Uni Games in April extended his PB to 8.15m. In Europe he has hit jumps of 8.04m and 8.05m ahead of being selected for the Budapest World Championships.

There was a big change in his life in 2023 with the passing of coach Gary Bourne. He moved coaches to Sydney-based Andrew Murphy. 

Biggest challenge you've faced: I guess I’m lucky to say that the biggest challenge I’ve had has been athletics related. Basically it was that period of consistent injury from 2019-2022 where I spent a lot of time questioning why I was sacrificing so much of my time to train for a sport I couldn’t compete in…Interesting fact: Did a lot of acrobatics when I was younger but stopped when I knocked my two front teeth out while doing flips on the trampoline in the backyard at home…Memorable sporting achievement: This may be recently bias but I think it was winning my first national title this year after coming second two years in a row in 2017 and 2018 as well as being so long away from competitions…Hero: I remember constantly watching videos of Mitchell Watt jumping at world championships and diamond leagues and of course his second place finish at the Olympics in London…Advice to your young self: Study something related to health or sport and don’t drink for the first time at Schoolies…Hobbies: Surfing and cycling…Sorting ambition: Until this year it was to make an Olympic team but now it’s an Olympic medal...Occupation: Formerly a Tax consultant but quit to focus on athletics so now coaching athletics…Education: Bachelor degree in Commerce and Economics (2019)

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