What Do Athletes Do Between High Jumps at the Olympics?
The expected duel on Sunday for an Olympic gold medal in the women’s high jump, between Yaroslava Mahuchikh of Ukraine and Nicola Olyslagers of Australia, should be captivating. And the outcome will depend, in some part, on how they occupy their time between jumps.
At major meets like the Olympics, the wait between attempts can be 20 minutes to a half-hour as competitors are winnowed. What athletes do in that window is largely up to them. Olyslagers keeps herself alert by writing in a journal. Mahuchikh prefers to relax by cocooning herself in a sleeping bag bought from a camping store.
Both methods have proved extremely successful. Olyslagers, 27, won the silver medal at the Tokyo Olympics three years ago and Mahuchikh claimed the bronze. Mahuchikh, 22, won the world outdoor championships in Budapest in 2023, and Olyslagers took first place at the world indoor championships in Glasgow this year. Then, on July 7, Mahuchikh broke a 37-year-old world record with a startling leap of 6 feet 10¾ inches, or 2.10 meters, at a meet in Paris.
Their biggest rival for gold this weekend, the reigning Olympic champion Mariya Lasitskene of Russia, is not here. No Russians, including so-called neutral athletes, are permitted to participate in track and field at the Paris Games because of the country’s invasion of Ukraine.
Both Mahuchikh and Olyslagers fit the classic profile of a high jumper, tall and willowy. And while Mahuchikh’s world record is more than two inches higher than Olyslagers’s best of 6-8 (2.03 meters), both have been dependable at the biggest moments, having won Olympic medals and world titles.
Yet their habits when not jumping could not be more dissimilar.
Since 2019, Olyslagers has written in a journal after each jump, rating each effort between 1 and 10 or scribbling a brief instruction from a coach, words of inspiration, song lyrics or a Bible verse. It helps her to focus on her performance, she said, and not to overanalyze her competitors.
The journal also serves as a training diary and reference book that she can consult to recall her performances at previous competitions, or, say, the bounce of the jumping surface at a particular stadium.
During meets, Olyslagers and her longtime coach, Matt Horsnell, communicate through hand signals that sometimes resemble those of a third-base coach giving instructions to a batter.
“My coach might tell me one thing, but let’s say in the Olympic Games, where there are more than 30 girls jumping, I might make a jump and have to wait 20 minutes,” Olyslagers said during two interviews over the past year. “I’ll forget what he said. He’ll forget what he said. So I can just write it down and close the book.”
Before her next jump, Olyslagers said, she can consult her journal for Horsnell’s instructions, which might suggest she lift her knees higher, keep her shoulders square to the bar or slow or speed the approach to takeoff. “It’s a great tool so that I can enjoy the atmosphere without worrying that I’m going to forget something,” she said.
Horsnell joked that other competitors might feel a bit intimidated by Olyslager’s scribbling, worrying, “Is she writing about me?”
At the world indoor championships in Glasgow, in March, Olyslagers wrote reminders to herself in brief terms only she would understand: “square” to make sure her shoulders remained parallel to the bar upon takeoff, and “Seabiscuit” as an reminder not to make her approach too fast, a reference to the championship thoroughbred of the 1930s and ’40s who was known to start slowly but surge near the end of the race.
Mahuchikh’s more laconic between-jumps routine began in 2018, the year she placed first at the Youth Olympic Games. Serhii Stepanov, who helps to coach her along with his wife, Tetiena Stepanova, suggested that sitting too long between jumps allowed the blood to pool in Mahuchikh’s legs. So the sleeping bag idea was born.
Whenever Mahuchikh enters the high jump area at a competition, she carries a backpack that contains a yoga mat, her sleeping bag and changes of socks. Sometimes, she wears a hoodie.
Between each jump, she takes off her spikes and changes her socks so that her feet do not become sweaty, which could hurt her grip as she approaches the bar. Then she climbs into her sleeping bag. The backpack becomes a pillow.
This restful position keeps her from becoming stiff in an event that requires extreme spring in the legs and flexibility in arching the back over the bar. It also helps minimize any pain, she said. Sometimes Mahuchikh makes rolling motions with her fingers or wrists to help to calm her and to visualize the next jump.
At one point during the world indoor championships, the public address announcer said cheekily, “Yaroslava is coming out of hibernation in her comfy-looking sleeping bag.”
To sit up the entire time between jumps makes “it harder to get the blood to your heart,” Mahuchikh said. Plus, she added, “Lying down helps you feel relaxed and comfortable, so you will be ready for the next jump.” She laughed and joked, “It’s also a good position for sleeping.”
At the indoor championships, both Olyslagers and Mahuchikh missed their first two attempts at 6-6¼. Olyslagers, who runs a Christian ministry, wrote the Bible verse “Perfect love casts out fear” in her journal and then cleared the height on her final attempt. When Mahuchikh faltered, Olyslagers was the world indoor champion.
But, she acknowledged, the four or five journals she traveled with had begun to weigh down her bag. Her husband, Rhys Olyslagers, had suggested an alternative: “Maybe we should go to an iPad.” She rejected the change.
“There’s nothing like pen to paper,” she said.
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