May 8, 2024

Pole vaulter Eliza McCartney soared into the consciousness of her fellow New Zealanders eight years ago. She seemed to have come from out of nowhere to become the youngest woman to win an Olympic medal in pole vault when she earned bronze at the Rio 2016 Games. Now, as the 27-year-old from Auckland prepares for the Paris 2024 Olympics — ranked seventh in the world this outdoor season, McCartney has already qualified — she also is ready to help vault to the next level as a climate action advocate as EcoAthletes’ newest Champion.

“Eliza’s persistence, curiosity, and ability to overcome obstacles has led her to the top of the pole-vaulting world,” observed EcoAthletes founder and CEO Lew Blaustein. “Those same qualities will help her become a leader in the #ClimateComeback.”

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McCartney’s unlikely journey to becoming a world class pole-vaulter had one strike against it: she got a late start in the sport.

“I was a very active child, so I played a variety of sports — netball, water polo, cross-country, touch rugby, and more,” she recalled. “I didn’t get into athletics (aka track and field) until I was 11. My dad had been a high jumper. So, when I took to that sport, he started coaching me, I joined an athletics club and began competing. When I was 13, I saw pole vault at one of the competitions I was jumping at and thought ‘that looks so cool; I want to try it!’ When a friend at school started pole vault for his decathlon training I asked if I could tag along with him and give it a go. I did and I was hooked!”

McCartney showed that she had the recipe for being a top pole vaulter from almost, well, the jump. The must-have basic ingredients were always there: elite overall athleticism, especially when it came to running and jumping, and the right height (she topped out at 5’ 10”). Then, add a dash of coachability — a necessity because the movements involved in pole vaulting are, per McCartney, “not intuitive” — and, voilà, she was ready to shine.

“I first tried it in September of 2010; by April of 2011 I was entered in the pole vault in the Australian Junior National Championships and won it!,” she exclaimed. “I was shocked. I was so naïve; I really had no idea what I was doing.”

Her learning curve remained steep as she earned a surprising 4th place at the 2013 U18 World Youth Championships in Donetsk, Ukraine at 16 years old. She backed that up the next year by winning a bronze medal at the U20 World Junior World Championships in Eugene, Oregon. That performance took awareness of McCartney to another level back home. “Winning the bronze medal at the 2014 World U20s was big for a New Zealand athlete,” she shared. “All of a sudden, I had a lot of attention on me, and I felt the expectation to perform. I found the pressure difficult to manage in 2015 but by the end of that year, I had found my way again. 

With the spotlight squarely on her, McCartney again stepped up by achieving the world Olympic qualifying standard of 4.50 meters or 14 feet 7.5 inches in November 2015, nine months before the Opening Ceremonies.

“I couldn’t believe it,” she recalled. “But then a month later I broke the World Junior Record with a jump of 4.64m, followed by a 4.71m (15 feet 4 inches) in February 2016 to qualify for the World Indoor Championships. The next month, I jumped another personal best of 4.8 meters (15 feet 9 inches) to win Nationals. I went on to come in 5th at World Indoors in Portland, Oregon. That was a big result for my first time competing as a senior athlete.”

McCartney was clearly peaking at the right time heading into Rio as the second pole vaulter in New Zealand history to jump at an Olympics. And as one of the youngest, least-heralded competitors, she was able to regain her ‘I have no expectations and feel no pressure’ attitude. And while her start during the Olympic qualifying round was shaky (“I almost no-heighted”), she made it through to the finals.  

“Making the final felt like a win,” she said. “I jumped completely freely and loved every minute. I tied my personal best with a 4.8-meter jump and that won me the Olympic bronze medal. It was amazing and absolutely life changing. I was able to manage all the media and fan attention as well as the new sponsorship opportunities thanks to having the strong support of my family and a great manager.”

Managing an inflamed Achilles tendon proved to be her biggest challenge post-Rio, interrupting much of the 2017 season. She rebounded the next year, achieving another personal best — 4.94 meters / 16 feet 2.5 inches. But her Achilles issues came back with a vengeance, costing her most of the 2019, 2020, and 2021 seasons and making a return to the Olympics in Tokyo an impossibility. Understandably, being injured more often than not over a four-year period took a toll on McCartney. “The Achilles pain was pretty awful,” she remembered. “It was a challenging time; my confidence plummeted, and it was hard for me to do much of anything. But in the end, not going to Tokyo was a turning point. My team and I did a deep investigation into my whole campaign and asked ourselves what we can do differently.”

McCartney finally got back to vaulting last year. It took her most of 2023 to successfully integrate the changes that allowed her to make what would ultimately be a successful run to the Paris Olympics. She altered her biomechanics which took stress off her Achilles. And working with a mental skills coach and a new technical coach helped restore her confidence.

“By this January I felt like I was back to my old self,” she reported. “That translated into a #2 top list ranking in the world for the indoor season. After a heavy training block through March and April, I’m getting ready for pre-Olympic competitions in June before heading to France in July. I feel grateful to be able to compete at the highest level again. There are no guarantees in sport; the only thing I can control is to be in the moment and enjoy the journey.”

Her academic journey had its own twists and turns. She wanted to pursue medicine but there was no way for her to do so while being on the pole vault circuit. McCartney then stumbled on a marine science class in 2016 and that unlocked her passion for environmental action. “I couldn’t believe I was only now just finding out about the destruction happening in our oceans,” she marveled. “What I was learning hit me hard. I was horrified and felt a huge pull towards the subject, to learn more about our impact on nature and be part of finding solutions.

So, McCartney changed her focus from medicine to earning a degree in environmental science at New Zealand’s Massey University. While she doesn’t know exactly what she’ll do after her pole-vaulting career is over, she does know that it will involve environmental sustainability. In the meantime, she is excited about vaulting into the role of EcoAthletes Champion.

“It can be scary to talk about a topic like climate change that unfortunately can be so controversial,” she acknowledged. “People follow your athletics career because they love sport, not because they’re worried about climate change, so it can be a mine field at times. That’s why I am so glad I found EcoAthletes. They give us the tools to fight those fears so we can stand up for what we believe and what is right and to ultimately change things. I’m really excited to be a part of it!”

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