Australian high jumper Nicola Olyslagers will have a beautiful little piece of Switzerland in her corner as she chases world championships gold in Budapest.
Nicola Olyslagers has been near-perfect in 2023 and the Australian high jumper will be the deserved gold-medal favourite at the world championships in Budapest.
Key to that success has been a base in the beautiful Swiss hamlet of Uttwil on the shores of Lake Constance, which might just be absolutely perfect.
Olyslagers' chaplain hands his house and car over to the athlete every summer and his neighbour does the same thing for coach Matt Horsnell.
The athletics club in nearby Amriswil gives the high jumper the keys to their track and gym.
Zurich airport is just an hour away, allowing easy access to the major Diamond League meets across Europe.
"When they say it takes a village to raise a child, we literally have a village helping me be the very best athlete I can be," the 26-year-old Olyslagers told AAP.
"Everyone knows Switzerland is gorgeous.
"But you could have all the money in the world and you still couldn't buy the relationships with people like this.
"When we leave they say 'thank you so much for visiting us', and it's like, 'We've eaten your food, stayed in your house, taken up all your time talking about high jump and you're thanking us?'.
"It's just amazing."
The Tokyo Olympics silver medallist has dominated women's high jump in 2023, winning nine of her 10 competitions, with the only defeat coming on countback to Ukraine's Iryna Gerashchenko at the Silesia Diamond League meet.
Olyslagers tops the world rankings with her winning jump of 2.02 metres in Lausanne in June, equalling the national record she shares with reigning world champion Eleanor Patterson.
"I'm always hungry for a new PB (personal best) but that just means at the world championships I know what I'm aiming for," she said.
In high jump and pole vault, athletes tend to break records one centimetre at a time.
But such is Olyslagers' burgeoning confidence that her next target is 2.05m, just 4cm shy of the world record set 35 years ago by legendary Bulgarian Stefka Kostadinova.
"The only limit I've put on myself is the number of jumps," she said.
"If I'm going to jump really big I'm going to have to play my cards right in how I do the competition in Budapest - whether that's starting a bit higher in the final at 1.90m.
"At 1.88m, I can do that with my eyes closed, so it's like, 'Wow, I'm a 1.90 starting-height girl now'.
""It's about making sure I've got the energy and stamina so when I get to the really big heights I can give it everything."
A fractured foot has meant Patterson's 2023 campaign has been far less perfect than the one enjoyed by Olyslagers.
But the fit-again defending world champ showed she too will be a factor in Budapest with a season's best clearance of 1.96m late last month in Monaco.
The race for medals in Hungary begins on Saturday, with the women's high jump final scheduled for August 27 - the final day of competition.
It will be a big deal in Australia and plenty of other places too - none more so than Uttwil.
Comments