Team GB pole-vaulter Molly Caudery is the reigning UK champion, world indoor champion, and even recently set a new British record of 4.92m.
Now, with the focus of the Paris games on the athletics field, the 24-year-old who trains with Thames Valley Harriers at the Linford Christie stadium, in Wormwood Scrubs, is ready to perform at her first Olympics.
“People are starting to learn who I am, and it’s all happening,” she said as she prepared for a weekend of final training. “It’s so exciting; it’s the perfect time to be coming into form.”
Her target is to vault 5m - a height she came a whisker from achieving at an athletics event in Toulouse in June.
A family affair
Athletics are in Molly’s blood. Her parents met at the track, and she is following in the footsteps of her decathlete dad, Stuart, who introduced both she, her mother and her brother to the pole-vault when it was one of his early sporting disciplines.
Stuart was Molly’s first coach, and remains her biggest cheerleader. “It’s everything we both dreamt of, and she’s managed to make it to Paris, which is pretty incredible,” he said. “We go to all her competitions; she likes us to be there!”
Molly’s appreciation of her family is boundless. “They’re my No1 supporters. They’ve been there for me from day one, and I could not be where I am without them,” she said.
The women’s pole-vault qualification rounds begin in Paris at breakfast time on Monday, 5 August. Early heats start in the Stade de France at 9.40am UK time, building to the final at 6pm on Wednesday 7 August.
Molly, currently ranked 7th in the world in her sport, is keeping her 297,000 followers up to speed on her Instagram.
Get rowing
Meanwhile Team GB’s rowers go from strength to strength with Emily Craig and Imogen Grant winning gold in the women’s lightweight double skulls today (Friday) after Tom George and Ollie Wynne-Griffith were just pipped at the line to claim silver in the men’s.
Olympic supremo Sir Steve Redgrave has paid tribute to the contribution of National Lottery funding to inspiring Hammersmith & Fulham rowers by making the sport accessible to all at Fulham Reach Boat Club, by Hammersmith Bridge.
The club, which is hosting free water sports camps until 16 August as part of H&F’s Summer in the City programme, has already taught 1,500 young rowers this year, opening up its training programmes to children on free school meals.
Speaking at Distillery Wharf on Thursday, Sir Steve – who won gold medals at five consecutive Olympics – said: “Fulham Reach is a community-based project with secondary schools where premium students get to try the sport for free as part of their curriculum.
“Rowing gives you a little bit of discipline with a lot of fun and direction, and the National Lottery is so important to the backroom support.”
Fulham Reach chief executive Adam Freeman-Pask added: “We’re running free water sports camps over the holidays and we have a junior squad with free bursary places. National Lottery funding has been critical to our growth.”
The hope is to inspire the next generation of rowers to challenge for places in Team GB at the Los Angeles Olympics in 2028. Find out more about the free water sports at Fulham Reach Boat Club here.
Westfield fanzone
From 5pm tonight (Friday 2 August) you can pop along to Westfield, Shepherds Bush, to watch all the action from Paris 2024 in the Team GB fanzone in Westfield Square, on the big outdoor screen.
Hosts Amber and Sheahan will do a full rundown of all the Team GB highpoints so far, and there are skill tests with prizes to be won.
And don’t forget that you can settle down in a deckchair and watch the Olympics in Lyric Square, Hammersmith, with events screened every day until 11 August. There’s also a free Family Olympics in the square on Tuesday 6 August, courtesy of Chelsea FC Foundation, to have a go at different sports.
