Paris Olympics 2024: Eliza McCartney recounts long road back from injury woe

Eliza McCartney has detailed the extent of her disheartening injury woes — and how lucky she now feels to be chasing more Olympic glory.

The Kiwi pole vault star was last month named in a 15-strong athletics team to represent New Zealand in Paris, where she will have the chance to add the bronze medal won at Rio 2016.

That podium finish was followed two years later by a silver at the Commonwealth Games on the Gold Coast, hinting at a long and successful career for the former junior world record holder.

But the next years were filled largely with frustration and pain, as McCartney suffered from chronic Achilles issues that threatened her involvement in the sport.

The injury gloom has only recently lifted, with the 27-year-old earning silver at the world indoor championships in March, her first international podium finish in six years.

Having linked with new coach Scott Simpson, McCartney will head to Paris in July with genuine medal hopes, something that seemed almost unimaginable in her darkest days.

As she recounted on Murray Deaker’s Sporting Lives podcast, it has been a long journey back to the top of athletics.

“It was just chronic and would not go away,” McCartney said. “In Rio, I did have some Achilles issues, but it was tolerable. I could jump; it was fine. The next year it took me out for a little bit longer but I still managed to get a season in.

“So there were periods of being in pain and not being able to do much, then coming back into it. But then it got to a point right around Covid where I just couldn’t do anything for a long, long time.

“It was getting worse and I was getting things that weren’t explainable. I was getting essentially what we think were these autoimmune reactions all around the site. So the skin would swell, my feet and my toes would swell and go red, and everything would get very painful.

“And that’s more than just the tendonitis – there were some funny things going on there.”

It took until last year for McCartney and her team to get those funny things under control. Along with her inner circle, she credited support from Athletics NZ and High Performance Sport NZ, with many behind the scenes formulating a plan to manage a problem McCartney doubted would ever fully dissipate.

“I am a very needy person these days and I require very careful, smart training,” she said. “I’m on a couple of medications that keep things a bit calmer and under control for the immune system.

“I’ve still got tendonitis; they come up all the time. But most the time I can manage it. It’s very predictable — it’s very chronic now so it follows the same pattern all the time.

“And I’ve got a team that understands me and my tendons very well. So we’re able to get me to a place where I can compete. But I doubt I’ll ever not have sore Achilles, which kind of sucks to say, but it is just the reality of what my body’s gone through and the fact I’m still asking it to do a lot.

Eliza McCartney claimed silver at the world indoor champs. Photo / Getty Images

“Running and jumping are probably one of the hardest things for an Achilles anyway, so it is tricky. But the important point is we can make it work, and most of the time it works pretty well. So we just hold onto that and keep going.”

Her union with the “phenomenal” Simpson was the biggest factor in helping McCartney continue to make run after run, jump after jump. The British coach, lured to New Zealand after leaving UK Athletics late last year, has been integral to rebuilding both her body and most importantly her mind.

As McCartney explained, Achilles issues are common in pole vault, meaning someone like Simpson who has spent a life in the sport has plenty of experience overcoming the problem.

“It’s taken me by surprise how much we’ve achieved together in just six months of working together. I’ve been blown away by his expertise,” the Kiwi said. “We’ve probably made minor technical improvements, but mostly what he’s helped me with is the psychology of the event and being as prepared as I possibly can be.

“He’s helped me get my stride back again pole vaulting, because last year was the first year I’d been back vaulting in two years or so, and I had a couple quite successful competitions, but overall it was a real struggle.

“It wasn’t particularly easy, I wasn’t necessarily enjoying it, I was sore a lot of the time trying to push through pain. And in the end, I wasn’t even able to compete at our world championships last year because I was just too sore. So it wasn’t perfect by any means.

“But this last season, I just felt like things were flipped on their head essentially. I felt so much more confident, we had so much more control over the Achilles and things that were going on, and he’s helped me to really foster that self-confidence in pole vaulting that had been eroded away from many, many years of pain and little micro-traumas of things going on and missing things.

“So he’s helped me reconcile that and rebuild my confidence to the point where I’m just really happy jumping, and I think that has been the biggest difference, more than anything technical or physical.”

Anyone who watched McCartney soar to the podium in Rio would remember her smile, immediately endearing herself to a New Zealand public whose athletics heroes hold a special place in the country’s Olympic history.

Eliza McCartney celebrates winning bronze at the Rio Games. Photo / Getty Images

It remains to be seen whether she will add another chapter or two — McCartney is already eyeing the next four-year cycle to LA 2028 — but merely being able to again compete at the top level has made all the hard work worthwhile.

“You just don’t take anything for granted once you’ve been through that,” she said. “There were a few moments over the last few years where I could’ve stopped and I could’ve left the sport at such a low point. And that would’ve been really difficult to do – no one wants to leave anything at a low point. You want to get to a place where things are good and happy and you’re enjoying it before you think of leaving.

“It’s almost a little bit like borrowed time, or time I didn’t know I was going to have. So nothing’s taken for granted; it’s just even more enjoyable because I think, wow, I still get to do this, I didn’t have to stop, I’m still capable of being a top pole vaulter, and how lucky am I that I get to keep doing this?

“Because I do love my job, it’s so much fun what we get to do, and I don’t want to leave it. So when things like the world indoor champs happen, it just makes you think it’s worth it. I’m so glad I stuck with it; I’m so glad I pushed through.

“I’m going to have lows in the future, of course I am, but at least I’ve had the highs again. You just really relish that.”

‘Murray Deaker’s Sporting Lives’ podcast, new episode available now on iHeartRadio or wherever you listen to podcasts