Paris Olympics on channels 26.7.–11.8. Go to the competition website here.
Nicola Olyslagers is one of the best high jumpers of recent years. The Australian has Olympic silver and World Championship bronze.
Despite their great achievements, Olyslagers are even more famous for their post-performance ritual. The 27-year-old jumper makes notes in his notebook immediately after each jump.
Sounds like a very simple thing in the endgame. Note-taking devices are commonplace, for example, in the world of school and work.
Still, Olyslagers have been noted for their ritual in Finnish accounts as well. The world has also wondered about it.
For the first time, Olyslagers’ routine came up in the Olympic year 2021 in the Diamond League games. At the Tokyo Five Ring Games, he was seen writing something in his notebook after each jump performance.
Olyslagers later revealed that the notebook had numbered grades for jumps. He took silver with his then-record 202. He gave it a full ten.
For an athlete constantly striving for better heights, that 202 jump is no longer a 10/10 performance. Now it’s 203.
In the Olympic final in Paris, she is the ME woman of Ukraine to Jaroslava Mahuch (210) number one contender.
Process
Olyslagers has wondered why his anger has become such a big deal to others. For Olyslagers, who won the World Cup gold last winter, it’s not just about memory loss, but about focusing their thoughts elsewhere.
– When I write it down on paper, it’s there and you don’t have to push it into your mind. I can think of other things.
So for Olyslagers, it’s all about the process. By writing things down on paper, he also gets an idea of what he can improve when he jumps.
– By writing down, I save energy, relax and am ready for the next jump. The process is as important as what I write down.
Olyslagers’ style is different from others
Finland’s record holder of 197 Ella Junnilan according to him, he has many high jumping colleagues who prefer the same operating model.
– They have a pen and a notebook where everyone writes their own stories between jumps or jump rounds. For some athletes, it works. It’s their way of going through the jump and resetting themselves for the next jump, Junnila opens.
However, the Olyslagers way has its own nuances compared to others.
– I don’t consider it an exceptional way of working. Olyslagers is writing immediately after his performances. Many act in such a way that they first go to the coach to go over the matter. However, it is very individual.
Junnila herself tries to avoid operating models that are binding. Such a person can turn against himself.
– For example, if I can’t always think or write in a notebook, it can become a factor that causes stress, that I have to find time to do it. That’s why I don’t have any set-in-stone operating models.
Outside the comfort zone
However, the Ukrainian is not a fool for Olyslagers, as the Australian beat him, for example, in last winter’s World Cup halls.
So Olyslagers is always looking for an even more perfect jump. Not even a prize competition victory makes him full.
In April, at the national championships in Adelaine, Olyslagers had jumped 201, after which he could have tried to improve his record height of 203 by one centimeter. However, he did otherwise and immediately set the bar two centimeters higher.
Usually, the world champions try to improve their current record by a centimeter. Olyslagers feels that you have to boldly push your limits at heights, even if a certain height seems impossible.
Olyslagers uses former ME woman Stefka Kostadinova as an example, who once improved ME by two cents to 209.
– You have to do big, bold things. The ones that most jumpers don’t want to do. I’m learning to be outside my comfort zone. I don’t know where my ceiling goes, and that fascinates me.
The women’s high jump qualification is on the program of the Paris Olympics on Friday at 11:15 Finnish time.