Olympic pole vaulter Nina Kennedy has recounted the humorous moment she was mistaken for a pole dancer during a recent flight.
The 27-year-old dazzled in Paris this summer, picking up her first gold medal at the Olympics, having previously clinched gold in the 2023 World Championships in Budapest.
But speaking on the Mental As Anyone Podcast with Jonathan Moran, the Australian star recounted that she had a slightly awkward encounter with a member of the public.
‘I’m glad you got pole vaulting right,’ she said on the podcast. ‘I was on the plane the other day, and this person misheard me.
‘He was like: “You went to the Olympics for pole dancing?” And I was like: “Yeah, yeah, whatever, don’t worry”.’
The gold medallist laughed at the moment, before pondering whether pole dancing would one day make it to the Olympics.
Aussie Olympic pole vaulting star Nina Kennedy has revealed a humorous encounter where a person mistook her for a pole dancer on a flight
Kennedy (pictured) clinched gold at the Paris Olympics, after having been crowned joint-world champion alongside Katie Moon last year
‘It is pretty cool if I’m honest,’ she said. ‘But I doubt it.’
Reflecting on what has been a whirlwind year, Kennedy stated she ‘felt quite tired’ after the ‘crazy’ year.
‘I feel like right now I’m in a bit of a reflection phase. I’m doing some journaling and recapping on what was a crazy year.
‘I’ve just reached my life goal… It’s kind of weird to say.’
Kennedy, who hails from Busselton in Western Australia began pole vaulting at the age of 12, and would quickly go on to achieve success, placing second in the Australian senior pole vault championships at the age of 14.
This summer, she’d go on to be crowned an Olympic champion, surpassing USA star Katie Moon with a sensational jump of 4.90m in the Women’s pole vault final in Paris.
After achieving the phenomenal feat, Kennedy mulled over questions about how she will continue to find the motivation to strive for greatness.
‘Right now, I don’t know because it only happened a few months ago,’ she laughed.
The 27-year-old went on to clinch gold in Paris this summer, claiming that this year has been ‘crazy’
The Aussie star is excited about the year to come claiming that she will now face a new set of challenges having been crowned the Olympic champion
But the 27-year-old revealed that she is excited for the year ahead, revealing that she is set to face a whole new set of challenges after her success in Paris.
‘What I’m really enjoying about my career at the moment is that every year and every season brings its own challenges,’ Kennedy said.
‘This year was different to last year, which was different to five years ago. It’s about learning and growing… I’m sure this coming year will be filled with, how do you deal with that pressure of being the Olympic champ – and that’s something I’m going to have to learn and deal with, which is kind of exciting.’
Reflecting on how she dealt with pressure leading into the Olympics, Kennedy looked back on the 2023 World Championships final where neither she nor Moon could break away from each other.
She and the American could have gone to a jump-off after they matched each other jump for jump.
But ultimately the pair settled on sharing the gold medal. But this time around in Paris, Kennedy said she was determined to win outright.
‘It’s pretty crazy. Especially going into the Olympics, I was equal world champion with Katie Moon,’ she said.
‘That was a bit of a story about how we shared that gold medal right. A lot of people had an opinion of: “There should be only one winner. You’re a coward. You should have kept jumping”. That was a bit of the vibe I got.
Katie Moon (left) and Kennedy (right) shared gold at the 2023 World Championships in Budapest after they matched each other’s jumps in the women’s final
The Western Australian star went on to win in Paris, posting a jump of 4.90m in the final
‘I was quite lucky in Australia, a lot of the vibe was: “Great sportsmanship, yeah the girls”.
‘That meant that any media leading up to the games led to questions of: “Are you going to share anymore”.
‘I had to be quite open in terms of like: “I don’t want to share anymore. I want to go into these games and win the Olympics”.
‘I think because I put that out there there was a lot of commentaries and, your original question was about pressure, I really had to, I guess I didn’t learn it last year but learnt it throughout my whole career. What the hell is pressure? Is it the outside noise, your media, family or strangers? Or is it what you put on yourself and I did a lot of work on defining that for me and how I was going to handle that.’
She would ultimately go on to achieve that goal and described the indescribable feeling of what it’s like to be crowned an Olympic champion during the interview.
‘It’s like placing the riskiest bet you’ve ever done and betting on it for four years, and then it paying off,’ she said.
Having conquered the Olympics, she has been reflecting on her next goal, stating that she is intrigued to see what comes next.
‘I don’t want to say I’ve had a come-down, but it’s just like, ‘What do I do now?’ I have to work it out. It’s interesting.’
As for her next goal, the Aussie star wants to topple the world record of 5.06 set by Russian star Yelena Isinbayeva
The Aussie star also revealed that she wants to conquer the women’s pole vault record, which was set by Russian star Yelena Isinbayeva in 2009.
That record sits at 5.06m.
‘I’ve really proved to myself that if I can set a ridiculously high goal and achieve it, then why not dream even bigger?’
‘I want to roll the dice and see what happens.’
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