It was, as Molly Caudery puts it, ‘a bad day to have a bad day’. The Cornish pole vault star arrived at last summer’s Paris Olympics as the favourite for gold, having jumped higher than any other woman in the world in 2024.
And yet not only did Caudery miss out on a medal, she did not even qualify for the final after failing with all three of her attempts at her opening height of 4.55 metres, way down on her British record of 4.92m.
‘I would say it took a few weeks to really get over it,’ admits the 25-year-old as she returns to the global stage on Saturday at the World Indoor Championships in Nanjing, China. ‘The week after was really tough. I spent a lot of time with my family and friends and it was almost like a grieving period.
‘I spent a week down in Cornwall, which is where I grew up. I spent a lot of the time in the sea, just enjoying and healing. It was just taking that time and surrounding myself with people I love.’
Seven months on, Caudery still cannot explain why it went so wrong at the Stade de France, even after speaking to psychologists to try to figure it out.
‘I don’t really have any excuses for it,’ she says. ‘I don’t really think it was down to anything. Athletes may no-height once a year or once every two years, and mine just happened to be in the biggest competition of my life.
Pole vault star Molly Caudery admits it took weeks to get over her Olympic disappointment
Caudery went in as the favourite to secure Olympic gold but failed to qualify for the final
She admits being unable to understand how she was unable to register a height in qualifying
‘I can’t go back and change time. I had to accept what happened and move on to bigger things.’
One of the biggest questions at the time was why she only entered Olympic qualifying at 4.55m, when a height of 4.40m would have been enough to see her through to the final. Caudery, though, has no regrets over her approach and reckons she would have failed at any height, such was her form on the day.
‘Paris was an unfortunate anomaly,’ she says. ‘There was no reason I should have come in earlier. That 4.50m mark is comfortable for me.
‘I just wasn’t rolling the poles through. I don’t think the actual height of the bar would have made a difference.’
Caudery also rejects any suggestion that her failure in France was because she cannot handle the pressure of the big stage, especially given she won world indoor gold in front of a raucous home crowd in Glasgow 12 months ago.
‘I like to think I’m a championship performer,’ she insists. ‘I don’t think the pressure gets to me too much. Hopefully, the more championships I go to, I can prove that.’
Caudery will get her first chance to do just that in the early hours of Saturday morning when she bids to become the first British athlete to defend a world indoor title.
She will again start as favourite in Nanjing having cleared 4.85m in Madrid last month — higher than any of her opponents have leapt this year.
Caudery will aim to bounce back by defending her world indoor title in Nanjing this week
The British pole vaulter claimed gold in the event at last year’s Championships in Glasgow
Caudery admits she has extra desire after Paris and has the highest clearance this year
‘One thing I did get from Paris was an extra fire and desire for this year,’ admits Caudery, who missed the European Indoors earlier this month with a slight calf injury. ‘I took that into the winter and I’ve trained so hard. I’ve come out this year and there is that extra want.
‘Jumping 4.85m in Madrid was probably among the best jumps I’ve ever done, so that in itself is very exciting, knowing I’ve been doing that with a slight injury.
‘I’m now fully healthy and I’m really excited for this weekend and what I can hopefully do.
‘I would love to defend my title and I know that I am in a good position to be able to do that. As I know, anything can happen on the day! But if I can stay level-headed and go out and do what I’ve been doing most of the season, then I’ve got a good chance.’
Caudery’s win in Glasgow last year was her maiden major title, which she then backed up with a bronze at the European Championships before she broke Holly Bradshaw’s British record.
And she believes she can keep raising the bar this year and even get close to Yelena Isinbayeva’s world record of 5.06m, with September’s World Championships in Tokyo also in her sights.
‘I can take a lot of confidence from last season and the heights I was jumping,’ adds Caudery, who is the headline act in Britain’s smallest-ever squad of 11 in China. ‘I would love to try and attempt 5m this year. I very much trust in my abilities and what I can do.’
Caudery’s pole vault final is at 2.10am Saturday morning, with coverage on BBC iPlayer
