Eliza McCartney

EVENT: Athletics: Women's Pole Vault

Pole vaulter Eliza McCartney stormed onto the international scene, winning the bronze medal at the Rio 2016 Olympic Games in her first ever major event.

Two years later McCartney backed up the bronze with a silver at the Gold Coast 2018 Commonwealth Games.

McCartney first made the athletics world take notice of her abilities with a fourth place at the World Under 18 Championships in 2013. At the end of 2015 McCartney set a world junior pole vault record, clearing 4.64m, just days before her eligibility for a junior record ended.

Since her podium finish on the Gold Coast she suffered several injury-troubled years which threatened her future in the sport.

However, in more recent times under the coaching guidance of Scott Simpson she has re-emerged and at the 2024 World Athletics Indoor Championships in Glasgow in March she claimed her first global medal for eight years with a brilliant silver medal. She placed 6th at the Paris Olympics with a best jump of 4.70m.

Away from athletics, Eliza has a passion for sustainability and taking positive action against climate change. She is one of nine World Athletics ambassadors for their World Athletics Champions for a Better World programme. Eliza is the vice chair of the Athletics New Zealand Athletes’ Commission, and has also recently been elected as a member of the NZOC Athlete’s Commission.