Brooke is coached by her dad, Russell, and aside from the usual ups and downs faced in elite sport, the father-daughter team have also navigated injuries, multiple health diagnoses and the delicate tightrope walk of father and daughter vs coach and athlete. 

Brooke began competing in athletics when she was just four years-old, following in the footsteps of her older brother, Jamie. 

Coaching was never on the cards for Russell, who was initially just happy to play the role of supportive dad, but before long, he realised Brooke had something special and wanted to help her reach her potential. 

“My kids all showed a bit of talent in their sports, and I just wanted to encourage them and be involved in their lives,” Russell said. 

“But I remember when Brooke was about four years-old, we signed her up for Little Athletics and she was doing an underage race at Nunawading in Victoria. 

“She was racing against all these other kids who were four, five and six, and straight away she was out to the front. It was only over 50 metres, but she won, and it made me think, we’ve got something special here,” he continued. 

From then on, Russell’s coaching journey began alongside Brooke’s athletics career and after a couple more years, it became evident that Brooke’s talent was in the long jump. 

“I realised I had potential in the long jump when I was competing in the under 8s at Little Athletics and broke the centre record,” Brooke said. 

"I competed at state level the following year and won a gold medal then went on to nationals and won gold and things kept progressing.” 

Despite some impressive top-ten performances at the world youth and world junior championships between 2009-2012, Brooke had been battling illness, fatigue and injury for two years. 

It wasn’t until 2013, that she was diagnosed with coeliac disease and was found to be gluten intolerant. 

“Before I was diagnosed with coeliac disease, I’d had about two years of performance plateau, I was just going backwards,” she said. 

“I was rocking up to training exhausted from stomach issues. I went to the doctors so many times to get several tests and everything just came back negative. 

“They told me I had some vitamin deficiencies, but I knew that wasn't exactly the reason I was feeling the way I was,” Brooke continued. 

“So, in 2013, I had a gastroscopy which showed up that my small intestines were damaged from the consumption of gluten. It was also later found that I had an autoimmune disease called hashimotos which means I have an underactive thyroid - not ideal being an athlete. 

“It became really important to make sure my diet was 100% and my thyroid levels were where they should be.” 

Adjusting to her diagnosis took some getting used to and is something she still needs to manage on a daily basis. 

“It does get pretty difficult and do as best as I can with it, especially when travelling and just making sure that everything I'm eating is 100% gluten-free. 

“It's hard to read food labels when you're in different countries and international chefs don't necessarily know about cross-contamination with coeliac disease. One breadcrumb can cause damage to your small intestine, so, it's a pretty serious disease.” 

After changes were made to her diet, Brooke’s wellbeing and performance improved dramatically.  

“After my diagnosis, I could move forward, and I could get my health back on track,” she said. 

“Within six to eight months, I was back jumping PBs, which was pretty crazy. It just goes to show that if you get your health right, great things can happen.” 

Brooke posted some amazing results during her comeback, winning her first-ever Open title and jumping a new PB of 6.70m. 

She was ready to make her Commonwealth Games debut at Glasgow 2014, until a serious stress fracture to her back derailed her rise causing her to miss the rest of the season. 

After several months of rehab, Brooke made her return to competition, participating in all five Australian Athletics tour meetings and setting a new PB of 6.73m at the Adelaide Track Classic in February of 2015. 

She landed another impressive jump of 6.64m in the qualifying round of the 2015 World Championships and between January and March of 2016, increased her PB from 6.73 to 6.94 before incredibly breaking a 14-year-old Australian record, cracking the 7-metre barrier with a jump of 7.05m. 

With this, Stratton was selected for her Olympic debut at Rio 2016, placing seventh in the final with a jump of 6.74m. 

“I'd dreamt of getting to an Olympics since I was seven years old, so it meant everything to me, it was amazing,” Brooke said of Rio 2016. 

“It's a pretty crazy thing. Obviously, very few athletes get to this level in their chosen sport, so you've got to consider yourself extremely lucky to be given this opportunity and I felt even luckier that I was able to share it with my dad,” she continued. 

“The best thing about having dad as my coach, is being able to share every high and low with him. 

“Having him involved and able to travel the world with me and help me better myself as an athlete, is really special.” 

With its positives, having such a close relationship between coach and athlete can also have its potential downfalls due to having a higher emotional investment. 

Both Brooke and Russell agree that open communication is their secret ingredient for success. 

“We make sure we talk about everything. We don’t try to hide it if Brooke’s had a bad competition, but we don’t get mad about it or blame anyone, we just analyse what went wrong and how we can do better. It also helps that we get on really well,” Russell said. 

After missing out on the Glasgow Commonwealth Games in 2014, Brooke competed in the 2018 edition on the Gold Coast where she claimed silver with a leap of 6.77m. 

During 2019 and 2020, she had five competitions where she jumped over 6.70m and in April of 2021, jumped 6.84m. 

Brooke says being selected for her second Games at Tokyo 2020 is just as meaningful as her first. 

“Whether it’s your first, second or fifth, the experience of the Olympics as a whole, is something very special because you don't get the opportunity very often, it’s only once every four years, five this time around,” she said. 

“I remember how emotional I was walking out into the stadium at Rio 2016, because it was something that I’d worked so hard towards and going into Tokyo, I feel the same way.” 

“It means the world to us to see that she's set her goals as a young kid and she's achieved them, and I think that at Tokyo 2020, she wants to be on the podium which would be a dream come true for her and our family,” Russell said. 

“As a coach and a father, it means everything to me to see Brooke compete at the Olympics, because that's her dream.

“She's dreamt of going out and representing Australia at the Olympics since she was a kid, so for us, as her family, it's an emotional roller coaster, it's one of those things that you can't explain. 

“When someone walks into the room and everyone says, ‘there’s an Olympian’, it's crazy to think that Brooke is one of them, it's unexplainable and we’re all just so proud of her.” 

Liana Buratti