Brooke Buschkuehl (Stratton)

Brooke Buschkuehl (nee Stratton) started athletics aged five at Nunawading Little Athletics Centre, following in the footsteps of her two-year-older brother, Jamie.

Her interest in the long jump was sparked when she won the U9 state title. She compiled a tremendous junior career, starting with the World Youth Championships in 2009 where she placed 10th. She followed this with two appearances at the world juniors in 2010 and 2012.  

In April of 2013, after several bouts of illness and injury, Brooke was diagnosed with coeliac disease and was found to be gluten intolerant. She had been struggling with fatigue for the majority of the previous two years.

She spent time changing her diet and steadily her energy and wellness returned, which saw improvement in her performance.

Selected for her senior debut in the 2014 Commonwealth Games, she was forced to withdraw with an injury. In 2015, she competed at the world championships leaping 6.64m in the qualifying round.

Brooke started 2016 with a PB of 6.73m, but over five weeks during the domestic season she improved her PB to 6.79m, then 6.94m and finally on March 12, 7.05m. The last performance broke the 14-year-old Australian record. A week later she placed fifth at the World Indoor Championships with a leap of 6.75m.

At the Rio 2016 Olympics, Brooke placed seventh in the final with a leap of 6.74m, then at the 2017 World Championships she placed sixth in the final - the highest place by an Aussie in the event.

At the 2018 Gold Coast Commonwealth Games, she won silver with a leap of 6.77m.

In 2019, Brooke had a great year with four competitions over 6.70m, placing 10th at the 2019 World Championships.  

Selected for Tokyo, her second Olympic Games after her best domestic campaign in a number of years, at the Games she was terrific, placing seventh with her longest ever leap of 6.83m in the green and gold. Brooke was very pleased with the fifth longest jump of her career considering her very rocky lead-in with injury.

After competing in her second Olympics in Tokyo, Brooke decided to have an operation for her knee pain, which had started in late 2020. It delayed a start to her 2022 campaign, missing the domestic season.

A week before the 2022 World Championships (on 9 July), competing in a meet at Chula Vista in California, Brooke compiled a great series, closing with a new Australian record and world leading jump of 7.13m (1.8m/s). It would remain the leading jump of the year.

In Eugene, competing at her fourth World Championships, Brooke leapt 6.87m to finish fifth. In was an incredibly close competition with just 2cm separating third to sixth. For Brooke it was her highest place in a global meet and her longest jump at a Games or Championships. But there was more to come for Brooke, when two weeks later she competed at her second Commonwealth in Birmingham.

There she leapt a windy 6.84m in the qualifying around ahead of her best series ever in the final with her lowest of her four jumps 6.87m, topped by a best of 6.95m. She won silver, to match her Gold Coast Games performance four years prior.

In 2023 competing at her fifth world championships in Budapest she would miss the final leaping 6.55m in the qualifying rounds. She closed the year with a solid 4th in the Diamond League final leaping 6.71m.

Struggling early in 2024, Brooke bravely opened up about her mental health struggles with an Instagram post on March 24:

“I’ve been working my way through some mental health battles that I fought all of last year. In October I felt so defeated & I was finally able to acknowledge the fact that I was not ok & found the strength to seek help.”

In April she reached a solid season’s best of 6.50m to claim her sixth national title. In June she reached 6.62m in America.