Liam Adcock

After playing sport all his life, an injury at aged 16 would require a rethink and planning by Liam Adcock as to in what sport he could pursue his Olympic dream.

“My stepbrother and I specifically chose triple jump to focus on.”

They built a sandpit in their backyard with a 20m run up and registered with Athletics Queensland in year 12 at school. Twelve years on his journey in the sport led him the Paris Olympics as a long jumper.

Liam Adcock did Little Athletics from age seven for a few years before quitting to play other sports including rugby union, soccer and tennis.

He had an Olympic dream after watching the Athens 2004 Games as an eight-year-old.

“Track and field was the most appealing but I was pretty sure I didn’t have the raw talent,” as he wasn’t even the best in his age group at Little Athletics.

So, he choose to focus his efforts on a more technical sport being tennis from around 13-14. After playing for around two years, he was experiencing elbow pain. It turned out he had an undiagnosed fracture in his humerus with floating bone in his elbow joint as well a cyst that had grown around the fracture. On his 16th birthday he had surgery and was told he would not get normal use of his elbow back as there was missing cartilage. 

“I still hadn’t given up my Olympic dream, I just had to find a new sport.”

He and his step brother analysed triple jump was an opportunity and build a sand pit in their backyard to train. They did not know how the sport worked “at this point I had no idea QLD Athletics or AA existed."

He eventually joined Athletics Queensland and started competing. Still just training in their backyard he did get some tips from a coach watching him compete, however the advice included to focus on the long jump.

His first nationals was the juniors in March 2013 where he placed 8th in the long jump and 5th in the triple jump and then started training with in Gary Patterson in Deception Bay. At the end of the year he had jumped a windy 7.07m, but didn’t go to the Australian All Schools as he sprained his ankle at schoolies.

By 2015 he was hooked on athletics and moved to Brisbane for university and training with some other good athletes including Brandon Herrigan and Shemaiah James.

He went to his first nationals in 2016 but didn’t make the final. After a great 2016 winter season, in 2017 he improved dramatically, winning the QLD title with a jump of 7.90m and placing second at nationals.

He competed in the long jump qualifying rounds at the World University Games. The following year he was second at the 2018 nationals/Commonwealth Games trials, but not selected for the Games.

“After that I was really burnt by the sport and took about six months away and then joined a different squad.” 

He had a lot of injuries in 2019 including ankle surgery on his take-off leg which took a long time to recover from. He didn’t compete at nationals in 2019, 2020 (COVID) or 2021 due to various injuries.

He resumed competition in 2022 and while in Europe got within 3cm of his PB and was enjoying his sport again.

“It motivated me to keep going and I decided I’d give it one last crack to try and make the Olympics with the first step being qualifying for the 2023 world championships."

His 2023 season was terrific. His first 8m jump came in Auckland in terrible conditions, with an 8.05m jump and windy 8.18m leap with a just illegal 2.3m/s wind. 8.03m at the Brisbane Track Classic then won an enthralling National competition with 8.06m.

At the Australian Uni Games in April he extended his PB to 8.15m. In Europe he has hit jumps of 8.04m and 8.05m ahead of being selected for the Budapest World Championships.

Back on the national team in Budapest he missed qualifying for the final by 1cm leaping 7.99m – a distance that would have placed seventh in the final. There was a big change in his life in 2023 with the passing of coach Gary Bourne. He moved coaches to Sydney-based Andrew Murphy.

He compiled a strong series of performances in 2024, starting with second at nationals (8.03m) and a win at the Oceania Championships (8.05m).