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Michelle Jenneke

Michelle Jenneke

Age

31

Place of Birth

St Leonards, NSW

Olympic History

Rio 2016

Paris 2024

Career Events

Athletics Women's 100m Hurdles

 

Michelle's Story

After making her Australian team debut in 2010 at the Youth Olympic Games, sprint hurdler Michelle Jenneke has going on to a decade long member of National senior team. Since the 2014 Commonwealth Games she has worn the green and gold on 14 occasions.

Michelle Jenneke started training with her first coach Mick Zisti when she was 10-year-old and competed for Cherrybrook Little Athletics Club (after one year at Ryde Little Athletics). In 2010, she placed second in the women's 100m hurdles at the Youth Olympic Games in Singapore and two years later she was a finalist at the world junior championships in Barcelona.  Video of her dancing as part of her warmup on the start line for the final in Spain, went viral on the internet.

Michelle had to wait until 2014 to make her senior team debut, at the Commonwealth Games. Her first global senior meet was the World Championships in 2015, ahead of her Olympic debut in Rio in 2016. She has going onto compile an impressive career competing for Australia every year since, except the two COVID years of 2020 and 2021 – 14 Australian teams. They have been highlighted by three Commonwealth Games top-6 places and semi-finals at seven of her eight World Championships (indoors and outdoors). 

Since missing selection for the Tokyo Olympics her 2022 and 2023 campaigns have been particularly strong, clocking her 10 fastest times of her career. In 2023 alone she recorded 14 sub-13 seconds times.

Her 2024 campaign started with another global championship semi-final, at the World indoor Championships in Glasgow. In April she won her third National 100m hurdles title and was selected for her second Olympic Games - Paris.

She has studied Engineering (Mechatronics), University of Sydney and spends her time between the Gold Coast and Sydney for study and training.

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