Morgan's Story
Fast Facts
Sport: Athletics
Event: 800m
Olympic History: Rio 2016 (400m semi-final, 4x400m relay final)
Highlights: Rio Olympics, three world championships and two Commonwealth Games
Coach: Liz Mathews
Year Born: 1994
State Born: Carlton, VIC
About Morgan
In the leadup to the Rio 2016 Olympics, Morgan Mitchell ran the fastest 400m time by an Australian in 12 years, but in a brave decision, within two years she walked away from the event setting her sights on a longer distance.
Before she became a leading sprinter, Mitchell was primarily involved in endurance events and sports.
Before she was 10, she was running distance and cross-country events and playing basketball and netball.
At 14, she turned her focus to just the team sports, selected in the national netball under-17 & 19 squads. The see-sawing between sports continued and at 17, she ran for Australia at the 2012 IAAF World Junior Championships.
She continued to progress in running, competing at the 2014 Commonwealth Games and 2015 World Championships.
In early 2016 she ran her breakthrough 400m PB time of 51.25, moving into the top-10 Australian’s ever and was selected for the 400m and 4x400m relay for the Rio Olympics.
She made the semi-final in the individual 400m and anchored the relay team in the final. Despite two more campaigns in the 400m and relay at the 2017 World Championships and 2018 Commonwealth Games, she was not been happy with her results and decided she needed to move events or quit.
Her new aim was the 800m, an event Australia was particularly strong in. The goal was the Tokyo 2020 Olympics.
She switched coaches to Liz Mathews and started the significant training shift. She didn’t find the transition easy, graduating from running around 15km a week to 60-70km a week was a challenge.
The early 2018/19 summer results were tough for Mitchell to accept, but things were progressing, and she closed the summer with a tremendous third at nationals in 2:01.60.
In July, at the World University Games in Naples, she successfully negotiated three rounds to make the final, a fair challenge for an athlete new to the distance.
Eleven days later at the London Diamond League, the transition was complete, with a 1.54 second PB time of 2:00.06, making her the eighth fastest Australian ever and qualifying for the Doha World Championships.
At the Doha World Championships, she made the semi-final, the first Aussie to achieve this in 16 years and the second to do so behind Tamsyn Lewis-Manou.
