British Pole Vaulter Molly Caudery is All Set To Win Gold At Paris Olympics After Nearly Losing Her Finger
If she can maintain her fiery pole vaulting form into Paris, Molly Caudery will be jumping for delight at the Olympics.
Moreover, less than three years after nearly losing her finger in an odd accident at home, she may get her wish of winning a medal this summer.
A Cornish native born in March 2000, this new athletics sensation in Britain is experiencing an incredible growth in popularity both online and on the field.
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After placing sixth in the Gold Coast in Australia when she was eighteen years old, Caudery made news in 2022 when she won a silver medal at the Commonwealth Games.
But astonishingly, her pole vault career nearly ended before it took off due to a horrific accident she sustained in her home gym just eight months prior.
Caudery, who has an incision on her middle finger, stated: “I was doing snatching and, as I brought the bar down, my finger caught between where you rack it and the bar.
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“It was 90 per cent off. It was holding on by the skin on the side.
“Three surgeries later, it is all good. But since then, I had two Achilles surgeries, which put me out for almost nine months.
“That was a pretty big setback that I managed to come back from.”
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The latter line is a bit of an understatement.
After winning the silver medal at the Commonwealth Games, Caudery has practically taken off, establishing two personal records in one day to win the championship at the British Championships in July 2023.
With her new record of 4.75 meters, she placed fifth in the World the following month after earning her automatic entrance.
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With a 4.85-meter leap to win the UK Indoor title, the sports science graduate from Loughborough University supported that.
She is also the top pole vaulter of the season going into the Glasgow World Indoor Championships, with a personal best of 4.86 meters.
Thus, it is understandable that she is hoping for a medal at Paris 2024, much like her Team GB colleague and friend from Loughborough Holly Bradshaw, who won bronze at Tokyo three years prior.
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After all, Bradshaw’s bronze medal jump was 4.85 meters, while the gold medal height was 4.90 meters.
In advance of the Glasgow meeting, Caudery added: “It’s every athlete’s dream to get an Olympic medal.
“Every athlete has their timeline and mine was always 2028.
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“But I know that what I’ve jumped so far could be pushing towards those medal areas, so I do think I need to re-evaluate. It’s crazy to think that that could put me up there.
“To go from my PB being 4.60 at the beginning of last year to 4.86 already this year, it’s all happened very quickly for me.
“I took so much confidence from last year and I’ve improved physically and mentally and I think that’s just taken me to the next step.
“If I can keep doing what I’m doing, a medal could be on the cards and that’s exciting.”
Given her potential, it should come as no surprise that Adidas gifted Caudery her first kit contract early in 2024.
Given her unexpected surge in internet fame, the apparel titans surely saw the enormous potential in their new client as well.
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Her recipe of postings on athletics, stunning selfies, global travel photos, bikini photos, and adoring material with her partner, high jumper Joel Clarke Khan, a fellow British athlete, turns out to be successful.
South Africa, Indonesia, Greece, the Canary Islands, Florida, and The Bahamas have all been visited by Caudery; her admirers are raving about the amazing pictures.
Similar to her leaps, her fan base is expanding rapidly, reaching a new peak of almost 205,000.
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It also doesn’t seem to be stopping anytime soon.
Though she had to postpone her exhilarating skydiving experience due to her sporting career, the ambitious baker, enthusiastic traveler, and occasional surfer is riding the wave and accepting her notoriety.
In addition, although she refuted rumors that she is a model, Caudery commented on her rise to fame on social media: “I don’t know where it really came from.
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“More recently, I’ve been posting a lot of pole vault videos and I’m getting like 10,000 more followers just from that.
“’I think having that following is super important. People have said that athletics is not quite as big as it used to be.
“So if I can inspire one person from the next generation, let alone the 200,000 or so who follow me, to be a part of athletics and keep it going, then that would be great.”
