Brooke Buschkuehl (athletics) has been a world-class performer in women’s long jump for over a decade, winning back-to-back silver medals at the Gold Coast 2018 and Birmingham 2022 Commonwealth Games. Her 6.95m leap in Birmingham remains her best in the green and gold. 

Coached by her father Russell Stratton throughout her career, Brooke was a regular on the athletics track at an early age, having joined Little Athletics Nunawading when she was 5. Her junior career spanned multiple World Youth and World Junior Championships, where success earned her a Sport Australia athletics scholarship and mentoring by her childhood hero Cathy Freeman.

Despite being diagnosed with both coeliac and Hashimoto’s disease, she emerged as a world class performer in her early 20s, jumping 6.64m at the Beijing 2015 World Championships at her senior debut and breaking a 14-year Australian record with a leap of 7.05m in 2016. Since then, the good results have flowed – 7th at both the Rio 2016 and Tokyo 2020 Olympics as well as top 10 finishes at world championships in 2017 (6th), 2019 (10th) and 2022 (5th) as well as a third Olympic appearance in Paris in 2024.

Brooke, who has a bachelor’s degree in health sciences from Deakin University, married Nathan Buschkuehl in 2022. Her younger sister Kristy played for the Collingwood in the AFLW.