Eleanor Patterson (athletics) first soared to prominence when she won gold in the women’s high jump at the 2014 Glasgow Games as an 18-year-old, making her Australia’s second youngest able-bodied individual champion in track and field at the Commonwealth Games after Margaret Parker-Koscik. Patterson took up athletics as a six-year-old, trying the sport after a sleepover at a friend’s place and particularly liking the jumps. She claimed the Australian National Junior high jump title in 2011, before going to the World Youth Championships in 2013, winning gold and setting a personal best. In 2014, she claimed her fourth national junior title and her first senior title, opting out of the world junior championships to compete in Glasgow. Patterson took a year off after missing team – and the chance to defend her title – at the Gold Coast 2018 Commonwealth Games, but returned to qualify for Tokyo 2020, where she finished 5th after recording a season’s best. She finally cleared the elusive 2.00m barrier in winning silver at the 2022 world indoors in Belgrade. Eleanor hails from Leongatha in Victoria’s South Gippsland region, which also provided another great high jumper, Victoria 1994 Commonwealth Games gold medallist Tim Forsyth.