Jessica Hull (athletics) placed seventh in the women’s 1500m final at her Commonwealth Games debut in Birmingham, only to discover she had contracted COVID and was forced to pull out of the 5000m. It was an unfortunate result for the athlete who had stamped herself as Australia’s top middle-distance runner in 2020.

Jessica grew up in Albion Park near Wollongong in NSW and was initially coached by her father, Simon Hull, a former national-level middle-distance runner. She took up a scholarship at the University of Oregon in 2015 where she completed a human physiology major in 2019. After graduating, she joined the Nike team in Eugene under coach Pete Julian alongside some of the biggest international names in distance running.

Jessica made her senior international debut at the Doha 2019 World Championships where she fell one place short of the 1500m final. She went on to finish 11th at her Olympic debut in Tokyo 2020.

2023 produced more solid results. She won the 1500m, 3000m and 5000m national titles and was part of the mixed 4x2km relay that won bronze at the World Athletics Cross Country Championships in Bathurst, her first global medal.

Moving back to Australia after seven years in the USA, her 2024 campaign was simply brilliant. Fourth at the world indoors in March, she then won her second consecutive national 1500m title. After a stint of high-altitude training, she produced a series of stunning performances, breaking the world record in the rarely-run 2000m in Monaco and lowering the Australian 1500m record at both the Eugene and Paris Diamond League meets before blazing her way to the silver medal at the Paris Olympics, Australia’s first middle-distance women’s Olympic medal. That earned her the Bruce McAvaney Award for performance of the year as part of the 2024 Australian Athletics Awards.

Jessica married Daniel Joliffe in December 2022.