Nicola Olyslagers (athletics) has gone from strength to strength in women’s high jump since winning a surprise bronze at her Commonwealth Games debut on the Gold Coast in 2018, claiming consecutive Olympic silver medals in Tokyo (2.02m Australian record) and Paris – Australia’s first Olympic medals in the event since Michele Brown also won silver in Tokyo in 1964 – world championships bronze in Budapest in 2023 (raising her own national record to 2.03m) and consecutive indoor world championships gold in Glasgow (2024) and Nanjing (2025). She also claimed her sixth national title in 2025.

She withdrew from the final at the Birmingham 2022 Commonwealth Games after sustaining a calf injury in the qualification round.

Coached by Matt Horsnell since she was 10, the pair first met at Little Athletics on the NSW Central Coast.

Nicola, who is also known for the journal in which she writes after each jump, married Rhys Olyslagers in April 2022. She has a Bachelor of Science (Biochemistry) from Sydney University and is also a passionate Christian with the Biblical passage “fearless hearts are birthed in perfect love” written on her left wrist.