Just Getting Started | Liz Parnova's Road to Tokyo

From an early age, Liz Parnova has been a constant in Australian Athletics. Now, at 27 years of age, Parnova will be donning the green and gold at her second Olympics and her tenth overall Australian team.

Parnova’s international career spans more than a decade, however, the tested West Australian is adamant that she is only “just getting started”.

With an enviable family pedigree in the sport, Parnova started athletics at a young age and spent her earlier years juggling a simultaneous junior and senior international career. In 2010, she was selected for her first two Australian teams, the inaugural Youth Olympic Games, and the Commonwealth Games, where she secured second and 11th place respectively.

From there, Parnova secured silver at both the IAAF World Youth Championships and World Junior Championships, before making her Olympic debut in 2012 at age 18. Parnova’s London debut made her the youngest competitor in Olympic history to contest the women’s Pole Vault.

However, the road from prodigious junior athlete to established senior athlete hasn’t been easy. Looking back, Parnova is the first to acknowledge the challenges athletes face when success comes early.

“People pump so much into juniors, especially those that get that success on the international stage early. I beat myself up when I moved into the open ranks. I thought why the hell am I not good? I was the best as a junior, why am I not the best as a senior? It’s just not that simple. You honestly need to redevelop yourself as a senior athlete and that takes time.”

“To be honest, from when I was a junior to when I feel like I became the senior athlete that I was happy as, there was a solid gap. I feel like only over the last two years have I started to build and perform as that elite senior.”

A large part of that journey includes the heartbreak of missing out on the 2016 Rio Olympics. After winning her third senior National title in 2016, Parnova fractured her tibia in a training accident, ending her hope of back-to-back Olympic appearances.

“At the time it was heartbreaking, I did the recovery, healed, and came back to training, but I didn’t actually think twice about it.”

“When you are young, you don’t really understand or reflect. Over the last four years in particular, I’ve taken every opportunity I can to just try to reflect and build from it. Even if it’s a bad experience, there is so much to learn from it.”

Working her way back from injury, Parnova focused on redefining her involvement in the sport and seeking a new love for athletics.

“Over the years, with injuries and accidents, I think where Pole Vault sits for me has shifted year to year. It’s a changing love, but I keep coming back to it because it brings me so much joy.”

“I have definitely learnt that I jump my best when I am happy and when I am doing it for fun. If you’re not enjoying it and you're putting so much pressure on yourself, it becomes so hard.”

While the road to Tokyo has been anything but easy, Parnova has worked hard to find happiness and consistency while striving for her second Olympic appearance.

“It has been an insane journey, especially with something like COVID in the mix. There has been so much starting and stopping, plans that are changing hour to hour. Learning how to roll with the punches has been so important. Being calm and patience has been critical, not only as an athlete but as a human.”

The approach has worked. Parnova has strung together one of her most consistent seasons to date, with several clearances at 4.55m and getting closer to her personal best of 4.60m. Looking ahead to Tokyo, Parnova is ready to launch.

“I’m so excited and so happy that I am on the team. I am feeling really good, I am healthy, my strength, my speed, everything is at my personal best level at the moment. Now it’s just going to be about channelling it on the day.”

“I am excited to show the work that I have put in and fingers crossed it all falls into place. It is definitely going to be different. Remembering what London was like, I am interested to see what Tokyo will produce. It feels strange, but it’s an Olympics nonetheless.”

While crowds won’t play a massive part of Tokyo, the WA Institute of Sport athlete will nonetheless be keen to go higher in 2021.

“Whether there is one person or one thousand people in the stadium, I’m focusing on jumping my best. As a young athlete, you think so much about crowds, but you learn that when you are out there with the best vaulters in the world, that is enough to give you the energy to jump your best.”

“I really want to make the finals, over the last few majors that has been my goal and I have fallen short. For me, that is the goal, because once you make the final, anything can happen.”

Liz Parnova will line up for the qualifying round of the Women’s Pole Vault alongside Nina Kennedy on Monday 2^nd August from 6:20 pm WST.

To watch all the athletics action, head to Channel 7’s coverage of the Tokyo Olympics and follow Athletics West and Athletics Australia’s social media channels.

By David Smith, Athletics West
Photo Credit: Casey Sims (Athletics Australia)