It is 40 long years since a British woman won a field event at the Olympics and, just like those heady days when Tessa Sanderson and Fatima Whitbread were throwing a javelin in the 1980s, Britain has a domestic rivalry that could yet yield multiple medals.
Holly Bradshaw won bronze in Tokyo three years ago in the pole vault and this summer will have one last tilt before retirement at an Olympic Games at which her team-mate Molly Caudery has established herself as a serious gold-medal contender.
The new world indoor champion and the world leader so far outdoors, Caudery continued her faultless start to 2024 in Rome on Saturday morning when she needed just one attempt at 4.50m to confirm her place in Monday’s European Championship final.
She will be favourite for gold then and, despite having expected her career to peak at the 2028 Olympics, already looks well placed at the age of 24 to follow Sanderson’s triumph in Los Angeles four decades ago.
Where the comparison with Sanderson and Whitbread rather ends, however, is in the close personal friendship between two women at the opposite ends of their careers who, until recently, trained together at Loughborough.
“Molls now has taken the baton from me; she’s taken a step on and I’m pretty sure, as long as she doesn’t crumble, which I don’t know why she would, she’s going to pick up medals,” says Bradshaw.
“If I could pass the baton on to anyone, I’d want it to be her. I want to see her go on and be a world beater. It’s been great to be able to do a season alongside her and watch her flourish because Molly is one of the sweetest, kindest people out there.”
The already slim chance of sharing a podium here in Rome was ended on Saturday morning, however, when a back injury ensured that Bradshaw would not progress to the final.
“I think Holly has still got a little bit of fire left and is ready to give it one last big bang,” said Caudery. “She has got so much experience at major championships. I’m in good shape. To get that first outdoor medal would mean so much to me – that’s one of my really big goals – and it would give me so much confidence going into the Olympics.”
‘Not being embarrassed is Caudery’s biggest asset’
Caudery has spent six weeks training in New Zealand since winning the world indoor title in Glasgow, largely with another big rival in Eliza McCartney. However she thinks that the psychology of individual field events – when you jump or throw separately – makes friendships rather easy. “At least for me, you are only really competing against yourself and the bar,” she says.
Caudery openly describes herself as “chaotic” and, with an Instagram following that has grown to more than 260,000 following her Glasgow triumph, has an upbeat sense of adventure that is clearly infectious.
It is fascinating, then, to hear the advice of the 32-year-old Bradshaw, who has a master’s degree in sports psychology and has openly questioned whether the obsessive dedication that she put into winning an Olympic medal was actually worth it.
“She needs to stay in that carefree place as best she can,” says Bradshaw, who says that the pursuit of Olympic glory was personally damaging, both physically and mentally. “Elite sport does all it can to try and channel you to be a certain way, a certain person, and she just needs to stay completely carefree because that’s really what her massive strength is. Nothing really fazes her, she’s so in the zone…She’ll trip up, she’s not bothered, she’s got no ego, she’s not embarrassed about anything. And that’s her biggest asset.
“Over the last year, she’s just been almost like an iron woman. She’s built this armour around her which means that she is so unfazed about little setbacks.
“I’ve said to her, ‘I’m always going to be here’. I’m a shoulder to cry on, a brain to pick. I’ve given her advice as to what I think she needs to do to stay this carefree Moll, because that’s how she’s going to become world and Olympic champion.”
And what of Bradshaw’s own plans once an athletics career that has included medals at every major championships comes to an end?
“I’m being a bit of an entrepreneur at the minute, a bit of a businesswoman, and fingers in many pies and trying to build a bit of a coffee empire,” she says. “My dad passed away in November, I felt really lost so I needed something… And I thought, ‘well I love coffee’.
“We got a carpenter to help us do a mobile pop-up thing that we shove in the back of the car. We launched it the other week in Accrington at a food festival and it’s been the most fun. It’s been amazing to know that once I park pole vault, I’ve got a job. I absolutely love bringing nice coffee to the Lancashire people.”
