Kurtis Marschall

Marschall was born on 25 April 1997 in North Adelaide, South Australia.^[1]

In 2008, as an 11-year-old, Marschall was inspired by Steve Hooker's gold medal win at the Olympic Games in Beijing. A year later he attended a ‘come-and-try' day in Adelaide where he jumped two metres.^[2]

Marschall started training with Alan Launder and 4 years later was clearing five metres. Launder died in 2014 and Kym Simons coached him for the next few years. Not long after, Marschall made his international debut at the World U20 Championships.^[2]

in 2016 in Germany, ahead of his second World U20 Championships appearance, Marschall cleared 5.70 m, locking up Olympic qualification. It was the highest vault by a junior in the world for three years. He then competed at the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, in the men's pole vault.^[3] He missed qualifying for the Olympic pole vault final on countback.^[2]

In 2017 he was 11th in the final at the World Championships. At the 2018 Gold Coast Commonwealth Games the following year he claimed gold for Australia. Marschall was now a 5.86m vaulter and top-5 in the Diamond Leagues.^[2]

He qualified for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics. In his men's pole vault group he came 2nd with a leap of 5.75m which qualified him for the final. In the final he did not register a clearance after dislodging the bar with all three attempts at his opening height of 5.55m.^[4]

At the 2022 Commonwealth Games he claimed gold for Australia with a winning jump of 5.70 metres.

His personal best in the event is 6.00 metres, set at the 2026 edition of the All Star Perche.^[5] This jump made him the fourth Australian to clear the six metre mark.

¹No mark in the final