Eleanor Patterson: Two gold medals, two different people

History will tell you that Eleanor Patterson won two Commonwealth crowns in Glasgow 12 years apart, but Eleanor Patterson will tell you that they were won by two different people.

The high jump champion is not about to reveal a stunt double though, which would be a casting nightmare, instead talking about her 18-year-old self like an old friend from school.

“She was a really shy and timid person,” Patterson, a New South Wales Institute of Sport athlete, says. “To be standing here on my own two feet with the voice I have today is a long way from that naïve, young and innocent girl who was in an environment that didn’t suit her.”

Her Glasgow-to-Glasgow fairytale is in truth a story of growth lost in a narrative of longevity.

Patterson has improved six centimetres in those 12 years, winning the 2022 world title and 2024 Olympic bronze along the way to headline five global medals.

But nothing to prove could not be further from the truth, at least in her own head.

“You start to feel like you are getting forgotten, and maybe that’s your own imposter syndrome and judgement kicking in,” Patterson says. “It’s so easy to seek validation in medals and numbers in this sport and I didn’t win an outdoor medal last year. I felt like I was just floating into the background.”

That feeling was short-lived.

The Australian danced in the rain to win gold at the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow, reigned supreme at the Diamond League Final in Brussels, and soared over two metres for the first time in four years – equalling her personal best of 2.02m.

“It’s been such a big breakthrough for me, which is weird after being around for so long,” Patterson says.

“I knew I could win the Diamond League Final, but I was really gaslighting myself into believing it wasn’t the Diamond League Final.

“It was a shock to just about everyone except for me and my team.”

That team is based out of Turin in Italy, roughly 90 minutes away from Milan and a world away from the Victorian countryside where she grew up.

There she trains under the guidance of her boyfriend Marco Fassinotti, the man on the ground, while taking technical guidance from Fayyaz “Fuzz” Caan over FaceTime twice a week.

“Knowing what I want and need in life has brought me to where I am today,” Patterson says.

“Fuzz is big on planning and layering. At the start I was like whatever, but now I can really see how it will progress into 2027 and 2028.

“I was getting quite frustrated with how well I was training and feeling like I could jump a lot higher in competition, but I just had to be patient and eventually it clicked.”

There was no sweeter feeling than her return over the two-metre barrier for the first time in 1433 days, ending the drought with a 2.00m win in Essen on June 21.

The feat was more than a broken barrier; it was proof that there was another way.

Like Glasgow, Patterson had done it again. But this time was different, this time was better.

“It’s a big barrier, mentally. When the bar goes up to two metres, you have to be relaxed and I definitely wasn’t for a while there,” Patterson says.

“I just got so much confidence this year from being fresh and not overworked constantly.

“In the end, I was so keen for a personal best and to jump over 2.02m that I forgot to jump over 1.95m.”

That result came in the season finale at the World Athletics Ultimate Championship, where she cleared 1.91m to claim equal third place.

There is no mention of the US$150,000 winner’s check that went home without her name on it, or the challenging conditions, just an uneasiness that for the first time in a long time – she had fallen short.

Unlike last year, Patterson knew she was good enough. The death of the imposter.

“I left the season on a sour note because I underperformed at the Ultimate Championship and I was really quite frustrated,” Patterson says.

“That has made it hard for the whole year to be processed, but I’m starting to acknowledge that it was an incredible season.”

The layering will continue in 2027, where Patterson will build on her new run-up which she described initially as a humbling experience.

Her year will feature 10 months overseas and two months in Australia, which she hopes will coincide with a sixth national title – having last won in 2017 as a 20-year-old.

“That’s a credit to how good Nicola [Olyslagers] is and has been for a long time,” Patterson says.

“We are the same age and we’ve had such different careers, but we do push each other a lot.”

And while Patterson has always operated on her own timeline, the 30-year-old’s track record comes with a guarantee that she will be on time when it counts.

Even if it comes with some added expectation:

“I do love being the underdog, I have to admit.”

Lachlan Moorhouse, Australian Athletics