Scribble, Snuggle, Soar: Making the Most of High Jump’s Downtime

The expected duel on Sunday for an Olympic gold medal in the women’s high jump, between Yaroslava Mahuchikh of Ukraine and Nicola Olyslagers of Australia, should be captivating. And the outcome will depend, in some part, on how they occupy their time between jumps.

At major meets like the Olympics, the wait between attempts can be 20 minutes to a half-hour as competitors are winnowed. What athletes do in that window is largely up to them. Olyslagers keeps herself alert by writing in a journal. Mahuchikh prefers to relax by cocooning herself in a sleeping bag bought from a camping store.

Both methods have proved extremely successful. Olyslagers, 27, won the silver medal at the Tokyo Olympics three years ago and Mahuchikh claimed the bronze. Mahuchikh, 22, won the world outdoor championships in Budapest in 2023, and Olyslagers took first place at the world indoor championships in Glasgow this year. Then, on July 7, Mahuchikh broke a 37-year-old world record with a startling leap of 6 feet 10¾ inches, or 2.10 meters, at a meet in Paris.

For Nicola Olyslagers of Australia, a journal serves as a training diary and reference book that she can consult to recall past performances.Credit…Chang W. Lee/The New York Times

Their biggest rival for gold this weekend, the reigning Olympic champion Mariya Lasitskene of Russia, is not here. No Russians, including so-called neutral athletes, are permitted to participate in track and field at the Paris Games because of the country’s invasion of Ukraine.

Both Mahuchikh and Olyslagers fit the classic profile of a high jumper, tall and willowy. And while Mahuchikh’s world record is more than two inches higher than Olyslagers’s best of 6-8 (2.03 meters), both have been dependable at the biggest moments, having won Olympic medals and world titles.