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Sport Nation
'The sky is the limit': McTaggart's mark in history
Kieran Bingham • July 22nd, 2025 3:30 pm
Photo: Photosport
A consistent, injury-free run since the Tokyo Olympics has seen Olivia McTaggart fly to the top of her game.
A career-best 4.73m was enough to win the London Athletics Meet, part of the Wanda Diamond League, making her the first New Zealand pole vaulter to win a Diamond League event.
It came just days after she had set a new personal best of 4.71m in Switzerland.
Based in Loughborough, UK, McTaggart has been training and living overseas for several months while competing on the European circuit.
As Kiwis back home, and at the sold-out London Stadium watched in awe, the 25-year-old knew she was capable of executing the jump.
“To be quite honest with you, physically, I've been capable of a 470 (4.70m) probably since January," McTaggart told Sport Nations’ Afternoons with Staffy.
"My training has been going amazing. Every single training, I'm just smashing it out, getting some big heights, getting on really good poles, which is just building my confidence.
"And then, my mentality - I’ve almost turned into a little bit of a different athlete as I've gotten older. I think when I was younger, I used to have such a strong focus on being aggressive and getting hyped up. And now I'm a little more chill at the end of the runway, and it seems to be working well for me.”
Her back-to-back performances – two jumps over 4.70m within four days – are a sign of her growing strength and maturity as an elite athlete.
For McTaggart, it wasn’t about whether the jump was possible, but when.
“A lot of people have asked me ‘can you believe it, I can't believe it?’ and honestly, I can believe that I jumped 4.73m, but I can’t believe that I won the Diamond League.”
When asked how high she thinks she can go, her answer reflects a deep belief in what’s coming.
“There has been a turning point and I've kind of had a gut feeling that 2025 was going to be my year and so it's good to have ticked off those two 470s, and two and four days is an even bigger feat for me. Just going back to back. I think the sky is the limit.”
For McTaggart, mastering pole vaulting is about distilling a complex, technical event into repeatable, intuitive habits - an approach that sounds remarkably similar to Sport Nation host Mark Stafford and his golf game.
“For all you golf buffs out there, it is very similar. The harder you try, the worse you get. You just need to trust in those little technical things.
"It's really trying to simplify one of the most technical sports out there as much as you can and just not, not really think like you kind of want to be on the end of the runway and having hit the mat, like what just happened.”
The achievement has been warmly celebrated back home, particularly by fellow Kiwi pole vaulter Eliza McCartney.
“This morning, I walked into training, and she gave me a big hug and told me what that mark meant for me and meant for the history of having the first New Zealand pole vaulter to win a Diamond League. So she was genuinely really, happy for me.”
A two-week break awaits McTaggart before returning to the gym as she works toward the World Athletics Championships, held in Tokyo this September.
Listen to the full interview below:
