Holly Bradshaw: The Time of Her Life

By Ralph Hardy

You can count on two fingers the number of female pole vaulters in the world who vaulted higher than Holly Bradshaw in Tokyo this past summer. The Olympic bronze medalist had a spectacular 2021, raising the UK record to 4.90 meters, placing third in the European Indoor Championships, and finishing in the top 4 in seven Diamond League pole vault events, all while working on a master’s degree in sports psychology.

I interviewed Holly by phone on November 3rd, the day after her 30th birthday. Her husband Paul had surprised her with a night away from the athletic center in Loughborough where she trains, and they were stuck in traffic, which might be the only time Holly isn’t on the move.

TAKEOFF: Happy Birthday, Holly. I saw a video of you on Twitter yesterday from when you set the British record of 4.90m. That was a great vault and there is a wonderful celebration at the end.

Holly: Thank you. I think that’s pretty much the only angle I’ve got of it but it shows the raw emotion, which is really special.

TAKEOFF: What was your childhood like growing up in northern England?

Holly: I was born in Preston in the northwest, the county is Lancashire. When I retire, I’ll 100% move back there. It’s a small-time kind of town with lots of countryside, but it is only 40 minutes away from Liverpool and Manchester. I still have a group of 15 mates whom I’ve known since we were six years old. These are the kind of special relationships you build there.

TAKEOFF: That sounds fantastic! I read you were 17 when you first started pole vaulting.

Holly: It’s a weird story, really. When I was about to turn 17, I started training for pole vault. But for the year and half leading into that, I just went to competitions, picked up any pole, and got over a bar and that was it. Because I was kind of crazy and came from a gymnastics background, I was the one they threw in but there was no coach or training so I just competed on the weekends. My club realized how much I loved it, and got a coach down to do six weeks of taster classes. The coach saw something in me and invited me to come and train with them in Manchester, and it spiraled out of control from there. I was training with him once a week, then twice a week, and then after a couple of months, five days a week. I improved quickly.

TAKEOFF: Do you come from an athletic family?

Holly: My mom is very academic, a teacher, and she studied for a master’s, whereas my dad has a sporting background. He played American football and still plays now once a week. Me and my sister are definitely anomalies in the family. We’re very, very sporty and no one else really is.

TAKEOFF: And you’re too tall for a gymnast, obviously at five nine.

Holly: I did gymnastics as a kid, but then literally as soon as I stopped, I had a massive spurt and grew half a meter or something.

TAKEOFF: Did you compete in athletics for your high school the way our athletes do? Or is it a different system altogether?

Holly: The one thing I noticed when I went to America was everywhere has athletic tracks. In the UK, unless you’re at a club, no school has athletic tracks. I did athletics at my high school, but it was basically on the field, and once a year, they got someone to come and draw white lines on the grass field where everyone would play football. Athletics at school was very much a seasonal thing. You only do it for six weeks with a competition at the end. The only way you get into athletics is off your own bat, go to an athletics club and join there.

Photo provided by Holly Bradshaw

TAKEOFF: What athletics club are you associated with?

Holly: I am associated with the Blackburn Harriers. That’s the kit I was wearing when I jumped 4.90m. I’ve been with them the whole 12 years of my career.

TAKEOFF: When you went to university, did you compete as a college athlete, or are things done differently?

Holly: It’s very different in the UK. Universities here don’t pay thousands for the athlete scholarships like they do in the U.S. In 2011 I took a gap year to focus only on athletics. In 2012 I joined a university and started an undergraduate degree. But because athletics had taken a step forward and it was a priority for me, they funded me to try and win a medal in London in 2012. I studied for my undergrad in a distance-learning course.

I actually did our university champs for the first time in my whole career in 2020, because now I’m doing my masters at Loughborough, and they pay me and all my fees.

TAKEOFF: What year did you get the lottery funding?

Holly: In 2011, I was on something called Futures. Before you get onto funding, they look around and see who are the upcoming talents who can be supported with a couple of hundred quid a year for travel, physio, etc. I was on that for two years. In 2013, I joined the actual funding program, and I’ve been on it ever since. The fact that I’ve been supported financially and more importantly, medically - as I have had quite an extensive injury history, has been crucial.

TAKEOFF: I’ve read about the anxiety that UK athletes face when they’re worried about losing funding. If you lose it, it’s so hard to come back.

Holly: Luckily, I’ve never had to experience that, but it’s really hard for an athlete because it’s done on a yearly basis. It’s reviewed every October, so if you have a stinker of a year and underperform, you massively run the risk of being cut. And it might just have been unlucky circumstances for you. There is wiggle room; say, you get an injury, they more than often will keep you on for another year to allow you to come back and prove yourself. But it’s not like you’ve got the funding set for four years. Even for me, if I have a terrible year next year and underperform, I will be reviewed in that meeting as to whether or not they will continue to fund me.

TAKEOFF: A lot of young vaulters will want to know how you cope with the stress of high-level competition. Do you meditate, do yoga, or practice visualization?

Holly: For me, visualization is pretty important. One thing that keeps the anxiety and nerves away is I’m so process driven, so I’m not stood at the back of the runway or, when in training thinking, I need to clear the bar. Or when I was in the Olympics and got pushed down into fourth, I wasn’t there thinking, oh my God, I’m in fourth. I need to clear this bar to get back to the medal. It was strong off the back, tall at takeoff, kick the leg.

Everything I’ve worked on for the past six years has changed my mentality from being externally driven to process driven. Everything comes from within, and there’s no room in my head for nerves or anxiety because I’ve got three things to think about and that’s all I’m thinking about.

TAKEOFF: That’s great advice. Where are you training now?

Holly: I train in Loughborough. It’s where the hub of British athletics is based. I’ve been at the Seb Coe Elite Athletics Centre for three years now.

TAKEOFF: How many times a week do you train?

Holly: Five. Currently, we have two rest days a week on Wednesday and Sunday.

This is funny because I actually only vault once a week. Although it’s my favorite training component, I’m just not built to jump more often. I train hard, and it’s very much quality over quantity. Everything is very low intensity because of my injury history. I don’t ever get pounded into the ground or smashed. It’s very precise, high quality work that seems to work for me.

For the last two or three years we’ve been trying to increase my speed. My coach says to me all the time, we can’t do everything. We can’t vault hard from a full run, sprint really fast, lift heavy in the weight room. It has to be done in phases. For me, the phase right now is to get fast so loads are down in the weight room and vaulting is on the backburner once a week. And I know that my vault sessions aren’t going to be stunning because what I’m doing at the minute is working on speed.

TAKEOFF: How long are your training sessions?

Holly: Three to four and a half hours.

We usually take an hour to warm up with lots of different components. We build the course of my Achilles issues. We gradually intensify through the warm up, and there are different areas I have to hit. I have to warm my shoulder up; do isometrics for my hamstring tendon; then my knee can get a bit fruity. The warm up is kind of the hardest bit of the session because it’s so long with lots of different exercises to do, but it works as conditioning as well. I don’t ever do like five 800s or running circuits because the warm ups are continuous and very specific, and get the aerobic element in there.

On a Monday, we do run in, followed by plyometrics, and then we come back in the afternoon for a weightlifting session. On Tuesday, we’ll do gymnastics for a good few hours and then finish on some longer runs. Wednesdays are off. Thursday is vault day, so we might do a few primers. I’ll do runs to five meters, runs to 10 meters to sharpen up there.

Then we’ll go into vaulting and finish with strength circuits. On Friday, it’s throws and things like that, finishing with a weight session; Saturday is a metabolic day, so it will be a long warm-up followed by longer runs. By longer runs I mean 15-second runs or 10-second runs. We finish with a circuit.

TAKEOFF: How do you spend your downtime?

I’m studying at the minute for a Masters of Science in Sport Psychology, and alongside that, I’ve done some research that was just published on the post-Olympic blues.

I’m really passionate about helping people, especially sports people and young female athletes. I’m an advocate for promoting positive body image. And I also love coffee! I spent six months volunteering in a coffee shop to pick up how to make all the coffee drinks.

TAKEOFF: Learning to be a barista?

Holly: (Laughing) That’s right.

TAKEOFF: How long have you been with your coach, Scott Simpson?

Holly: Since 2012, so nine years or so.

TAKEOFF: Who is your agent?

Holly: I work with the same agency as Mondo (Armand Duplantis), JRS Sports Management.

TAKEOFF: Do you have to spend a lot of time building your brand? Or do they leave you alone to concentrate on your athletics?

Holly: For me, athletics always comes first. I’ve made that clear from the outset, and luckily my agents and the brands that I have always say, if I wasn’t an athlete, I wouldn’t be able to stand showing everyone what I’m doing in the day.

Photo provided by Holly Bradshaw

I like to be really present in the moment. Social media and building my brand is difficult for a person like me for whom it doesn’t come naturally. But I think the thing that is helpful is I’m quite unique in that in the UK, there’s been a lot of press recently about how I wear the full onesie, I cover up my stomach, I’m out there. I don’t wear make up, I’m just very natural. That has helped me stand out a little bit and just maybe made my brand unique, which has been good.

TAKEOFF: Absolutely. And what role does Paul play on your team?

Holly: I met Paul when I was 17 so we’ve been together the whole of my career. The support has just been amazing. We’ve moved from home to Cardiff and then Cardiff to Loughborough. We’ve bought and sold houses everywhere we go. He’s just a good buffer of stress. Since we’ve been together, I’ve become a stronger person. Just being away from home in a totally unique environment where you’re injured and miss out on a world champs and a Commonwealth, was tough. I was injured for like five years straight and having Paul’s support was really, really crucial.

TAKEOFF: Do you get the sense that pole vaulting is becoming more popular in the United Kingdom?

Holly: Definitely. When I first started, nobody knew what the heck it was, whereas now I’ll say, I do pole vault and they’ll know, or maybe recognize me. I think both men and women’s pole vault is on the rise, and it’s getting more popular in the UK. I’d just like to see it shoot, you know? I feel like we should be bringing more 4.60m girls through and it’s just not happening, which is disappointing.

TAKEOFF: I get it. Interestingly, our club started out mainly with male vaulters, and now two thirds of our vaulters are girls.

Holly: Oh, wow, that’s great.

TAKEOFF: What’s the biggest headache you deal with as a professional pole vaulter? Is it traveling with poles?

Holly: It’s stressful, don’t get me wrong, but I’m quite laid back about it. I think the biggest headache as a pole vaulter is trying to make people understand how unique and hard it is. There’s so many variables that make it difficult to be a consistent vaulter. Many people don’t even realize that the standards move. As a vaulter in the UK - you’re up against a lack of understanding for how complex it is.

TAKEOFF: You’ve been around the world. What is your favorite place to compete in?

Holly: There are some really unique places that stand out, but for me the country that is the best is Germany. They are so knowledgeable and they put on the sickest street meets. And the crowd is there just to watch pole vault! The organizers make it really special and it’s always fun to compete there. Switzerland is similar and they love athletics too. It’s cool how some of the European countries really get behind it.

TAKEOFF: Who’s the funniest woman on the pole vault circuit? Who keeps things light and takes away the pressure?

Holly: For me, the two people I’m closest to are Katie (Nageotte) and Kat (Katerina Stefanidi). I’ve been on the scene a long time and I remember back in 2011, 2012 I would just walk up to a competition and wouldn’t speak to anyone. I’d sit on my own at breakfast, compete, and go home. It’s different now. I sit at breakfast with them for literally four hours. We chat nonsense and play board games and have the best time. And then we go out and compete and it’s the same. Like we’re not out there ignoring each other. During the (Olympic) qualification, I sat with Katie for half an hour and we were just chatting at the back of the runway. For me, that’s what makes pole vault so special.

At the minute I absolutely love travelling and I actually feel sad when we have massive breaks from competing because I don’t get to see them and hang out. And I think Katie and Kat make trips fun and lighthearted, and yeah, they’re just great people to be around.

TAKEOFF: You can see the camaraderie on television among the female and the male vaulters.

Photo provided by Holly Bradshaw

Holly: Everyone’s kind of cheering each other on. I think the thing with pole vaulting is you acknowledge what you’re going through. I know how hard this is, right? So there is a respect amongst everyone that we are out here doing the best we can, and we actually don’t impact each other at all. Like if Katie clears or fails the bar doesn’t matter to me. All that matters is I’m still off the back of the runway where I’m in control of my destiny. I think there can be a bit of animosity in some other events, where they try to put each other off, but in pole vault we don’t have any of that because we are totally in control of what we can do. And that’s a really nice aspect of the sport.

TAKEOFF: What kind of poles do you jump on?

Holly: UCS Spirit poles. My full approach poles are a hybrid set. I jump from 14 steps and start the competition on 4.45 poles, so I’ll open the competition on the 18.6 flex, then I’ll go to the 18.2 flex and then I’ll swap. Normally around about a 4.70m to 4.80m bar, I’ll switch to the 4.60m poles and then I’ll go onto a 17.6 and a 17.2. I used the 17.2 to clear 4.85 m and 4.90m in the Olympic final. The 17.2 is my money pole.

TAKEOFF: This may be a personal question, but you’re 30 and you said that you’d like to start a family soon. For a female athlete, this is a challenging and exciting time, isn’t it?

Holly: Yes, it is. I have been doing this for a while now, am not getting any younger, and Paul and I want a family. This last year has been the best of my career.

To jump 4.90m and be consistent over 4.80m and then get the Olympic medal? I feel like I’m thriving right now and can jump higher. The World Championships are this summer and Paris (Olympics) is two and a half years away. The indoor circuit is coming up. I was never going to retire after Tokyo, given that we have the Commonwealth Games in Birmingham, the World Champs, and the Europeans in Munich next year. I was definitely going to go until then.

As long as I’m healthy and injury-free, I will go until Paris, and then I’ll retire and start a family. I know I need to jump 4.90m to win an Olympic medal, and whenever the time comes that I’m not operating at that level I will retire, but I still feel like 4.95m plus isn’t off the table, right?