Montag wins bronze again in Paris
"It's a testament to my coach, and entire performance team, as well as the family and friends who have guided me to this point."
Six days after her incredible moment of winning her first Olympic medal, when coming third in the women’s 20km race walk in Paris, Jemima Montag won another bronze medal in her final event – the inaugural Olympic mixed marathon race walk relay on August 7, with teammate Rhydian Cowley.
In doing so, the 26-year-old co-winner of the 2024 Maccabi Australia President’s Award created history as the first Australian female track or field athlete to win two medals at the same Olympic Games since Raelene Boyle in 1972, and the fifth of all time.
“It’s a testament to my coach, and entire performance team, as well as the family and friends who have guided me to this point – thank you for giving me a memory to cherish forever,” Montag said of achieving that feat.
The new race walking addition to the Olympic program involved teams of two doing two alternate legs each, of just over 10km, on the 1km street circuit surrounding the Eiffel Tower.
In cooler conditions that in her individual event, Montag – again with her family, partner, and close friends cheering her on – was able to gain vital ground on the race leaders in both of her legs, and recorded the fastest time of all the women in the field.
She was able to turn the team’s 23-second deficit at the beginning of her first leg into equal first place, and then pick up, and maintain, the pace in the home stretch, to bring Australia from fourth place to third, and close the gap to runners-up Ecuador, from 32 seconds with just 6km to go, to just 16 seconds at the finish line.
Cowley also played his part, getting to within 10 seconds of his PB time, and described Montag as a big inspiration to him, saying “I didn’t want to let her down”.
For Montag, having to back-up so soon after her individual event – in which she achieved her dream of earning her first Olympic medal – was a new challenge, both physically and mentally, but she soon found the perfect motivation source to perform at her best.
“I had to tap into one of my values of teamwork and gratitude . . . we’ve [her and Cowley] been training together for as long as I can remember.
“In all the laps that were hard, I just had to tell myself to do it for Rhyds.”
comments