"Mondo Duplantis is already better than Bolt ever was" - Alex Stewart

By Abhiruchi Rout

Modified Mar 13, 2024 11:31 GMT

Alex Stewart is among the top high-jump coaches in the world. Currently the high-performance coach and national event lead in the high jump event of Athletics Australia, he has coached Eleanor Patterson and Brandon Starc to multiple medals at prestigious international events.

Sportskeeda got an opportunity to interview Stewart on his views regarding multiple athletics events. Here are the excerpts of the exclusive interview with the high jump coach:

Sportskeeda: Australia clinched three medals in Athletics at the Tokyo Olympics 2020. Do you think there are areas where Australia can improve its status to reach the level of a sporting powerhouse, like the USA, in Athletics? Are there any specific areas that need attention?

Alex Stewart: They (Australian athletes) have been doing very well. Yeah. I think, well, at the Budapest World Championships last year, Australia won six medals. Five of those came from females, and four of those were in field events. The one male who won a medal was also in a field event. As a field event nation, we are incredibly strong. We are probably one of the best countries on the planet in field events across the board."

If you're looking at per-capita type statistics, then we could be the best. The US takes tremendous advantage of an unbelievable developmental system in the NCAA. So, it provides 18 to 22-year-olds, which is a major developmental age for track and field with world-class facilities.

In many instances, very good coaches, education, medical treatment, and structured competition opportunities for four years, afford them fantastic opportunities. There are not many countries in the world that can compete with that and a lot of people are aware of this."

And if you look at the statistics of the number of foreign athletes that are now competing in NCAA track and field, it's significantly greater than it was even five or ten years ago. The coaches of the universities are aware of this and are now trying to recruit more foreign athletes. So whether this is felt within teams like the USA within five to ten years from now remains to be seen, but it will be very interesting.

One area where Australia struggles is the fact that it's a very difficult country to compete in. The fact is that our facilities are quite poor. We have no facilities in this country that are built for training. So, we have no national training centre. We have no centre where elite athlete access is prioritized over the general public. So within that, from about April to September every year, it's very difficult to access a track to be able to train.

So, last year we went to Japan for a one-month training camp before the European season and we will do the same again this year because we're able to go and access the facilities and the equipment we need without interruption.

So whoever it is going to be, whether it's a government initiative, whether it's a private sector initiative, one thing that can help continue our current success and maybe try and create further success would be the development and construction of specific facilities for elite athletes.

Sportskeeda: Usain Bolt remains a prominent figure in the sport even after retirement, do you identify any track and field athletes who have the potential to become the sport's next face and have a global impact?

Alex Stewart: See, the interesting thing is the way there's a bias that exists in track and field. Everybody always looks to the 100 meters to provide the dominant figure for the sport. Yeah. So I think people are constantly looking for that person within the current crop of 100-meter sprinters. But there's already a tremendous number of fantastic athletes in the sport. I think like Mondo Duplantis, to me, he maybe is already better than Bolt (Usain Bolt) ever was.

Probably my favorite athlete in track and field right now is Yulimar Rojas from Venezuela who I think if she could speak English would be a global megastar. She has a fantastic presence and her results speak volumes. Yeah, she's a tremendous individual. But if you're looking for someone to come through, I really think Anna Hall is going to be truly great.