Standing at 186 centimetres tall (6-feet, 2 inches in the imperical measurements), Nicola was a very tall girl in her secondary schooling years and this led to feelings of insecurity and a sense that she was very different to everyone around her:
“As a teenager, I was always an outcast, and I got welcomed into a faith community that loved me. I remember encountering God’s love and it changed the way that I thought of myself as a misfit,” she says.
That ‘faith community’ was Green Point Christian College in coastal New South Wales (NSW), a small, CSA-member school that made up for its humble resources with caring staff and a heavy emphasis on caring for each child as a creation made in the image of God.
“I reached a point when I made a decision, and it flicked a switch: I decided to pursue God over sport. Whatever comes with sport is a bonus.
But I am already complete and perfect in love regardless of it. That has just allowed me to soar over every high jump bar and not be scared anymore.
Because I am loved. That is the most important thing.”
After winning a silver medal in the pandemic conditions of the 2021 Tokyo Olympics, Nicola appeared in an Australian television interview:
“My hope is that the stadiums will be filled again in our post-Covid world. Maybe not just for athletics performances – but that we will see revivals again in the stadiums and that people would hear a message of faith and a gospel that will really inspire like they did with Billy Graham decades ago.”
Three years on, Nicola is an integral part of her local church (Connect Church, Umina Beach) just 20 minutes from Green Point Christian College.
“She’s served in young adults. She helps me out with kids church. No job is too mundane for her; whatever needs to be done, she gets in there and does it,” says pastor Josie Psaila.
“As a person, Nicola is full of joy. She has a strong faith and she’s not afraid to share it.”
Nicola was the first Australian woman to break the two-metre barrier in high jump, jumping the new national record in 2021. Since then, she has continued to increase this record, and she travels to Paris with a personal best of 2.02m.
The 2024 Paris Olympics begins on Friday, 26 July 2024.
