World indoor pole vault champion Molly Caudery is the newest and brightest star in British athletics.
The 23-year-old sealed a stunning first senior international medal in Glasgow to continue her rapid rise to the top.
That came off the back of twice setting the world leading height, raising her own personal best on both occasions as she made herself at home at athletics’ top table.
But who is Caudery and how has she got to where she is now?
Where is Molly Caudery from
Caudery was born in Truro, Cornwall and grew up in the village of Illogan.
Her Cornish childhood was a key to shaping the athlete she is today, with sea and surfing the original source of adrenaline-fuelled thrills before switching to the pole vault and packed out stadiums.
Caudery initially did gymnastics before moving to pole vault, and was coached by her dad Stuart between the ages of 10 and 18. She trained at Cornwall Athletics Club.
Her dad, mum Barbara, and brother Finley are all pole vaulters.
Molly Caudery education
Caudery showed plenty of promise as a junior, winning a silver medal at the 2017 European Athletics U20 Championships in Italy aged 17.
She then represented England at the 2018 Commonwealth Games on the Gold Coast and finished fifth, before moving to the University of Miami on a scholarship.
Caudery spent two years there, majoring in kinesiology, before Covid cut her time stateside short, and she now trains at Loughborough University back in the UK alongside British record holder and Olympic medallist Holly Bradshaw under the tutelage of Scott Simpson.
Molly Caudery freak finger injury
A return to British shores in 2020 proved the right move for her pole vault dreams, as Caudery earned European U23 silver in Tallinn in 2021, jumping a season’s best 4.45m.
The only way was up from there, with Caudery adding Commonwealth silver to her collection a year later, delighting the home Birmingham crowd.
It nearly didn’t happen due to a freak injury, as Caudery almost lost a finger at the end of 2021 in a freak weightlifting accident that required three surgeries to fix; with an two achilles surgeries thrown in too, contributing to a nine-month injury layoff.
"As I brought the bar down, my finger caught between where you rack it and the bar," she told MailOnline.
"It was 90 percent off. It was holding on by the skin on the side. That was a pretty big setback that I managed to come back from."
The success continued to flow, with a British title following in 2023 to book her spot at the world championships in Budapest, where she finished fifth.
Pole vault world lead
Caudery’s star was truly on the rise after a stellar 2023, but it went to new heights at the start of 2024, as she set three personal bests in the space of just two months.
A new best height of 4.83m quickly became 4.85m as Caudery won British indoor gold with what was a world leading height.
But she quickly usurped her own achievement by an extra centimetre just a week later to send shockwaves around the pole vault world.
Caudery’s superb form was perfectly timed for the 2024 World Athletics Indoor Championships in Glasgow, where she wowed the home crowd on her way to a sublime gold.
She sealed her first world title with a height of 4.80m, edging out Olympic bronze medallist Eliza McCartney and Olympic champion Katie Moon in the process.
Victory in Glasgow will give her plenty of confidence that she can mix it amongst the very best in Paris this summer - which would be her Olympic debut, coming ahead of schedule.
"It's absolutely coming into my sights," said Caudery of Paris 2024. "Previous to this year, my sights were always set on LA 2028 and this was just experience for me. Things have really snowballed and I've just built so much confidence. Taking that into Paris, I'd love to get a medal."
Molly Caudery Instagram
Away from the crash mat, Caudery is also one of the most-followed British athletes on Instagram.
The 23-year-old boasts 221,000 followers, with only Dina Asher-Smith and Katarina Johnson-Thompson boasting more amongst British athletics stars.
“I think social media, whether people like it or not is definitely such a growing factor in sports,” she said. “A lot of people don't enjoy that, but I actually find some enjoyment in the creativity of it all and it gives me something else to do."
Sportsbeat 2024