sport news Molly Caudery's New Zealand training is just another example of her life of ... trends now
Molly Caudery is one of Team GB's best bets for an athletics gold at this summer's Olympics. Or at least she will be providing she and her poles actually make it to Paris in one piece, something which we are about to learn is far from a foregone conclusion.
'I'm quite a chaotic person,' says Caudery. 'They say fight fire with fire and I meet chaos with chaos. It's just little daily things that happen in my life… like chopping my finger off!'
That gory incident occurred in December 2021, when Caudery's index finger was 'about 90 per cent off' after she trapped it between the barbell and weight rack in her home gym. It required three surgeries to sort.
A more recent example of her chaotic life, though, came just days before this month's World Indoor Championships in Glasgow, where she would ultimately announce her arrival on the big stage by winning Britain's first ever global gold in the pole vault.
'The Tuesday morning before, I'm driving to the track, I've tied my poles on the car, when the garage door comes off,' recalls the 24-year-old. 'Then the roof rack comes off my car with the poles on, so the poles are hanging over the front of my car.
Molly Caudery is one of Team GB's best bets for athletics gold in the Olympics this summer
The 24-year-old won Britain's first ever global gold in the pole vault in Glasgow this month
She explained her chaotic build-up to the World Indoor Championships and ultimate success
'I call my coach Scott (Simpson) and I'm like, "My roof rack has come off, my poles are off", and he's like, "OK, I'll come and get you".
'Bad things come in threes and later that day I spilled scalding tea all over my lap and I thought it was going to bubble on my legs. It was just a bad day.
'The natural chaos, Scott has had to learn to deal with because it's just a part of me. I think he's found it quite difficult to manage. After I did my finger, he sat me down in the nicest way possible and he just said, "You need to try and be better". But now he just accepts it and we move on.
'I do have to wrap myself in cotton wool a little bit, but it's just part of my life now. I just try not to let it affect me.'
Such experiences are perhaps why Caudery was able to come out on top of a chaotic world indoor pole vault final, which was delayed for 15 minutes when French woman Margot Chevrier suffered a sickening ankle break. Injuries are part of the package with pole vault, with Caudery needing two operations on her Achilles in the last 18 months.
But the Cornishwoman also suffered her fair share doing gymnastics as a child. 'I broke my foot, my wrist, my nose twice,' she says. 'First time, I was doing a gainer – a backflip going forward – and I kneed myself in the nose.'
Caudery said he coach, Scott Simpson (right) has had to learn to deal with 'the natural chaos'
Aside from the broken bones, Caudery believes her brutal gymnastics training from the age of four to 11 helped shape her for life as a professional athlete. That said, one of her anecdotes feels like it should have been submitted to the Whyte Review – the 2022 independent investigation into abuse in the sport.
'There is definitely a different culture in gymnastics,' says Caudery. 'At one point I was training 24 hours a week and I don't even do that now.
'As a 10-year-old I would miss a Tuesday of school to do eight hours of
