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Australian hurdler Michelle Jenneke has been around for a long time. It was all the way back in 2012 that she went viral for her pre-race warm up dance which exploded into viral fame and even landed her a spot in a Top Gear video that has 26 million views.
The dance was her signature move and she’s been doing it for what feels like a lifetime at this point:
Michelle Jenneke‘s warm up dance often overshadowed her on-track achievements. She’s the second-fasted Australian women’s 100m hurdler of all-time and made her Olympics debut in 2016 at Rio but her speeds really picked up post-2020 and Jenneke ran the 10 fastest 100m Hurdles times of her career between 2022-23.
Now on the eve of the Paris Olympics, Michelle Jenneke has earned the prestigious honor of being named a Team Captain of the Aussie Olympics squad alongside fellow olympians Rhydian Cowley, Linden Hall, and Daniel Golubovic.
Always knowing how to reach as many fans as possible, Michelle has been firing up Instagram posts lately including pics from her days training in Italy prior to traveling to Paris for the Olympics.
Jenneke locked up her Paris Olympics qualification with a time of 12.88s in the 100m hurdles at the 2024 Australian National Championships which earned her a third national title (2016, 2023, and 2024). Michelle Jenneke’s form is looking as good as ever going into Paris:
Prior to seeing that she had been named a captain of the Aussie Olympic squad, this is an athlete I hadn’t heard about in years but there really was a time when she was one of the most famous Track & Field athletes on earth and she still might be. But things really exploded off the track for Michelle way back in 2013 when she was featured in the Sports Illustrated: Swimsuit Issue where Kate Upton was famously on the cover.
Other models featured in that SI: Swimsuit issue with Michelle Jenneke include some of the industry’s heaviest hitters like Nina Agdal, Irina Shayk, Hannah Jeter, Genevieve Morton, Chrissy Teigen, and Alana Blanchard.
All that aside, it really is an incredible honor for Michelle Jenneke to be named a captain of Australia’s Olympic squad and she’s earned every bit of that honor over the years by putting in work 7 days a week on the track. We love to see hard work pay off.