Michelle Jenneke

Biography

Michelle Jenneke is an Australian sprinter and model. Michelle became an internal sensation back in 2012 for her warm-up dance at Barcelona.

She won silver medal at the 2010 Summer Youth Olympics in the 100m hurdles. 

Childhood- Family

Michelle Jenneke was born on 23rd June 1993 in Kenthurst, New South Wales, Australia. Her friends and family call her "Shelly"

Education

• The Hills Grammar School: She attended The Hills Grammar School, an independent, nonsectarian co-educational, primary and secondary day school, located in Kenthurst, Sydney, New South Wales
• Sydney University: She graduate with a degree in Mechatronics (combination of mechanical and electronic/ electrical engineering) from the University. 

Video: Forever Alone meets Michelle Jenneke

Career

Michelle has been training in athletics since the age of 10, Mick Zisti has been her coach since childhood, he trained her at the Cherrybrook Athletics Club. She has trained at the Sydney University Athletics Club as well. 

During her school days, At the National All Schools Championships hurdles, Michelle had finished fourth.

2008 Pacific School Games

She was part of the NSW Emerging Athletes Program (EAP) with the NSW Institute of Sport (NSWIS), In March of 2008, she qualified for the Pacific School Games in the 90m hurdles category, with a third finish at the U15 girls 90m hurdles at the state championships (13.36sec). Later at the NSW All Schools championships, she finihsed second, while also bettering her time to 13.07sec.

She competed at the 2008 Pacific School Games hosted at the Canberra, she competed in the 90 and 200 metres hurdles. She was one of the three athletes to compete at the event from her school Hills Grammar,  Jordan Shelley and Mikaela Middleton were the other students.

At the Australian Junior Championships In March 2010, she finished first in the 100m hurdles and broke the Australian national record in sprint medley relay with her team

2010 Oceania Youth Championships: she won the 2010 Sydney 100m hurdles event, 4x100m relay Golds, she was placed 3rd in 100m sprint.

2010 Summer Youth Olympics

At the 2010 Summer Youth Olympics held in Singapore, She won the silver medal in the 100m hurdles, with a time of 13.46 seconds, her personal best in the event, she was a close second behind the Russian sprinter Ekaterina Bleskina, who topped the finals with 13.34 seconds.

In the medley relay, her team comprising of Monica Brennan, Hazel Bowering-Scott, Jenny Blundell finished fourth, with the time of 2:13.96. The American, African and European teams were too good.

She also participated at the 2011 Pirtek Athletic Allstars event. In the same year, she competed at the Cooks Classic event hosted by New Zealand. At the Australian Junior Championships of 2021, she finished first in the under-20 hurdles.

89th Australian Athletics Championships: At the athletic event held between 15th April and 17th April, she finished third at the finals with the time of 14.25s while representing NSW, World Champion Sally Pearson topped the race with 12.83s, Shannon McCann representing Western Australian Institute of Sport finished second with 13.55s

2012 IAAF World Junior Championships

GIF: Famous Warm-up dance at Barcelona

At the 2012 World Junior Championships held in Barcelona, Spain, from 10-15 July, She finihsed 5th at the finals with a time of 13.54s. It was a closely contested race with the gold medal winning American sprinter Morgan SNOW finishing with 13.38 seconds, just 0.18 seconds ahead of Michelle. Noemi ZBÄREN of Switzerland won Silver and Ekaterina BLESKINA of Russia Bronze.

Her video of warming up became viral on the social media. It was unique and everyone loved it.

2014 Commonwealth Games

She represented Australia in the 100m hurdles category, along with her compatriots Sally Pearson and Shannon McCann. She ran in Heat 1 and qualified for the finals with a time of 13.33s.

Her compatriot Sally Pearson won the Gold medal In the finals with a time of 12.67s, Michelle finished 5th with 13.36 seconds. he was the youngest among all the finalists.

She is the second-fastest Australian woman to run the 100 metre hurdles in the history, next only to the world champion Sally Pearson.

2015 Summer Universiade: She won the bronze medal in the university 100m hurdles race held at Gwangju, South Korea.

2015 World Championships

At the 2015 World Championships held at the Beijing National Stadium, China, she qualified for the semi-fnials, with a time of 13.02, and finished 17th in the Heats overall. In the semi-finals, she improved her time to 13.01 seconds and finished 18th overall and didn't qualify for the finals. [2]

2016 World Indoor Championships: At the IAAF World Indoor Championships held at Portland, United States, she participated in the 60m indoor hurdles which took place in March 18th 2016, she finished 4th in hear Heats (Heat 1) with a time of 8.10 seconds, and 10th overall and missed the final qualification by a millisecond. [3]

2016 Rio Olympics

2016 Australian Championships : She won the national 100 m hurdles race with a time of 12.93 seconds, and with that she achieved qualification to the 2016 Rio Olympics. She was placed in the Heat 2, where she competed against the likes of Nia Ali, Phylicia George, Pedrya Seymour and others. She finished 6th in the Heats with13.26s, her personal best would have got her a qualification to the semi-finals though. She was the only Australian representing 100m hurdles. [4]

2016 Australian University Games

 At the Australian University games held from 26/09/2016 to 29/09/2016, she competed in multiple disciplines.

Shoptput: She qualified to the finals from the qualification group B with a distance of 10.52m, she was placed third in the group. In the finals, she improved her distance to 10.76m, but finished 7th overall.

100m: She compted in the 100m sprints and achieved qualification to the finals with a time of 12.45 seconds. Things didn't go well at the finals and she finished 7th with the time of 15.26 seconds, but importantly gathering 2 points for her university

Triple Jump: She qualified for the finals from Qualification group with a distance of 11.46m, she was third best in the group, at the finals she made a jump of 11.26m, not her best, but got her 4 important points.

Long Jump: She made a great jump of 5.49m in the qualifications and was placed 2nd best in the group. At the finals she improved her distance to 5.61m and won the silver medal.

100m hurdles: At the direct finals, she ran a rather slow race of 14.19 seconds and still ended winning the competition. She also holds the University record in 100m hurdles.

High Jump: She made a jump of 1.50m in the finals and finished 4th, securing 5 points. 

2017 World Championships- Athletics

At the 2017 World Championships helt at London Olympic Stadium in August 2017, she competed in the 100m hurdles for Australia, it was her second World Championship race.

Michelle ran in the Heat 3, lane 4 and qualified for the semi-finals with the time of 13.11s, In the semi-finals, she finished 7th in her Heats (2) with a time of 13.25s. and didn't qualify for further races. Her compatriot Sally Pearson went on to win the Gold medal at the finals.

2018 Commonwealth Games

She represented her country along with Brianna Beahan in the 100m hurdles.

In the first round, she finished 4th in the Heat 2 and qualified on best time criteria. In the finals, she finished 4th with the time of 13.07 seconds, just behind the Bronze medal winning Yanique Thompson of Jamaica, but ahead of her compatriot Brianna Beahan.

2022 Commonwealth Games

At the Birmingham games held in August 2022, she represented Australia in the 100m hurdles along with Celeste Mucci.

She had a great first round, she finished 2nd in her Heats with 12.68 seconds, it was also the second best race in the first round overall.

At the finals, she finished 5th with the time of 12.68s. This was a closely fought race and she missed the medal position by 0.1 second. This was her second close encounter with the medal position at the Commonwealth Games.

2022 World Athletics Championships

At the 2022 World Championships held at the Hayward Field in Eugene, she achieved her personal best score ever.

In the Heats, she finished 11th with a time of 12.84s, she was third in her Heats (Heat 3). In the semi-finals she achieved her personal best of 12.66s. However it was not sufficient enough for the finals qualification.

2023 World Athletics Championships

At the 2023 Budapest Games, she was one of the 3 Australian women to participate in the Hurdles. In the first round she finished joint 15th with a time of 12.71s and qualified for the semi-finals. In the semi-finals she finished 14th, with a time of 12.8s and missed the ticket to the finals. She was also the fastest among the Australian athletes

Warm-up Dance routine

She became internet sensation in 2012 for her dance routine, she changes her dance routine according to the mood. She first started dance warm up in 2009, she aced that race and found warm-ups relaxing and helpful.

GIF: Michelle Jenneke's Sexy warm-up routine 2

Animation: Michelle Jenneke's hot Warm-up dance in Bikini

Philanthropy

She has worked in many Philanthropical projects, whenever she has free time from her practice, she involves herself in charity and community support:

• She worked in Tanzanian orphanage school as a volunteer.
• Westpac Life Saving Rescue Helicopter Service- She worked as their ambassador in 2013.
• She is associated with- Hills Charity.
• Daniel Berry Campaign
• White Ribbon Campaign
• She has been New South Wales Cancer Council's ambassador for their inaugural campaign.
• She promotes OcSober, a campaign to decrease addiction to alcohol and drugs.

Interesting Facts & Trivia

• Michelle can throw Boomerangs, her aunt taught her when she was a kid.
• Vegemite: She used to hate it as a kid, she likes it now.
• Personal Best: She ran the 100m hurdles race under 12.28 seconds in 2015 at Brisbane, this remains her best till date.
• Second fastest Australian hurdler ever: She is the second fastest hurdler inthe Australian history, next only to the legendary Sally Pearson.
• She wears Cosby Sweaters and is their brand ambassador.
• She wears one green and another gold socks while running. It symbolizes Australia.
• She has been challenged by boys on racing track for her phone number.
• Afraid of :Volcanoes and Earthquakes.
• She is the second fastest Australian sprinter ever in 100m hurdles.
• TV shows: She has appeared on the American TV show- The Tonight Show
• Sports Illustrated Swimsuit issue: After her video went viral Sports Illustrated contacted her for a swimsuit issue, it was her first photoshoot and she loved it.
• AskMen.com's 99 Most Desirable Women: Michelle ranked 10th in the list by Askmen.
• Stretch with Michelle Jenneke: A mobile App (Strappt App) featuring Michelle on stretching exercises
• Top Gear Sydney Festival: Michelle participated in the racing event where she rode a Nissan GT-R
• As per her parents she has been running and jumping around since she was a toddler.
• Footy Show: she has appeared on Channel 9 TV's show
• Puma has sponsored her.
• Biggest misconception about her: That she doesn't take athletics seriously.
• She has been participating in Javelin, Shotput, High jump for her University along with her favorite categories of hurdles and sprint.
• Coca Cola commercial: she has appeared in the Cola commercial.
• She shot a funny video (Farmer Wants a Wife) for Channel 9 where she ran, jumped, threw, dived, boxed in a wedding dress.
• There have been speculations about breast implants by some of the fans on social media, any enhancement seen in the commercial videos has been credited to Push-up & sports bra by the specialists.

Quotes

• It was really funny (when she first heard of her dance video going viral)
• I absolutely hate packing, if I can pay someone to pack my stuff, I'll do that.
• I definitely want the guy I date to beat me on 100m sprint.
• I always liked hurdling, I would set up hurdles in the house and jump.
• I fall a lot in practice, but not at events.
• Every time I do dance during warm-up I mentally sync with a song, otherwise it would be weird.

Sources

1. Michelle Jenneke on wikipedia
2. 2015 World championships, hurdles 
3. 2016 world indoor Athletics championships, hurdles
4. 2016 Rio Olympics , Athletics, Hurdles
5. 2017 World Championships, Athletics, Hurdles
6. 2018 Commonwealth games, Hurdles
7. 2022 World Championships
8.