Jemma Pollard

BIOGRAPHY

Overcoming server asthma at the age of 11, after nearly a decade in the sport, Jemma Pollard’s career has accelerated dramatically in the last couple of years as she made a very successful transition from juniors to seniors. Over the last 16 months she has been selected to four Australian teams and won a junior and senior global medal.

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Aged 10, Jemma Pollard started her athletics journey at her school carnival. Her passion grew with early success. “I loved the feeling of sprinting as fast as I could and finding my rhythm.” This led to her training after school with a local coach. In the early years she competed in the 200m, 400m, 800m and long jump but was a little disadvantaged as she was smaller than her rivals.

A popular international competition in the Hunter Region of NSW was the International Children’s Games and she was fortunate to travel to Jerusalem (Israel) in 2018 and Ufa (Russia) in 2019 to compete at these Games.

From the age of 11, one of Jemma’s biggest challengers was suffering from asthma. She struggled to finish races. A breathing therapist, Dean O’Rourke, taught her to breathe through her nose, use her diaphragm and slow down her BPM. It made an enormous difference in her career.

Jemma had made gradual progress in her early teens and made her first national championships final in 2021 in the under-17 400m. She had a PB of 56.91. During 2022, either side of her 17th birthday, was a breakthrough year for Jemma. Two silvers in the U18 age at the Australian championships during the year, a win at the Oceania Championships and reduced her PB to 54.52 mid-year.

Her 2023 campaign was more solid progress. The year before she would chase world junior selection, she placed 2nd in the U20 event at nationals. By the clock she was now down to 54.07 seconds.

In 2024 she was a regular on the National Track Classic circuit and at the Australian Championships skipped the under-20 age group, which was the world juniors trial. To compete in the Australian open championships where she placed 7 th and was selected for her Australian team debut – the 2024 World Relays Championships in the Bahamas. A reserve for the 4x400m Jemma didn’t get a start and the team just missed qualification for the Olympics. After Nationals she was named in the individual 400m and relay for the World U20 Championships in Peru, where she would go on to progress to the 400m semi-final and win silver in the women’s 4x400m relay.

In March Jemma had placed 3rd in the Stawell Gift 120m final. During summer she had brought he PBs down to 23.94 (200m) and 52.97 (400m).

Now in the senior ranks in 2025, early in the year Jemma had cut her PB to 52.31, won the Sydney Track Classic 400m and been selected to two Australian senior teams. At the World Indoors she anchored the national team to a bronze medal – her first senior global medal. In May she headed to her second World Relays, where she ran on the women’s 4x400m relay which qualified for the Tokyo world championships. Running two low 52 second splits, Jemma helped the team in the final to a quick time of 3:27.31 – the fastest Australian time for nine years and second fastest for 25 years.

Memorable sporting achievements: Silver in the World U20 Championships (4×400), bronze at the World Indoor Championships (4×400), winning my first track classic, and representing Australia at World Relays…Hero: Ella Nelson and Anneliese Rubie after attending their Shooting Stars Camp in 2018 and 2019…Most influential person in your career: Coach Tim Escebach. He has shaped me into the athlete I am today; Breathing therapist, Dean O’Rourke (Atune Health Centre). I suffered from exercise-induced asthma badly when I was 11 years old. I couldn’t finish 400m and 800m races without having an asthma attack and was really struggling in training. I was on medication, which was helping day to day, but not when it came to sport. Dean retrained my breathing, taught me to breathe through my nose, use my diaphragm and slow down my BPM. This breathing technique made the sport so much easier. I could finally run without feeling wheezy or short of breath, and most importantly finish a race without having an asthma attack. Not only that, I felt calmer, my sleep improved, and I could recover faster between training reps and on rest days… Biggest challenge faced: Asthma…Advice to your young self: Enjoy the process, set huge goals, stay focused and all your dreams will come true…Hobbies: Outside of running, I live very close to the beach and love swimming and surfing in the ocean. I also love being creative, especially painting and drawing…Sporting ambition: compete at the Olympics…Occupation: work casually at a custom made jewellery store – Simon Curwood Jewellers. Simon was also a 400m sprinter in his day and trained with Sally Pearson. He has been very supportive of my athletics journey and sponsored and supported my costs for Nationals and World U20 Juniors Championships in Lima Peru in 2024

@ 9 Sept 2025 david.tarbotton@athletics.org.au