Liam Adcock

BIOGRAPHY

After playing sport all his life an injury at aged 16 would require a rethink and planning by Liam Adcock as to in what sport he could pursue his Olympic dream.

“My stepbrother and I specifically chose triple jump to focus on.” They build a sandpit in their backyard with a 20m run up and registered with Athletics Queensland in year 12 at school. 12-year on his journey in the sport led him to the Paris Olympics as a long jumper.

After an injury ridden few years from 2019 to 2022, Liam made a breakthrough during the 2023 domestic season, leading him to selection at his first global meet, the world championships, where unfortunately be would miss the final by just 1cm. Disappointingly in 2024 injury would ruin his Olympic debut in Paris. He decided to self-coach, leading to a stunning in 2025 campaign. Prior to 2025 his PB was a best of 8.15m, but by mid-year he had registered four competitions over 8.20m, won a Diamond League, won a bronze medal at the world indoor championships, defeated the current Olympic and world champion and moved up to equal #4 Australian all-time.

He regards self-coaching now as the key to his progress: “to have some more ownership of my own program and that’s kind of allowed me to do what I think is best and have a lot of belief in my own training programs and I think that the results that come from that.”

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Liam Adcock did Little Athletes from age seven for a few years before quitting to play other sports including rugby union, soccer and tennis. He had an Olympic dream after watching the Athens 2004 Games as an 8-year-old. “Track and field was the most appealing but I was pretty sure I didn’t have the raw talent,” as he wasn’t even the best in his age group at Little Athletics.  So, he choose to focus his efforts on a more technical sport being Tennis from around 13/14. After playing for around two years, he was experiencing elbow pain. It turned out he had an undiagnosed fracture in his humerus with floating bone in his elbow joint as well a cyst that had grown around the fracture. On his 16th birthday he had surgery and was told he would not get normal use of his elbow back as there was missing cartilage.

“I still hadn’t given up my Olympic dream, I just had to find a new sport.” He and his stepbrother analysed triple jump was an opportunity and build a sand pit in their backyard to train. They did not know how the sport worked “at this point I had no idea QLD Athletics or AA existed”. He eventually joined Athletics Queensland and started competing. Still just training in their back yard he did get some tips from a coach watching him compete, however the advice included to focus on the long jump. His first Nationals was the juniors in March 2013 where he placed 8th in the long jump and 5th in the triple jump and then started training with in Gary Patterson in Deception Bay. At the end of the year he had jumped a windy 7.07m, but didn’t go to the Australian All Schools as he sprained his ankle at schoolies.

By 2015 he was hooked on athletics and moved to Brisbane for university and training with some other good athletes

including Brandon Herrigan and Shemaiah James. He went to his first Nationals in 2016 but didn’t make the final. After a great 2016 winter season, in 2017 he improved dramatically, winning the QLD title with a jump of 7.90m and placing second at Nationals. He competed in the long jump qualifying rounds at the World University Games.

The following year he was second at the 2018 Nationals/Commonwealth Games trials, but not selected for the Games. “After that I was really burnt by the sport and took about six months away and then joined a different squad.”

He had a lot of injuries in 2019 including ankle surgery on his take-off leg which took a long time to recover from. He didn’t compete at nationals in 2019, 2020 (COVID) or 2021 due to various injuries. He resumed competition in 2022 and while in Europe got within 3cm of his PB and was enjoying his sport again. “It motivated me to keep going and I decided I’d give it one last crack to try and make the Olympics with the first step being qualifying for the 2023 world championships.

His 2023 season was terrific. His first 8 metre jump came in Auckland in terrible conditions, with an 8.05m jump and windy 8.18m leap with a just illegal 2.3m/s wind. 8.03m at the Brisbane Track Classic then won an enthralling National competition with 8.06m. At the Australian Uni Games in April extended his PB to 8.15m. In Europe he has hit jumps of 8.04m and 8.05m ahead of being selected for the Budapest World Championships.

Back on the National team in Budapest he missed qualifying for the final by 1cm leaping 7.99m – a distance that would have placed seventh in the final. There was a big change in his life in 2023 with the passing of coach Gary Bourne. He moved coaches to Sydney-based Andrew Murphy.

He compiled a strong series of performances in 2024, starting with second at Nationals (8.03m) and a win at the Oceania Championships (8.05m).

Selected for his Olympic debut in Paris in the long jump, he jumped just 7.56m at the Games, hampered by injury. He had slipped on the board in the meet prior to the Games and he’d been struggling with tendinopathy in the hamstring of his take-off leg and he reinjured it. It just killed his power output.

After a stint under coach Andrew Murphy in Sydney, he decided to self-coach, retaining Andrew “in a mentoring position for me, which has been really helpful.

“It’s just been great to be able to have some more ownership of my own program and that’s kind of allowed me to do what I think is best and have a lot of belief in my own training programs and I think that the results that come from that.”

In February 2025 Liam won the inaugural Australian Short Track long jump title with a solid opener of 7.97m. He then compiled a spectacular series of performances 8.21w (2.5) in Auckland then a massive PB of 8.33m in Perth in March. During the competition he raised his best on three occasions.

Next up he travelled to Nanjing in China for the world indoor championships where he was involved in a thrilling competition, with just 2cm covered the medallists. Liam led early with 8.28m, matched that in round two, but Italy’s Mattia Furlani (8.30m) and Jamacia’s Wayne Pinnock (8.29m) would just pass Liam. Liam closed with an incredible competition with his last four jumps being 8.17m, foul, 8.11m and 8.18m. Liam settled for the bronze medal.

In April he won his second national title and was 2nd in his Diamond League debut in China (8.15m). He then won in Tokyo (8.20m) and then in June he won the Rome Diamond League with a PB of 8.34m on his last jump. He revenged the lost at the world indoors with Italy’s Mattia Furlani second, but 3rd was the worlds very best, Greece’s Miltiádis Tentóglou – a double Olympic champion and the current world champion.

Post his Rome win, Liam outlined his clear goals for the remainder of 2025 – they included gold at the world championships and breaking the Australian record.

Trademark Backflip: Liam is renowned for his backflips after a PB. “I have a lot of experience with gymnastics, trampolining and acrobatics. I have pretty good aerial awareness and proprioception – I know what my body is doing and I know what I’m looking for when I’m jumping,” he said. “The flip stuff is something that I have done for the last few years, every time I get a PB. It just happened to be in that competition that I did a few of them in a row!”

Liam Adcock the coach: Started coaching in 2020 for flexibility around his busy training schedule and as he was unable to work fulltime. Another reason was with the passing of his coach, Gary Bourne, Liam was “trying to fill some of the (coaching) gaps left in Gary’s passing, has been a motivator for me.” There has been an unexpected outcome: “Coaching has helped my own journey as an athlete as it’s allowed me to shape my approaches to training and competition more effectively. I’ve viewed how athletes I’m assisting take on feedback, whether it be constructive or positive, and it has allowed me to better shape my own responses that have led to better training and competition outcomes.”

Coach: Self-coached since living back QLD he Andrew Murphy and Vas Krishnan have assisted with gym and track programming and planning…Paris Olympic injury: Slipped on the board at the meeting prior to Paris Olympics in La chaux de Fonds. He’d been struggling with tendinopathy in the hamstring of his take-off leg and it reinjured it and also jammed up his back and hip capsule. It just killed his power output on his left leg making it hard to run and jump. Also they banned the shoes he was using a week before the Olympics, so he was scrambling to find a shoe to use and get it delivered to the village…Biggest challenge you’ve faced: I guess I’m lucky to say that the biggest challenge I’ve had has been athletics related. Basically it was that period of consistent injury from 2019-2022 where I spent a lot of time questioning why I was sacrificing so much of my time to train for a sport I couldn’t compete in…Interesting fact: Did a lot of acrobatics when I was younger but stopped when I knocked my two front teeth out while doing flips on the trampoline in the backyard at home…Memorable sporting achievement: This may be recently bias but I think it was winning my first national title this year after coming second two years in a row in 2017 and 2018 as well as being so long away from competitions…Hero: I remember constantly watching videos of Mitchell Watt jumping at world championships and diamond leagues and of course his second place finish at the Olympics in London…Advice to your young self: Study something related to health or sport and don’t drink for the first time at Schoolies…Hobbies: Surfing and cycling…Sorting ambition: Until this year it was to make an Olympic team but now it’s an Olympic medal…Occupation: Formerly a Tax consultant but quit to focus on athletics so now coaching athletics…Education: Bachelor degree in Commerce and Economics (2019)

@ 30 June 2025 david.tarbotton@athletics.org.au