Molly Palmer

Happy birthday to Great Britain’s long jumper Molly Palmer, who jumped a personal best of 6.72m in the final of the European Championships four days ago.

That is about as current as this sport gets. Molly went to Birmingham, made a senior continental final, and then in it jumped further than she has ever jumped in her life, 6.72m with a legal wind. And it caps a year in which she has also been a Commonwealth Games finalist in Glasgow and competed at the World Indoor Championships in Toruń. Three championships of that size in a single calendar year, at 22, is a workload most athletes never take on.

Here is the part people miss about her. Molly did not grow up a jumper. She grew up a gymnast, and stayed one until she was twelve, in a household where both of her parents competed internationally in the sport. Everything the long jump demands — air awareness, an unflinching approach at full speed, the ability to know precisely where your body is while it is moving through space — she learned first in a gym. Watch her hit the board and you can still see where it came from.

She trains at Loughborough under Lukasz Zawila, competes for Charnwood AC and is studying Human Biology alongside all of it. A personal best in a European final at 22, in an event where jumpers routinely peak in their late twenties, is the kind of season a whole decade gets built on.

Happy birthday, Molly, and many happy returns of the day! Here’s to a year of long runways and following winds. Ey up, mi duck — hip hip hooray! 🎂🎁🎉🫶🫶🇬🇧