Ella's dream has become reality

Above: Ella Connolly who will become an Olympian next month. Picture: Athletics Australia - Casey Sims

Ella Connolly says she is “focussing on now” and not her Olympic Games debut in just over two weeks.

The 24-year-old, who lived, went to school and started athletics in Moreton Bay, will run the 100m and 4x100m relay in Paris next month.

But August 2, when she settles on the starting blocks for the 100m heats, will be the culmination of 14 years hard work which began at Deception Bay Little Athletics.

From those days at Zammit Oval she has become “the best all-round sprinter Australia has had in two decades”, says her Australian Olympic Committee profile.

Yet Connolly, like her relay team-mates and the entire Australian athletics team, have had a long wait for her Games ticket.

The former Burpengary resident was in the quartet which qualified for Paris on May 4 at the World Athletics Relay Championships in the Bahamas.

However, everyone had to wait until July 8 for the Australian Olympic Committee to ratify and announce its Olympic athletics selections.

Undeterred, Connolly said from her pre-Olympics base in Italy, she is not letting “outside noise in”, just concentrating on “now, training and the next meetings”.

“It’s my first Olympics and will be a new experience for me,” said the 100m, 200m and 400m runner, now coached by Andrew Murphy in Sydney.

“This has been a dream for a long as I can remember.

“Being selected is a reflection on so many people who have helped me – family, friends, coaches, people in Sydney. I am very grateful to them all for everything they have done for me.”

That includes Gary Patterson at Deception Bay Little As. “I have him to thank for over 10 years of coaching,” Connolly said, “those development years are so crucial.

“But right now I’m just taking things as they come, focusing on now, training and the next meets.

"Not letting noise from outside in. There’s a lot of races to get through before the Olympics.”

Connolly is using Diamond League meetings to prepare, with her next outing at London Stadium, which hosted the 2012 Olympic Games, on Saturday.

She heads to the UK in fine form having matched her season’s best of 11.37 seconds for the 100m when finishing third in Madrid last month.

The ex-student at St Eugene College, Burpengary and St Columban’s College, Caboolture, clocked her first 11.37 this year when second at the National titles in April.

She was only a fraction slower in early June when winning gold at the Oceania Championships in Fiji with 11.41 seconds, ahead of her relay team-mate Ebony Lane.

See how Australia qualified for the Paris Olympic Games

It came after Connolly, Lane, Ella Masters and Torrie Lewis broke the long-standing Australian 4x100m relay record with 42.83 seconds in the Bahamas.

They matched Spain, but the photo finish gave Australia second and qualified for Paris - ending a 24-year Olympic drought for our women’s sprint relay teams.

“I think we put a lot of trust in each other, so we said, you know what, let’s just relax. Let’s just go do this and qualify for the Olympics together,” said Connolly, who is studying teaching.

She takes an impressive resume to the greatest sporting show on earth, starting with the National Primary School 100m title in 2010.

Connolly also won silver with Australia’s 4x400m relay team at the 2018 World Under 20 Championships in Finland and bronze in the 2022 Commonwealth Games 4x100m relays.