Michelle Jenneke

Michelle Jenneke

Michelle Jenneke after finishing 100-metre hurdles in Barcelona, 2012
Personal information
Full name Michelle Jenneke
Nickname(s) Shelly
Nationality Australian
Born 23 June 1993
Kenthurst, New South Wales
Height 5 ft 7.75 in (1.72 m)
Sport
Country Australia Australia
Sport Athletics
Event(s) 100 metres hurdles
Sprint medley relay
Club Sydney University Athletics Club
Team Athletics Australia
Achievements and titles
World finals
National finals
Olympic finals
Personal best(s) 100 m hurdles 12.82 (Brisbane 2015)

Michelle "Shelly" Jenneke (/məˈʃɛl ˈdʒɛnəkə/; born 23 June 1993) is an Australian hurdler and model, who won a silver medal for the 100 m hurdles at the 2010 Summer Youth Olympics. She received worldwide media attention in 2012 for her pre-race warm-up, which involved dancing.

Background

Jenneke was born in Kenthurst, New South Wales, Australia.[1] She attended The Hills Grammar School. In one interview, she described her hobbies as AFL, football and handball.[2]

She is studying mechatronics at Sydney University, a combination of mechanical and electrical engineering.[3]

Athletics

Jenneke has trained with coach Mick Zisti as a hurdler from the age of 10 at the Cherrybrook Athletics Club.[1][4] She competed at the Canberra hosted 2008 Pacific School Games in the 90 and 200 metres hurdles.[4][5]

In March 2010, Jenneke finished 1st in the 100 m hurdles and broke the Australian record in the women's sprint medley relay at the 2010 Australian Junior Championships.[6] She competed in the 2011 Pirtek Athletic Allstars event.[7] In July 2010, Jenneke was in Australia's team at the 2010 Singapore Youth Olympic Games, running the 100 m hurdles and the women's medley relay. In the hurdles, she came second with a time of 13.46 and setting a personal best after winning her heat, and the medley relay team came fourth.[8][9][10][11][12][13] Her medal was the first Australia won at the Games in athletics.[14]

In 2011, she competed at the New Zealand hosted Cooks Classic.[15] At the 2011 Australian Junior Championships, she had a first place hurdles finish in the under-20 group.[15] In April 2011 she competed at the 89th Australian Athletics Championships and finished third in the 100 m hurdles behind world champion Sally Pearson.[16]

On 15 July 2012, Jenneke finished fifth in the 2012 IAAF World Junior Championships 100 m hurdles.[17] After the competition, a video of her 100 m hurdles taken during the heats race, which was subsequently posted on a video sharing site, raised her profile around the world.[18][19]

Jenneke was selected as a member of Australia's 2014 Commonwealth Games team.[20]

In those 2014 Commonwealth Games Jenneke came 5th in the final with a time of 13.36, Jenneke was the youngest competitor in the final.

Jenneke's personal best is 12.82 set at the Australian Athletics Championships in Brisbane on 29 March 2015 [21]

Career highlights

Media coverage

In July 2012 videos of Jenneke dancing during her pre-race warmup before the 100 m hurdles race at the 2012 World Junior Championships in Athletics in Barcelona went viral on YouTube.[23] One clip received 19 million views by the following week and was featured on the American late night talk show, The Tonight Show.[24]

Jenneke acted in a short comedic video produced by the website The Chive titled Forever Alone Meets Michelle Jenneke, playing herself in a piece referencing her viral race video.[25] The Forever Alone video had received over ten million views on YouTube by 2014.[26]

In January 2013 Jenneke was ranked tenth on AskMen.com's 99 Most Desirable Women 2013.[27] She was one of the athletes featured in the 2013 Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue.[28][29]

In 2014 Jenneke was featured in a video-heavy mobile computing app on stretching techniques called Stretch with Michelle Jenneke.[30][31]

In early 2014 Jenneke was a star in the Top Gear Sydney Festival, racing a Nissan GTR [32]

Athletic achievements

Year Competition Venue Position Event Notes
Representing  Australia
2010 Oceania Youth Championships Sydney 3rd 100 m 12.15 s (wind: +0.5 m/s)
Oceania Youth Championships Sydney 1st 100 m hurdles 14.12 s (wind: -1.4 m/s)
Oceania Youth Championships Sydney 1st 4x100 m relay 45.75 s

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 Pranesh Nageshwar (23 August 2010), "Hills' Michelle Jennecke delighted at silver medal win", Hills Shire Times
  2. ↑ Nick Smart (20 July 2012), "Aussie Michelle Jenneke the world's favourite new hurdler", The Daily Telegraph
  3. ↑ News Corp Australia Network (12 February 2013). "Aussie hurdler Michelle Jenneke among athletes featured in Sports Illustrated". Herald Sun.
  4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 Nageshwar, Pranesh (25 November 2008). "Three racing for glory". Hills Shire Times. Retrieved 26 July 2012.
  5. ↑ Nageshwar, Pranesh. "Cherrybrook athletes shine". Hills Shire Times. Retrieved 27 July 2012.
  6. ↑ "Michelle Jenneke Youth Olympics profile". 2010 Youth Olympics. July 2010. Retrieved 26 July 2012.
  7. ↑ Nageshwar, Pransh (7 September 2010). "Sprinter aims for Games". Hills Shire Times (Sydney, Australia). p. 110. Retrieved 28 July 2012.
  8. ↑ "Shelly's super silver". Athletics Australia. 21 August 2010. Retrieved 20 July 2012.
  9. ↑ "Dominican athletes win medals in Singapore". Dominican Today. Retrieved 26 July 2012.
  10. ↑ "Aussie youths continue medal run". ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation). 22 August 2010. Retrieved 27 July 2012.
  11. ↑ "Skeen strikes – Lands historic 100m gold at Youth Olympics". Jamaica Observer. 22 August 2010. Retrieved 27 July 2012.
  12. ↑ "www.smh.com.au – Parnov named in Youth Olympic team". The Sydney Morning Herald. 31 March 2010. Retrieved 27 July 2012.
  13. ↑ Casey, Michael (21 August 2010). "IOC: Many countries interested in youth games". USA Today. Retrieved 27 July 2012.
  14. ↑ "Jenneke wrests silver medal". Hills Shire Times (Sydney, Australia). 24 August 2010. p. 82. Retrieved 27 July 2012.
  15. ↑ 15.0 15.1 Alan Adamson (15 March 2011). "Langton-Burnell one to watch at school's champs". Stuff.co.nz. Retrieved 27 July 2012.
  16. ↑ "Full Results, 89th Australian Athletics Championships 15/04/2011 to 17/04/2011], Melbourne".
  17. ↑ "IAAF 2012 World Championship Results" (PDF). IAAF.
  18. ↑ Australian Runner Has the World's Sexiest Pre-Race Routine [VIDEO] – Yahoo! News
  19. ↑ Jauregui, Andres (19 July 2012). "WATCH: Athlete's Sexy Warm Up". Huffington Post.
  20. ↑ Pearson, Matt (13 June 2014). "10 per cent of Australia’s Commmonwealth Games Squad Have Sydney Uni Connections". The Daily Telegraph (Sydney).
  21. ↑ <http://www.iaaf.org/athletes/australia/michelle-jenneke-251727>
  22. ↑ <http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/commonwealth-games/2014/results/sports/athletics/womens-100m-hurdles>
  23. ↑ Roberts, Christine (20 July 2012). "Hurdler's hot warmup dance wins her heat". Daily News (New York).
  24. ↑ Kelly, Heath (26 July 2012). "Aussie hurdler Michelle Jenneke becomes worldwide sensation with pre-race dance routine". Herald Sun.
  25. ↑ Agomuoh, Fionna (14 December 2012). "Michelle Jenneke stars in new video doing sexy warm up dance". International Business Times. Retrieved 1 February 2014.
  26. ↑ "Forever Alone meets Michelle Jenneke". YouTube. 13 December 2012. Retrieved 1 February 2014.
  27. ↑ "AskMen.com Top 99 Women of 2013 No. 10 Michelle Jenneke". San Francisco, California: Askmen.com. January 2013. Retrieved 2 February 2013.
  28. ↑ Beattie, John (12 February 2013). "Michelle Jenneke Appears in 2013 Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue". NESN. Retrieved 13 February 2013.
  29. ↑ Dicker, Ron (13 February 2013). "Michelle Jenneke Sports Illustrated video: Australian hurdler jumps into swimsuit modeling". Huffington Post.
  30. ↑ O'Donnell, Jake (10 June 2014). "French Rubgy Fan Flashes Us, Michelle Jenneke’s Stretching App, Someone Hit 9 RBI, and Paul George Dissing LeBron". Sports Grid.
  31. ↑ "Stretch". Retrieved 6 July 2014.
  32. ↑ http://uproxx.com/sports/2014/09/michelle-jenneke-dancing-again/

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Michelle Jenneke.