What happened to Michelle Jenneke, the viral Australian athletics sensation?

Michelle Jenneke might not be a household name at the moment, but for a little while there she was spoken about as one of the most exciting prospects in the athletics world – thanks in large part to her natural charisma and captivating warm-up routine, on top of her competitive hurdles races.

In fact, when it came to the Rio 2016 Summer Olympics, Jenneke was the face of the event alongside Usain Bolt. Not only did she prominently on billboards around Rio with Bolt, but she was also the star of a global Coca-Cola commercial promoting the games. So where is Jenneke now? Let’s take a look back at her journey so far.

Born on 23 June, 1993, in Kenthurst, New South Wales, Australia, Jenneke enjoyed a very active Aussie childhood, playing aussies rules football, soccer, handball at school and climbing trees in her spare time. She was around nine years old when she began to take her athletic pursuits to the next level, joining her first athletics club, Ryde Little Athletics. 

When she was 10, she joined the Cherrybrook Little Athletics Club on the outskirts of Sydney, and it was here that she would start implementing a serious training and competing schedule to her life.

It paid dividends and Jenneke would find herself as one of Australia’s best youth athletics prospects in the coming years. In 2010, she placed second in the women's 100m hurdles at the Youth Olympic Games in Singapore. Just two years later in 2012, she was a finalist at the World Junior Championships in Barcelona.

This is where things really blew up for Jenneke, as a video of her warming up before a race at the event in Barcelona went viral. Her unique, energetic warm-up dance, characterized by her joyful bouncing and infectious smile, quickly made her an internet sensation, with videos featuring her routine racking up millions of views on YouTube.

Jenneke told 'Wide World of Sports' in Australia in 2023 that she had actually started doing her signature pre-race dance at the Australian All Schools Championships of 2009 after her coach told her to do something to "pep yourself up". She recorded a personal best that race and has been doing it ever since.

'It's honestly so important. It's something I've been doing before races since 2009, so it's something I've been doing for a long time,' she said. 'I even do it at training. It's just something that relaxes me and gets me into the feel of it. I feel like I always race my best and perform my best when I'm relaxed and enjoying myself.’

With newfound fame, Jenneke became a household name in Australia and beyond. Her image was used in numerous endorsements, and she was a sought-after guest for talk shows, with many highlighting that her radiant energy and bubbly nature was at odds with the often serious nature of hurdles.

She told the 'Beyond the Game' sports education program in 2017 that her warm-up routine has led to many misconceptions about how seriously she takes the sport. “When I’m out there, I’m smiling and happy and people think it’s because I just don’t care – about the sport or how I’m running, but it couldn’t be further from the truth. I’m working hard with my training, but just because I’m working hard doesn’t mean I can’t also have fun.’

In April 2016, she won the Australian National Championship 100m hurdles final with a time of 12.93, qualifying her for the Rio Olympics later that year – Jenneke would walk into the event as one of the biggest names of the entire tournament, and be prominently featured as a face of the event.

Unfortunately, just two weeks before the global competition she suffered an injury on her right leg in training, and despite her team’s best efforts, Jenneke would carry the injury into the heats. She would go on to record a time of 13.26 and finish sixth in the heats, eliminating her from the tournament. 

It was an underwhelming result for the face of the games, and Jenneke would feel the backlash immediately. As well as media in Australia turning on the young athlete, Australian Athletics head coach Craig Hilliard also criticised the performance, calling it ‘half baked’.

After the disappointment of the Rio Olympics, Jenneke took a bit of time out from athletics to focus on her university studies, where she studied and completed a degree in mechatronics – a combination of mechanical and electric engineering, and completed rehab for her leg injury. 

Since 2017, Jenneke has been back competing in 100 m hurdles, and though she has had mixed results on the track as she continues to battle and receive rehab for recurring injuries – including almost two years of ongoing physiotherapy – she seems to be on a winning path once again.

In 2022, Jenneke recorded her personal best time for the 100m hurdles of 12.66 at the 2022 World Athletics Championships in Oregon. That same year, at the Commonwealth Games in Birmingham, Jenneke missed out on a bronze medal by 0.09 seconds, ultimately coming fifth in what she described to Fox Sports as “the fastest race there has ever been at the Commonwealth Games.”

It seems like things might be looking up for Jenneke as she has set her sights on qualifying for the 2024 Paris Olympics, after disappointingly missing out on the Tokyo edition due to a tendon injury.

“I just want to get myself in the standard for the Olympics in the next couple of weeks’ she told the Aus Olympic Team YouTube Channel in August 2023. "A similar standard to what it was at Worlds [World Championships] this year. Once I get that, I’m hoping I can go even faster."

We'll have to see how things unfold in the coming months, but if she can stay injury free and enjoy an uninterrupted training regiment, there's every chance Jenneke can deliver what everyone had hoped she would eight years ago.