Michelle Jenneke

Michelle Jenneke

275px Jenneke at the 2012 World Junior Championships
Personal information
Full name	Michelle Jenneke
Nickname(s)	Shelly
Nationality	Australian
Born	(1993-06-23) 23 June 1993 Kenthurst, New South Wales
Height	5 ft 7.75 in (1.72 m)
Sport
Country	Australia
Sport	Athletics
Event(s)	100 metres hurdles Sprint medley relay
Club	Sydney University Athletics Club
Team	Athletics Australia
Achievements and titles
World finals	2012 World Junior Championships: 100 metres hurdles – 5th place
National finals	2011 Australian Championships: 100 metres hurdles – 3rd place
Olympic finals	2010 Summer Youth Olympics: 100 metres hurdles – Silver Medley relay – 4th place
Personal best(s)	100 m hurdles 12.82 (Brisbane 2015)
Medal record Women's Hurdling Representing Australia Summer Universiade 2015 Gwangju 100 m hurdles Youth Olympic Games 2010 Singapore 100 m hurdles Oceania Youth Championships 2010 Sydney 100 m hurdles 2010 Sydney 4×100 m relay 2010 Sydney 100 m

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. She attended The Hills Grammar School. In one interview, she described her hobbies as Australian rules football, soccer, quad biking, climbing trees and handball.

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

Athletics

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

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. She competed in the 2011 Pirtek Athletic Allstars event. 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. Her medal was the first Australia won at the Games in athletics.

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

On 15 July 2012, Jenneke finished fifth in the 2012 IAAF World Junior Championships 100 m hurdles. 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.

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

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. Michelle Jenneke is the 2nd fastest 100 metre hurdle women in Australian history.

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

Jenneke finished 2nd at nationals to qualify for the 2015 World Championships in Beijing (28/05/15) Jenneke got through the heats to make the semi-finals and in her semi she finished 6th, however her reaction time in that semi-final was the quickest of all competitors over the three semi-finals.

Career highlights

• 1st place (100m hurdles) – 2010 Australian Junior Championships
• 1st place (4 × 100 m relay) – 2010 Australian Junior Championships (Australian record)
• 2nd place (100m hurdles) – 2010 Summer Youth Olympics, Singapore
• 4th place ("Swedish medley" relay) – 2010 Summer Youth Olympics, Singapore
• 3rd place (100m hurdles) – 2011 Australian Championships
• 5th place (100m hurdles) – 2012 World Junior Championships in Athletics, Barcelona, Spain
• 5th place (100m hurdles) – 2014 Commonwealth Games, Glasgow, Scotland 13.36
• 2nd place (100m hurdles) – 2015 Australian Championships 12.82
• 3rd place (100m hurdles) - 2015 World University Games Gwangju 2015 12.94
• Semi Finals - 6th place (100m hurdles) - 2015 World Championships Beijing 13.01 (fastest reaction time 0.122 in all semi-finals)

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. One clip received 19 million views by the following week and was featured on the American late night talk show, The Tonight Show.

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. The Forever Alone video had received over ten million views on YouTube by 2014.

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

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

In early 2014 Jenneke was a star in the Top Gear Sydney Festival, racing a Nissan GT-R

Athletic achievements

Year	Competition	Venue	Position	Event	Notes
Representing Australia
2010	Oceania Youth Championships	Sydney	3rd	100 m	12.15 s (+0.5 m/s)
	Oceania Youth Championships	Sydney	1st	100 m hurdles	14.12 s (-1.4 m/s)
	Oceania Youth Championships	Sydney	1st	4 × 100 m relay	45.75 s
2015	World Championships	Beijing, China	18th (sf)	100 m hurdles	13.01
2016	World Indoor Championships	Portland, United States	10th (h)	60 m hurdles	8.10

External links

• Official website
• Michelle Jenneke Interview
• Australian Youth Olympic Team profile
• Michelle Jenneke athletics profile
• Michelle Jenneke profile at IAAF