Earlier this year, Jemima Montag finished first at the Chinese Race Walking Grand Prix in Taicang in the 20km Race Walk, and she was the Australian champion at the 2025 Australian 20km Race Walking Championships. Jemima made her Olympic debut at Tokyo 2020 and, at Paris 2024, she represented Team Australia again, coming away with Bronze in the Women’s 20km Race Walk and in the first-ever Mixed Marathon Walk Relay with Rhydian Cowley, with Jemima being the sixth Australian woman, and first in 52 years, to win two medals in athletics at one Olympic Games. In 2023, Jemima won Silver in the Women’s 20km Race Walk at the World Athletics Championships in Budapest, and she has competed at two Commonwealth Games for Team Australia, making her Australian senior debut at the Gold Coast in 2018, winning Gold in the 20km Race Walk, and at Birmingham 2022, she was the Commonwealth champion in the Women’s 10,000m Race Walk. Currently, Jemima is recovering from a hamstring injury, and will be competing at the 2025 Tokyo World Track and Field Championships in September. Alongside her athletics career, Jemima is studying for a medical degree, and she is the founder of Girls Play On – with her mission to break down barriers for girls participating in sport. Answering our questions, we found out from Jemima about her Gold-winning races this year at the Chinese Race Walking Grand Prix and the Australian 20km Race Walking Championships, representing Team Australia for the Olympic Games in Tokyo and Paris and becoming the Commonwealth champion in the 10,000m event in Birmingham and 20km event at the Gold Coast.
Most recently, you competed at the Chinese Race Walking Grand Prix in Taicang in the 20km Race Walk, can you tell us about this?
This race was my one international opportunity for the season before our World Track and Field Championships in September. Balancing sport with my medical degree means that I have to be very strategic about when I travel overseas to compete, and this meant that I really wanted to make the most of the racing opportunity.
The race itself was full of surprises. We were expecting cold conditions and a fast pace, and we were met with the opposite – an unseasonably warm weekend and a slower start. After the halfway mark, my coach encouraged me to ramp up the pace to see who my true competitors would be that day, and with 3 kilometres left I sped up a little more.
The greatest challenge over the final laps was balancing my desire to win the race whilst respecting the racewalking judges’ feedback. I managed to get to the finish line in first place, with an exciting over-sized cheque and a bouquet of flowers as a reward.
How was it winning Gold at this year’s Australian 20km Race Walking Championships and what is it like competing nationally opposed to at international competitions?
Our national title in February is a very important race because it is the selection trial for the World Track and Field Championships team. I knew that I needed to come first or second and walk faster than the automatic qualifying standard to be guaranteed a spot on the team early. The race started at 8am with perfect conditions. It was cool, with not a breath of wind. The course took us on a 1 kilometre loop around the perimeter of some cricket ovals, which was different to the straight roads we are used to racing on, but proved to be even faster with no point turns.
I walked in a pack for the first 7 kilometres before deciding to make my first move. Some of the younger up-and-coming athletes tried to come with me which worried me at first, but I had to maintain a self-referential focus and remind myself of the great training I’d done in the month prior.
I relied on my coach, partner, and parents for the remainder of the race – they gave me feedback about the distance between me and my competitors, and helped me win the national title. I felt relieved to have locked in my nomination for the World Championships team!
You represented Team Australia at your second Olympic Games last summer in Paris, how did you find the experience racing in Paris and how was it staying in the athletes village?
Paris was truly a dream come true! My first Olympic Games were heavily impacted by the pandemic. No family and friends were permitted to travel to Tokyo to be on the sidelines, and it just didn’t have the same Olympic atmosphere. This made me even more excited to have Team Jem on the sidelines in Paris, and I really wanted to produce a performance that would make them excited and proud.
On the morning of my competition, there was a huge thunderstorm and the sky looked like a disco of colours. This led to a 30-minute race start delay, and threw off some of our nutrition and warm-up planning. My team reminded me to be flexible and calm. Soon enough, I was ushered out to the start line shoulder to shoulder with 48 of the fastest women racewalkers in the world. The Eiffel Tower was within arm’s reach. The sounds of 30,000 fans on the sidelines was totally overwhelming. Like a pack of warriors we powered around the 1 kilometer loop over and over again, until I found myself in 5th position with 5 kilometres to go. Physically I felt fine, but mentally I had started to give up on my medal aspirations. Everything felt too overwhelming. But then a familiar voice cut through the noise of the crowd – it was my younger sister – “THIS IS YOUR RACE!” she affirmed. It’s amazing how sometimes when we don’t have the energy, we can lean on that of our support team to achieve great things. This reminder spurred me on to overtake two athletes and cross the finish line in the Bronze medal position.
When I was younger, I always pictured the athletes village like Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs’ houses. Cute little huts. It’s nothing like this. An Olympic village is like an entire suburb filled with high-rise buildings and fun activations. Larger countries like Australia have their own tower, whilst smaller countries might share one.
As you entered the Australian tower, you were greeted with a life-sized kangaroo and emu sculpture before reaching the inaugural Yarning Circle for team meeting and reflection. Our nutrition station was filled with foods the athletes would recognise from home – Weet-Bix, Vegemite, Milo, tuna tins, bananas – everything an Aussie athlete would be used to fuelling their competitions with. Perhaps the coolest part is walking around and seeing your sporting idols everywhere. I didn’t want to disrupt Simone Biles as we crossed paths one day, but it was very exciting to breathe the same air for a moment!
How did you prepare for competing in both the Women’s 20km Race Walk and the Mixed Marathon Walk Relay with Rhydian Cowley, and how was it winning Bronze in both events?
Having two events in Paris was a new challenge for me. After my individual 20 kilometre race, I felt fulfilled and very tired. The following day, my coach said he had a carrot to dangle for me. Uh oh. He reminded me that no Australian woman had won two medals in athletics at a single Olympic Games in over 50 years – the last woman being Raylene Boyle. I had an opportunity to be the next woman to do so. I had six days to rejuvenate for the relay. I leant on my values of teamwork and gratitude to find energy to give the relay my very best effort.
My relay partner Rhydian has been a long-term training partner of mine, and I wanted to send him home with an Olympic medal too. Our team Bronze required both of us to display grit and determination on the day, and luckily we each had it in swathes. Reflecting on the Paris Olympics, it was actually the relay medal that I was more proud of – because it required me to overcome the physical and emotional fatigue of my first race to find the energy to line up with a teammate and race my heart out once again.
What did you enjoy most about competing with Rhydian in the first-ever Olympic Mixed Marathon Walk Relay, and how did you feel becoming the sixth Australian woman, and the first in 52 years, to win two medals in athletics at one Olympic Games?
As someone who plays an individual sport, the relay was such a novel opportunity to do some teamwork! I often feel jealous when I see the netball and basketball teams training at the Victorian Institute of Sport because they seem to be having so much fun in the process. I enjoyed being able to push myself hard for someone else, and it’s amazing how much further you can push yourself when your purpose broadens in that way.
It felt very surreal to add my name to the distinguished list of women who have won two medals in athletics at one Olympic Games. I still don’t feel anywhere near as cool as people like Raylene Boyle or Betty Cuthbert, but perhaps one day I’ll look back and believe it.
How did you find the experience making your Olympic debut at the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games during the coronavirus restrictions in 2021?
I was so excited to realise my childhood Olympic dream. In March 2020 when the world began to change and we received news that the Olympic Games would be delayed by one year, I felt really sad. I had dreamed of representing Australia at the Olympics and it had fuelled me through years of challenging training sessions, and I ultimately worried that it would never go ahead. I allowed myself to feel upset for a few weeks, but then decided to see the delay as a bonus year. This reframe was critical to my preparation. An extra year to be faster, stronger, and wiser.
Victoria experienced one of the strictest series of lockdown laws in the world, so I had to be creative with my training. We set up a sauna in my parents’ basement gym to prepare for the Tokyo heart and humidity, and I walked many kilometres on the treadmill indoors.
I still didn’t quite believe that the Games were going ahead until we were physically in Tokyo standing on the start line. Whilst it was bittersweet to realise a childhood dream without the true Olympic atmosphere, I had a great race to come 6th and felt proud of how I’d ridden the waves of uncertainty and fear of the previous 12 months.
At the 2023 World Athletics Championships in Budapest, you won Silver in the Women’s 20km Race Walk, what was it like representing Australia at the World Championships and how was it coming away with a Silver medal?
Budapest was my first “big medal” as a senior athlete, and the first race where I felt confident enough to really go for it in the final kilometres. I had made a promise to my sport psychologist the day before, that when the winning move was made, I wouldn’t shy away from going with it. This can feel scary and vulnerable.
My inner critic was asking many questions at the time – what if I can’t keep this fast pace up? What if I get overtaken by the athletes behind me? Do I really have what it takes to aim for a medal? However, I had done some great work on my mindset in preparation for this race, and could see these thoughts as normal, but not thoughts that I had to listen to.
I chose to redirect my cognition towards helpful things that would get me to the finish line quicker. These included a focus on fast technique, breathing, self-belief, listening to my coach’s instructions, and being guided by my core values rather than by fear. I’m certain that the work I did with my sport psychologist totally changed the way I raced on this day, and helped me take home the Silver.
How was your time racing in Birmingham at the Commonwealth Games in 2022, where you became the Commonwealth champion in the Women’s 10,000m Race Walk?
My coach often says that your first medal is relatively easy to win, but defending your title is the hard job to do. Having won the 2018 Commonwealth Games race, I went into the 2022 Commonwealth Games with a target on my back. “Heavy is the head that wears the crown” the saying goes. This race was a new and fun opportunity for the racewalkers to compete on the athletics track with the rest of our track and field team, rather than being out on the roads as usual. The noise of the crowd was electric, and I felt lots of pressure and motivation to defend my title. My tactics were simple: maintain flawless technique, conserve energy for the first half of the race, and then make a decisive move that no one can hang on to. I decided to have some fun in my final lap by encouraging the crowd to be even louder, using arm gestures that looked like an orchestra conductor. It seemed like a fun idea in the moment but now I look back on the footage and cringe at myself, haha.
For your Australian senior debut, you competed in front of a home crowd at the Gold Coast Commonwealth Games in 2018, winning Gold in the Women’s 20km Race Walk (your third 20km walk), what are some of your favourite memories from this competition?
I was so excited to be at the Commonwealth Games at the age of 20. As a late teenager I had really questioned my desire to continue with sport, and whether I had what it would take to reach the highest level. Just 18 months prior to this Commonwealth Games race I changed coaches and began to make the changes necessary to my physical environment and mindset to transition from being a junior to senior athlete.
My new coach was very experienced with elite racewalkers, having coached Jared Tallent – Australia’s most decorated track and field athlete. My transition was one of the smoothest he had seen, and it felt so exciting to see my improvement across the year.
Standing on the start line at this Commonwealth Games I had the belief that I could win, and I had the privilege of having very little pressure because I was still somewhat unknown in the sporting world. It was a warm day which played to my advantage, and soon I found myself neck and neck with one of the other Australian athletes with only a few laps to go. Soon the judges pulled her off the course and I realised she had been disqualified. Whilst it was absolutely not the way I had wanted to win the race, I had to stay focused until the finish line.
This athlete was very gracious in defeat and was there waiting for me at the finish line with a big embrace, reminding me to soak up the win and not worry about her disappointment. I had watched so many athletes on television cross a finish line and hit the tape, and experiencing this myself on the Gold Coast felt like I’d finally made it.
You are currently studying for a medical degree alongside athletics training, how has it been combining the two?
It’s a really challenging juggle. Both of my endeavours are full-time loads, so it often feels like I’m leading a double life. This requires creativity and a strong support team around me. My mornings start early, before the sun is up, with my first training session at the Victorian Institute of Sport (VIS). I then shower and take the tram up to the Royal Melbourne Hospital for placement, where I will participate in the ward round and tutorials such as suturing or inserting an intravenous cannula. I then take the tram back to the VIS for an afternoon training session, before it’s home to eat and sleep.
The days become quite routine and there is often little time to do “normal” things like watching TV or staying out late at restaurants with friends. But I don’t see these as sacrifices as such as they are investments and choices for my career right now.
For me, balance is all about knowing what your priorities are at any point in the year, and being willing to scale back on other things that are less important at the time. The dynamic nature of each year then allows me to enjoy my study and sport as well as friendships and other hobbies, with each fluctuating in importance as each month goes on.
We understand you are the founder of Girls Play On, can you tell us about the company?
I founded Girls Play On through my role as an International Olympic Committee Young Leader in 2021-2024. The IOC selected 25 young leaders and we were tasked to choose a pressing local issue that we were passionate about, and to build a sport-based social business to address that issue. It was simple for me to identify my pressing local issue: the declining participation of women and girls in sport and physical activity. This was an issue that I’d experienced first-hand, and having stayed involved in sport, I can now see all of the wonderful gifts that it offers for women and girls.
So, Girls Play On is a team of women athletes who speak to school groups and local sport clubs about how they can overcome the unique barriers to physical activity. We focus on five key barriers: understanding female athlete health; navigating body image struggles; sports nutrition; confidence; and inclusive sporting environments.
So far, over 4,000 girls have experienced a Girls Play On workshop and we are excited to continue to build our momentum.
How did you originally get into race walking and was it always something you wanted to do at a competitive level?
I tried every sport under the sun as a little kid, and at the age of eight, I started Little Athletics. My mum had been a 400m hurdler and she thought my sisters and I may enjoy the sport like she had. From the get-go, I realised that I was better at the long and slow events and had practically zero fast-twitch muscle fibres. I would come dead last in the sprints and could hardly enter the long jump sandpit off a big run up. However, when I tried the race walk it felt so natural! I certainly wanted to win each Little Athletics open day, but I didn’t think too far beyond that. There was never any pressure to take things to the professional level, but things evolved naturally over time.
Do you have a favourite aspect of being involved with sports and representing Australia internationally?
I love the life lessons that professional sport forces you to learn. I have developed some amazing skills in teamwork, leadership, resilience, dedication, problem solving, coping with setbacks, and generating motivation that I don’t believe can be taught as well outside of the sporting landscape. All of these life skills are so transferable, and I know that I will use them beyond my sporting career.
How do you like to spend your time away from race walking and do you have any favourite sports to watch?
My favourite thing to do is to cook for close friends and family. I would throw dinner parties every night if I had the luxury of time. I love to flick through my cookbooks to curate the menu, gather the ingredients (some from my garden!) and mindfully piece the meal together (often not so mindfully). It is so rewarding to see people enjoying my cooking, and it is a special way to demonstrate your love for people.
I grew up watching and going to lots of AFL games with my dad! Nowadays I only really follow athletics, but I will happily watch any sport that comes on the screen. When you understand exactly what goes through an athlete’s mind and what preparation they have done to play the sport they do, every sport becomes impressive to watch.
What does a typical training day look like for you and how has it changed over the years?
We typically train twice a day, covering approximately 100-140 kilometres per week. Every day is different, but an example would be doing an easy 12km walk in the morning, and then meeting my training squad at the track in the afternoon for a warm-up and 10x 1km reps. My training has changed greatly over the years. I’m really glad that my childhood coach did not over-do things at all. He allowed me to keep up multiple other sports including swimming, ballet, soccer, and surf life saving to create balance and enjoyment. As a junior, I would only race walk twice per week. It was only after finishing high school and transitioning to my senior coach that the weekly kilometres gradually grew.
Do you have any competitions coming up that you can tell us about or that you are targeting?
My next competition will be the 2025 World Track and Field Championships in Tokyo this September. It’ll be my fourth World Track and Field Championships, having competed in Doha 2019, Oregon 2022, and Budapest 2023. My family LOVES Japan, and having missed the Tokyo 2020 Olympics, they are very excited to see me compete in Tokyo this year. I’m currently managing a little setback with a hamstring injury, but my team is working as hard as possible to get me back on track to aim for the podium in Tokyo once again!
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