Tokyo Olympics: All you need to know about Brandon Starc

Having also played cricket and football, Brandon Starc decided to pursue athletics and is now competing out of Parramatta City Track and Field.

Brandon Starc of Australia in action at the 2018 Commonwealth Games.

Australian cricketer Mitchell Starc’s younger brother Brandon Starc would be competing in the high jump in the 2020 Tokyo Olympics. 

Brandon began his athletic career at Parramatta Little Athletics while attending Lidcombe Public School. However, he began to focus on the high jump in 2009 while attending Hills Sports High School.

Having also played cricket and football, he decided to pursue athletics and is now competing out of Parramatta City Track and Field.

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Brandon won silver with a personal best of 2.19m on his international debut at the inaugural Youth Olympic Games in 2010.

He was placed eight in the Commonwealth Games in 2014, a year later he raised his record to 2.30m, before clearing 2.31m in the qualifying round at the world championships. This earned him a place in the finals, as he became the first Australian since Tim Forsyth in 1997 to enter the world championship finals.

Selected for the 2016 Rio Olympics, he cleared the qualifying round with 2.29m to progress to the finals, where he was ranked 15th.

Due to a shin injury in 2017, he was short of qualification for the world championship.

His best height since Rio - 2.28m, came at the 2018 Commonwealth Games trials. With a personal best of 2.32m, the Aussie won gold at the 2018 Commonwealth Games.

In the same year, Starc added 3cm to his personal best after crossing 2.36m in Germany. This was the highest leap by an Australian for 21 years and moved him to equal third in the world. Five days later, Starc won the 2018 Diamond League finals and went on to win the Continental Cup.

Despite his injury in 2019, he was placed sixth in the finals. He altered his run-up for the high jump by shortening it by two steps in 2019. “I have changed my run-up from last year [speaking in 2019]. I had a massive run-up. Two of my last four competitions the stadiums were too small, so I had to shorten my run-up by two steps. That kind of influenced the change. We have tried it and it seems to be going well. It worked. It is going to save me some feeling in the legs. I know it is only two steps, but it all adds up. You never know how many jumps you are going to do in a competition. This could make me jump higher. You ask how do you take it to the next level, by trying things," he told  The Australian.

In 2021, he won his fourth national high jump title and qualified for the Olympics with a jump of 2.33m.