Jemima Montag (born 15 February 1998) is an Australian Olympic racewalker. She won the silver medal in the 2023 World Athletics Championships, won in the 20 km walk and the Marathon walk relay in the Paris 2024 Olympics, and is a two-time Commonwealth Games champion.
Montag is studying for a postgraduate medical degree and a Master of Public Health at medical school at the University of Melbourne, where she previously earned a Bachelor of Science. She also works at a company that delivers food to underprivileged families.
Prior to her walking career, she studied ballet at the national theatre ballet school in st kilda, Victoria. Under the training of Beverly Jane Fry.
She began taking part in Little Athletics when she was seven, encouraged by her mother, who was herself a hurdling. She was inspired by Cathy Freeman, as well as her contemporaries Regan Lamble and Steven Solomon. A Jewish Australian, at age 15 was recognised for her wins at the state and national championships with the Australian 2013 Outstanding Jewish Junior Sportswoman of the Year Award.
She made her first impact with a win in the under-20 section at the 2014 Oceania Race Walking Championships. A global medal came later that May, as she placed twelfth in the 10 kilometres walk at the 2014 IAAF World Race Walking Cup and shared in the team bronze with Clara Smith and Elizabeth Hosking. She graduated high school from Wesley College in 2016.
She was the Australian team’s flag bearer at the 2017 Maccabiah Games in Israel, where she won a silver medal in the 10 km race walk.
Montag was the gold medalist of the 20 kilometres race walk at the 2018 Commonwealth Games, at 20 years of age. She had been leading alongside fellow Australian Claire Tallent, but was assured of the win when Tallent was disqualified in the final stage of the race.
She came in sixth in the final of the Women's 20 km walk in the Tokyo 2020 Olympics in a time of 1:30.39, at 23 years of age.
Montag won the gold medal at the 2022 Commonwealth Games, repeating in the 20 kilometers race walk.
In March 2022, she was inducted into the Maccabi Victoria Hall of Fame.
in May 2023, she received the UniSport Australia award for the most outstanding performance by a student-athlete.
In February 2024, at the Oceania and Australian championships, Montag won the women’s 20 km race in 1 hour, 27 minutes, and 9 seconds, breaking the Oceania and Australian record that she herself had set previously by 7 seconds.
In April 2024 at the Maccabi Australia Sport Awards she was awarded the President’s Award and the Victorian outstanding sportswoman award. In July 2024, she was ranked #3 in the world. In preparation for the Paris 2024 Olympics, she declared to Australian-Jewish media outlet, The Jewish Independent, she wanted to be best in the world.
Career
2018–22; Commonwealth Games champion
2023–present; World Championships silver medal
2024 Paris Olympics bronze medals
International competitions
2014 Oceania Race Walking Championships Hobart, Australia 1st 10 km walk (junior) 47:00 World Race Walking Cup Taicang, China 12th 10 km walk (junior) 47:34 3rd Team 20 pts 2018 Oceania Race Walking Championships Adelaide Australia 2nd 20 km walk 1:31:26 Commonwealth Games Gold Coast, Australia 1st 20 km walk 1:32:50 2019 Oceania Race Walking Championships Townsville, Australia 1st 10 km walk 43:50:84 Summer Universiade Naples, Italy 2nd 20 km walk 1:33:57 World Championships Doha, Qatar 10th 20 km walk 1:36:54 Australian 50 km Race Walking Championships Melbourne, Australia 2nd 20 km walk 1:37:22
See also
External links
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