As the nation reflected on another memorable Commonwealth Games, we caught up with one ACCIONA team member who knows the pressure of elite competition. As an Australian Olympian, Emma George, a Community and Stakeholder Advisor on ACCIONA's Clean Energy Link – North project in Western Australia, is one of the country's most accomplished pole vaulters.

Emma broke 17 women's pole vault world records and held the world record for four years. She won the first-ever Australian Commonwealth Games gold medal in women's pole vault at the Kuala Lumpur Games and held the Commonwealth Record for 11 years.

A sporting journey that began with the Olympics

Q: Emma, many people know you as a champion pole vaulter, but how did your sporting journey begin?

Emma: I was six years old and I remember watching the opening ceremony of the Moscow Olympic Games with my Dad. It was at that moment I said I was going to go to compete for Australia at the Olympics; I just didn't know what sport. I was a trapeze artist in a circus before I took up athletics and then pole vaulting. It was really helpful as the swing on a trapeze is exactly the same as pole vaulting, and being able to know where you are when you're upside down is useful.

Q: What are some of your career highlights?

Emma: Getting to wear the green and gold and competing at a home Olympic Games. It had been a dream for so long, and to achieve that goal was amazing. Also, to travel the world and be a professional athlete, especially in a fun event like pole vault, was the best job ever. But working with the team at ACCIONA is a close second.

When I started, I was one of very few female pole vault athletes in Australia. However, when I retired, more females were competing in pole vault than men in Australia. It was great to see the sport grow in popularity for female athletes and to play a role in that.

Bringing an Olympic mindset to Clean Energy Link – North

Q: Tell us about your role at ACCIONA.

Emma: I joined ACCIONA in November 2025 after a career in broadcast journalism, print journalism, sport and communications. The Clean Energy Link – North project is my first experience working in construction, and I'm loving it. The project team is fantastic, and it's such a positive environment to work in. I really enjoy connecting with communities and stakeholders and helping people understand the work we're doing.

Q: Is there a little-known fact about your sporting career?

Emma: It was devastating at the time, but I was unable to compete at the 1996 Atlanta Olympics even though I held the world record at the time. Women's pole vault was not included in the Olympic program, but men could compete. It was so unfair to be discriminated against purely because I was a woman; however, we worked really hard to get the event included in the next Olympics.

Reflecting on how far women's sport has come

Q: How much has sport changed since then?

Emma: A lot. The Sydney 2000 Olympics was the first Games to include women's pole vault, and I was fortunate to compete. More recently, the Paris 2024 Olympics became the first Games in history to achieve full gender parity among athletes. It's a great reminder of how far we've come and why creating equal opportunities remains so important.

Q: What did you think of the women's Commonwealth Games final?

Emma: The weather really played into the outcome. It was really windy and the blustery conditions meant that some of the women no-heighted, which means they failed to clear the opening height. WA's Nina Kennedy, the Olympic and World Champion came away with the silver medal on a countback to New Zealand's Eliza McCartney. It was a tough night and I'm super proud of Nina for her result in such difficult conditions. It's exciting to watch her and the next generation of athletes as the event evolves.