Airborne – but still grounded
One giant leap for the value of humility
Mason McGroder (11WH) has plenty to crow about, if he wanted to. But his attitude to sporting achievement hasn’t changed much since he started breaking records in Year 2.
He came home from his local primary school athletics carnival in Caringbah and told his parents he did “alright”.
A short time later his older sister came home and told them how “amazing” he was in winning a slew of events and breaking records along the way.
“It’s a story my dad likes to tell,” he laughs in an interview with Trinity News.
Mason is still doing “alright”.
He staggered the athletics world by winning a bronze medal in long jump as a 15-year-old at the world U20 championships in Lima, Peru, taking on competitors four years his senior.
“For a 15-year-old to have won a medal … it simply has never happened and it’s one of the best performances I have ever seen,” said Australian team horizontal jumps coach Alwyn Jones.
Mason’s Lima leap was the third longest in history for his age and made him the youngest ever Australian medallist at the championships.
Putting it into an elite adult context, his personal best of 7.80m late last year was just two cms short of the 12th-placed finalist at the Paris Olympics.
At the CAS titles in September he won the long jump in three different age groups – 16, 17, and Open, smashing CAS records in all three, including one that had stood for 25 years.
He also excels in AFL and was part of the Sydney Swans Academy side that went undefeated in its division of the U16 2024 national championships.
So, what keeps him grounded? His family, school mates, coaches, and teachers all play a part.
“I’m competitive so I like winning, obviously. It’s just drilled in my brain,” he said.
“But I just like going out and competing, seeing a bunch of people you know. It’s a good atmosphere. At the CAS titles all your mates are cheering you on – there’s not a better feeling, really. I have a bit of banter (with other competitors) and keep the mood good.”
Apart from the long jump, he also helped Trinity’s 4x100m relay team to CAS victory but tasted defeat in the individual 100m and 200m, despite recording personal best (PB) times in both and going under the previous CAS 100m record.
“I was disappointed with my individual races, but I talked to my mates and I was over it within 10 minutes.
“Walking past them after the event they were still cheering me on even though I got second. I was so focused on winning I just brushed over how well I had done. Two PBs. But the competitor in me wants to be winning.”
Trinity’s Director of Athletics, Matt Wade, who heads Mason’s coaching team and travelled with him to Peru, described him as “relaxed, calm, and coachable” but also “extremely dedicated and ultra-competitive”.
“He transfers complicated cues into technical changes quicker than any athlete I’ve worked with.
“Probably something that sums him up is about 30 minutes after winning bronze in Peru he said he was really proud of his performance but a little disappointed that he didn’t break the 15 Years world age record of 7.90m.”
Mason’s Wilson Hogg Housemaster Mick Snowden called him a “very humble and grounded person who doesn’t get too high and doesn’t get too low”.
“I think one of the reasons he is successful is he applies himself in every facet of school. He puts as much effort into classroom work as he does to long jump, as he does to every part of his life.
“There are 15-year-old kids with half of his success and 10 times the ego.
“He is fortunate to have natural traits, but his success comes because he works hard. There are a million talented kids who don’t work hard and don’t get anywhere near where he has.
“He gets every ounce of potential out of himself and just lets his actions do the talking.”
Alwyn Jones observed him behaving “like a professional athlete” in Peru and concentrating on the “one percenters”.
“He was never flustered or out of sync. He and Matt were both calm, level-headed, and well organised. He really opened up to the rest of the team and integrated amazingly into the team culture. He wasn’t fazed by being the youngest there but embraced that and made wonderful friends.”
Mason was gifted with a naturally athletic physique – he stands at 194cms, weighs 86kgs, and runs the 100m in 10.91s, the 200m in 22.08s, and the 400m in 49.22s.
But he knows things will get harder as the rest of the teenage world catches up to some extent and he enters the realm of elite adult sport.
He is also aware of the conundrum that while failure is a great teacher he has not experienced a lot of it.
“It’s a good and a bad thing. I don’t want to fail but it does lead to growth. It must come sooner or later. I do get annoyed if I stuff up, especially in races – if I don’t execute it properly. But if you’re over the top it can be a bit embarrassing. I haven’t bombed out completely too often. Just lucky, I guess. I’ve always been able to perform.”
One thing he has plenty of experience with is winning – with style and modesty.
“If I win it’s not like I’m better than everyone else. It’s just I’ve done well, done my job, made my coach proud. It gives me confirmation of what I’m doing well behind the scenes. The achievement of winning is cool. I’m on a high but not for too long.
“A lot of people do take it (winning) the wrong way, and that annoys me.
“I do hate when they’re a bit too confident, too cocky; it triggers me, gives me more motivation to track them down and beat them in a race. Confidence is good but when it’s over the top it can be a bit annoying.
“I don’t want to be seen as someone who is like that. I don’t want to be the person everyone despises.
“On the AFL field I’m probably too quiet; if I do something good, I don’t go on about it.”
He cites his mum Rachel and dad Darren, who introduced him to athletics coaching early at Sylvania, as supportive and motivating influences, as well as former Sydney Swans great Michael O’Loughlin, whose son played in the same footy team at Maroubra. “At half time, getting him coming up to you and saying, ‘Here’s a couple of tips’, is quite good.”
Mason, a Trinitarian since Year 7, was all eyes and ears when he travelled to Lima with the Australian U20 team, sharing digs with Torrie Lewis, Australia’s fastest ever woman, and Seb Sultana, the reigning Australian men’s 100m champion.
“You see what they do, how they recover, how they go about things. It was so professional compared to what my standard is; it shocked me. They’re very friendly, outgoing people but when it comes to game time they were very switched on to do what they had to do. You’ve got to have a bit of fun in your life; you can’t take everything so seriously all the time. But it’s important to flip that switch when you have to.”
He believes in doing “all the one percenters right for other people as well as yourself”.
He likes being surrounded by “friendly, caring people” and appreciates that his mates often check up on him, though “they probably don’t know that”.
Mr Snowden underlines the point when he says: “Because he is such a nice and humble kid he has a great friendship base. He doesn’t alienate people by being egotistical or arrogant. He is a role model for other kids. He doesn’t try to take the limelight from others.
“People like Mason are going to be successful anywhere. But I think what we do well at Trinity is we make sure that kids like that never stray. We help them to cope with any setbacks.
“It’s the mark of an athlete how they handle adversity. At some point in his sporting life, whether it’s AFL or athletics, there will be disappointments, whether it’s with selections, contracts, performances, or whatever. There’s a ton of learning ahead of him but he has positioned himself well to handle it all.”
Mason trains for two hours a day – three days on the track and two days in the School gym – as well as weekends. He admits it “sucks” getting the late bus home to Sutherland Shire and feeling tired but says: “I’m not over-trained. I don’t think my body would cope being cooked every week.”
A team of Trinity coaches has been instrumental in getting him to where he is, including Mr Wade, Olympians Connor Murphy and Liam Adcock, Commonwealth Games representative Emmanuel Fakiye, high-level sprinters and sprint coaches Jordan Sarmento and James Kermond, and Director of Athletic Performance Elliot Taylor.
Nevertheless, it is amusing to discover that he first learned to long jump off YouTube.
“I remember watching a video and just trying to replicate it. I was never coached (initially). I’ve been able to hitch-kick (a mid-air manoeuvre boosting distance) from a young age. Doing it over and over again made me quite good technically.”
He is not in a hurry to choose between athletics and AFL, saying: “My sister is almost begging me to play AFL at this point but I’ve got to get there first.”
