“We have lots of similar values and goals, but very different personalities and strengths…,” Hamish Kerr told Now to Love in December 2024. The Paris Olympics Gold medalist was talking about his girlfriend, Maggie Wilson, who has been with him on this track and field journey for a while. She was in the stands in Paris when, at first, Kerr was this close to not making it out of the qualifying rounds.
But eventually, he prevailed all the way and became the high jump champion. And as for Maggie Wilson, she could relate to what was going on in her boyfriend’s mind. After all, they have quite an obvious connection.
Who is Maddie Wilson?
Born on April 5, 2002, Maddie Wilson is a Christchurch native who grew up in Gisborne, New Zealand. Similar to her boyfriend, Maggie Wilson is also pursuing a track and field career. Now you get why she could relate to Kerr during the Games. Talking about their athletic connection, Hamish Kerr told Now to Love how their time together basically goes into relaxing with each other to recover from training: “We spend a lot of our time trying to recover when we’re together. So, we often just lie on the couch and watch TV, movies, and lots of sports.”
But unlike Hamish Kerr, she is a heptathlete. Her sports journey started at the age of 7, when she joined the local athletics club. Even though she didn’t start with heptathlon, she was always involved in multiple sports. Surf lifesaving was one of her likings when she was a youngster. And she also played football. But it was at 16, that she was suggested by Terry Lomax to try track and field multi-events, as she told Athletics New Zealand in February 2024.
Lomax would be her coach till mid-2022, after which she shifted to James Sandilands. But under the guidance of Terry Lomax, she made amazing progress. It was in 2019 that she drew attention when she won both the New Zealand and Oceania U18 heptathlon titles. She even got a New Zealand record of 5179 points en route to the Oceania U18 heptathlon title.
In case you already don’t know, heptathlon involves a combined competition of 7 events: 100m hurdles, High Jump, Shot, 200m, Long Jump, Javelin, and 800m. Each event gets a score based on performance and after adding all the scores together, the total points score is the Heptathlon score. Anyway, back to the story of Maggie’s journey. As her heptathlon journey started, she moved to Christchurch to pursue her dreams, and with that, her educational commitments too.
What does Maddie Wilson do for a living?
A large part of the 22-year-old’s life is competing in National Championships and even training with the World Championships and Olympics in mind. But that’s not all. She is also a college student at the University of Canterbury, pursuing a degree in civil engineering. Now, with that out of the way, let’s focus on her track and field exploits overall.
With Lomax as her coach in Christchurch, she scooped many single event titles like the 200m race in the New Zealand Secondary School Championships in the U17 category. In 2020, she scooped the 100m title in Interclub #2 at Christchurch, a U20 Event. Heptathlon is still the foundation of her journey, as she came first in the South Island CE Championships, Dunedin, with a score of 4639 in 2020.
In 2022, she won silver in the New Zealand Championships, a senior championship, with a score of 4949. Following her switch to James Sandilands, she would continue her journey upwards. If anything, she shows even more progress under her new coach. Why so? Well, Wilson answered herself: “James is a great coach and his communication and understanding are awesome.”
Giving an example, she said, “He is very good at modifying the plan if I have a niggle or I am not 100 percent, which is important as there is quite a bit of that as a combined eventer.” She would bring home a heptathlon title at the Australian Championships in Brisbane, getting her then-best score of 5349. While the best was yet to come.
The highlight of her career has to be at the New Zealand Combined Events Championships in Dunedin, in 2023. She got a 5990, and she got a personal best in all 7 individual events. It’s unbelievable; it’s rare. It almost doesn’t happen. She was shocked about it, no doubt. But the thing is, she had another milestone on her mind—to break the 6,000 barrier.
Talking to Athletics New Zealand, Wilson said, “I’ve taken a massive step to 6000 pts which is a cool mark for a combined eventer. It gives me a lot of belief for what I can achieve in the future.” With James Sandilands as her coach, she is getting only better. Which is not surprising. Even her Paris Olympics Champion boyfriend, Hamish Kerr, has Sandilands as his coach.
Maybe a World Championship gold or even an Olympic gold is on the cards for Maggie Wilson. Who knows? But when we are speaking of connections, let’s talk about Hamish and Maddie’s love story and when it began.
How long have Hamish Kerr and Maddie Wilson been together?
The track and field couple have been together since 2021. Talking about what makes them tick, Hamish told Now To Love, “We just enjoy being in each other’s presence.” For Maggie, the essence is the same: “We always got along well as friends and enjoyed spending time with each other.” They are quite similar. But that also includes their competitiveness, even with one another.
Even though it’s all in good humor, neither of them likes to be on the losing end. So, that means the 28-year-old finds it very difficult to take when Maggie beats him in Monopoly: “The worst is playing board games like Monopoly. Maddie always beats me, and I hate it and get really grumpy.” And the pettiness goes to the heights that they even start comparing their families.
All in banter though. Hamish Kerr didn’t squander the chance to get a point for himself: “We both have medical parents and both our dads are professors. But my dad’s more senior!” The Olympian did say it jokingly, but competitive Maggie wouldn’t let it slide though. Even though playful, the boyfriend does get a nudge from her. But like Yin and Yang, they stay together because they complete each other.
If she is outspoken and an extrovert, Hamish Kerr is an introvert and so conscious of himself. Both of them learn from each other what they think they should. Kerr tries to be a little like Maggie sometimes: “The way she is always herself often reminds me that I can sometimes take myself a bit too seriously.” And for Maggie, it’s about learning how to recover after training or racing: “Hamish is really good at the recovery part of athletics. That’s a big component of why he’s so successful.”
Continuing, she explained what exactly the Olympic Champion does: “He’ll go to training for a couple of hours and completely focus on what he needs to do. But when he’s home, he leaves it behind. It’s something I’ve learned from him. Watching how he trains has made me better at that process as an athlete myself.” But there are boundaries they don’t cross.
We still haven’t told you Maggie’s favorite event from the heptathlon. It’s a high jump. And who is the Paris Olympics Gold medalist in high jump? But dare Hamish Kerr think of giving her advice? Maggie Wilson doesn’t welcome it. As for the World and Olympic champion himself, he explains it quite perfectly. He said, “I’m very aware that in athletics, everyone has an opinion. As you get better at your sport, more and more people feel they’re entitled to share theirs with you.”
But it can be quite rude and inconsiderate to do, especially when you haven’t been asked for advice. The high jump Champion told us what he does: “I know how annoying that is, so I make sure I hold back! She also has the best coach in the world with James (Sandilands), so she doesn’t need me for that.” What makes their relationship work is that they are best friends. They make sure to communicate as much as possible. It’s all about understanding how they fit: “We both have big goals and we understand that about each other.”
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