British pole vaulter Molly Caudery undergoes successful emergency spinal surgery after recent wins

British pole vaulter Molly Caudery underwent emergency spinal surgery last week after a sudden flare-up of back pain. The operation was a microdisectomy to remove part of a spinal disc. Caudery, 26, announced the procedure on Instagram and said the surgery was a success.

She wrote that immediate intervention was required to prevent further damage and that her road to recovery starts now. 92 m, said the season is over. 80 m just days earlier.

Caudery also won the world indoor pole vault title in Torun, Poland, earlier this year. Those results followed a return to competition after injuries that included bone bruising and a ruptured anterior talo-fibular ligament sustained in the warm-up at the 2025 world championships in Tokyo.

She was taken off the track in a wheelchair after the Tokyo injury and was told her ankle would remain unstable for life.

At the 2024 Paris Olympics she failed to clear the opening height and did not reach the final. Caudery posted that emergency spinal surgery was not on her 2026 bingo card. She added that she had been determined to add another chapter before the comeback after heartbreak in Paris and Tokyo.

Her targets for 2026 included the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow and the European Championships in Birmingham. She told The Independent in March that she had given herself time to grieve the missed opportunities and was building motivation while watching others compete. The Independent reported the details of the surgery and Caudery’s statements.