Beyond the Run-Up
Fresh from a bronze finish in the men’s pole vault at the 33rd SEA Games, Elijah Cole is emerging as one of the Philippines’ athletes to watch. Away from competition, his life is shaped by family, movement, and the balance that keeps him grounded.
Elijah Cole is probably more familiar than you expect. Yes, he’s a national athlete. Yes, he competes in one of the most technical events in track and field. And yes, he returned from the 33rd SEA Games with a bronze medal for the Philippines. But that’s not where his story lingers.
Away from the runway, at 27, Elijah’s life is driven by movement and connection. Days are spent outdoors, skating with friends, documenting moments on film, and coming home to cook with family. The same discipline that carries him through elite competition shows up just as clearly in how he lives day to day, curious, active, and fully engaged beyond the sport that put him in the spotlight.
When training pauses, his instinct isn’t to sit still. “My camera,” he says, is what he reaches for first. “I bring my camera everywhere with me. It’s my everyday carry.” What began as casual documentation has turned into something more deliberate. After years of shooting, he’s less interested in posting everything and more focused on intent. “Instead of just going out and shooting,” he explains, “I’m working on more focused projects. Something more meaningful.”
That desire for meaning, not noise, runs through everything he does.
Built Around People
No matter where training takes him, Elijah’s center of gravity remains family.
“Everything we do revolves around cooking,” he says. Filipino food is constant, whether it’s learned from his grandmother’s unwritten recipes or recreated far from home. Living in North Carolina means access isn’t easy. “There’s not many Filipino food places, so we either make it or we travel.”
Even away from his parents, the routine holds. “My girlfriend and I, we cook a lot,” he says, blending Filipino and Thai food into daily life. Meals become grounding, familiar rhythms in a schedule shaped by movement and travel.
And then there’s breakfast. “Corned beef, rice, and eggs,” he says, without hesitation. “Longganisa, eggs, rice. I could eat breakfast for lunch, breakfast for dinner.”
It’s comfort. It’s home. It’s consistency.
The Other Side of Control
If pole vault demands precision, skateboarding gives Elijah something else entirely.
“It was my first love,” he says. Long before structured training plans and competitions, skating gave him freedom and community. “Everyone’s always pushing each other to do better things. You try one small change, and it works better.”
The appeal isn’t recklessness. It’s exploration. Trial and error. Falling and getting back up. The same curiosity that draws him to skateboarding shows up in his creative life too, drawing with friends, shooting film, letting projects unfold slowly.
Film photography, in particular, keeps him present. “It captures what I see with my eyes in real life,” he says. “Not just how it looks, but how it feels.” Each frame becomes a record, not for social media, but for memory.
Focus, Then Release
Elijah understands the contrast in his life, and he protects it.
When it’s time to train, he trains fully. Pole vault remains exacting, technical, and unforgiving. It’s a sport that leaves no room for half-attention. But once the work is done, he allows himself to step away completely.
That balance isn’t accidental. It’s learned.
His ambitions are clear. The Olympics remain the long-term goal. Asian Games, higher clearances, progression, all mapped carefully. “I’m not putting a cap on it,” he says. “I would love to go higher.”
But ambition doesn’t require isolation. For Elijah, balance isn’t weakness. It’s fuel.
Style and Performance
His sense of style reflects the same philosophy. Rooted in skate culture, it’s relaxed, distressed, and unconcerned with polish. It extends beyond clothes and into how he presents himself, from long hair to buzz cuts, sometimes dyed, sometimes left natural, always treated as another form of expression rather than a statement.
“To other people, they’re like, ‘That guy looks homeless,’” he says, laughing. “But to me, it’s cozy. It’s cool. It’s comforting.”
It’s not about dressing like an athlete. It’s about dressing like himself, on and off the track.
Holding Both Worlds
Elijah Cole doesn’t separate his life into extremes. Discipline on one side. Freedom on the other. He lets them coexist.
Family meals ground him. Skateboarding sharpens his edge. Photography slows his pace. Pole vault demands everything in between.
He knows when to focus. He knows when to release.
And that balance, serious and extreme, rooted and restless, may be the quiet advantage that allows him to keep rising, bar after bar, without losing himself along the way.
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IN THIS STORY:
Publisher: James Leonard Cruz • Art Director: Karlota Tuazon • Photographer: Noel Monzon • Interview & Writer: Juan Marco Matriano • Social Media: JC Arnobit • HMUA & Styling : Penshoppe • Special thanks to Penshoppe
