Katarina Johnson-Thompson is in a good place as her fourth Olympics looms on the horizon and shrugs off her latest injury concerns.
A double world champion in the heptathlon, the Liverpudlian has never reached the podium at the Games but feels well placed to challenge in Paris.
She suffered an injury scare at June’s European Championships, withdrawing after three events with a leg problem, but is in a positive frame of mind.
And despite more than her share of setbacks, including an agonising early exit at the Tokyo Olympics because of injury, the 31-year-old who claimed her second world gold last year tells Metro she would change nothing about her journey.
We saw you return to action at the recent British Athletics Championships in Manchester – how was it?
Manchester was good in parts, those two events have been going really well in training and I wanted to see them put together in a competition environment.
I didn’t get the result I wanted in the javelin [finishing ninth with 42.38metres] but I did in the 200m [runner-up to Dina Asher-Smith in 23.20 seconds].
It was a cold, wet, windy day and I wasn’t expecting that much. I had two goals: I hadn’t run a 200m this year so wanted to get the mark there so that I can be in the final heat in France. I was really, really shocked at doing that time in those conditions. It was a good weekend overall.
You linked up with coach Aston Moore in 2022 and he helped you to regain the world title last year. How big was that move to his camp for you?
Aston has been pivotal. He has been able to turn those hard times around, I feel he gives me strength. I’m really happy with the mindset he has helped me work on. He reinforces me with facts and is so calm, and so I believe everything he says.
He doesn’t give credit easily, so it means something when he does. Aston has [helped athletes win] so many medals in the sport and his experience is invaluable in that sense.
You had to pull out of the European Championships after three events last month due to a leg injury. Are you over that now?
I never really show fitness or form going into a heptathlon so that’s normal for me! But I put it together every time and it’s fine. As long as I can get to the startline fit and healthy I always believe I have a real chance.
This will be your fourth Games. How driven are you to finally get an Olympic medal?
I don’t feel I’ve got unfinished business at the Olympics, I just feel those Olympic experiences have not gone as I wanted them to. I just want to give myself a really good chance in Paris.
I want to be able to say wherever I finish in the field that I will have given my best performance. Mentally I let myself down in Rio and it was the opposite in Tokyo where I was in a really good place mentally but not physically. Nothing has gone perfectly.
You made your Olympic debut as a 19-year-old in London. What does the Games mean to you?
I feel like I’ve gained good experience from every single one I’ve been to, for example the crowd from 2012 – and I think we will get something similar in Paris – or the pressure that was on me in Rio in 2016.
I feel like I’m in a strong place and my body is in a healthy place now. Now it’s about taking it day by day ahead of Paris.
If anyone knows the ups and downs of athletics and elite sport, it’s you, isn’t it?
One hundred per cent. I’ve had a lot of downs in my story as well as the ups but when I look back, I feel lucky.
I’ve overcome the harder times and then come through that to the other side and won the world title again in Budapest last year. I wouldn’t change a thing about my story.
You’re working with British Gas, who have produced a mural of you in Liverpool on which you’re powered over the hurdles by goodwill messages from fans. Was that special?
British Gas commissioned a mural for me in my home city and it is absolutely incredible. It’s the second time I’ve worked with the artist Paul Curtis, who is a local legend. It says on it ‘You’ll never run alone’ as a nod to the team I support, Liverpool.
Messages from home must resonate with you. Do you feel like you have the support of the nation to get you over the line when it really counts?
I’ve had a luckier career than most have. If it doesn’t happen, I’ve been very fortunate and I don’t want people feeling sorry for me. I’ll go there and give it my all to get the result I want.
British Gas has commissioned a 30-metre mural of Katarina Johnson-Thompson featuring motivational phrases proven to power positivity, with the aim of supporting the heptathlete and inspiring the local Liverpool community
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