Katarina Johnson-Thompson banished her Olympic demons for good at the Stade de France on Friday, finally getting her hands on a silver medal in the heptathlon while Belgium’s superlative Nafissatou Thiam won a third consecutive gold in the event to confirm her position as one of the greatest athletes of all time.
To take the gold Johnson-Thompson – who had led after the first day – would have had to take a huge lead on Thiam in the final event, the 800m, and finish about eight seconds ahead of her rival. In the end, she fell short by about two seconds.
She came second in their heat in 2min 04.90sec – another personal best – ahead of Thiam on 2.10.62. Another Belgian, Noor Vidts, took the bronze medal after running the race 2.06.38.
Thiam won the competition with 6,880 points, becoming the first woman to win the heptathlon three times. Johnson-Thompson was only 36 points behind with 6,844 with Vidts third on 6,707.
Johnson-Thompson said she felt “grateful, emotional, overwhelmed” and that she wanted to “drink some wine, watch some athletics” and see her friends and family.
“I’m so happy to come away with a silver medal. I felt ultimate relief when I crossed the line. I was running for a gold tonight but to be honest I had such mixed emotions going into it. I was sort of grieving gold, but I wanted to fight for gold,” she said. “I had so many different emotions, but just to be on the podium is a huge honour.”
She paid tribute to Thiam, the 29-year-old Belgian who has calmly, but relentlessly, dominated this event in three consecutive Olympics. “I got pretty close tonight, but she’s the greatest of all time, I think that’s pretty indisputable now,” she said. “I’m honoured to have an actual rivalry against the greatest of all time.”
Thiam is one of only four heptathletes to have gone beyond the 7,000-point mark, but she was pushed to her absolute limit by Johnson-Thompson.
Her British rival – who is hardly an underachiever with two world titles, two Commonwealth titles and a European silver – has until now not been able to reach her Olympic potential. She finished 13th at her debut Games in 2012, came sixth in 2016 and could not compete at Tokyo 2021 because of injury.
She said that she had been on the point of giving up after Rio and then Tokyo in 2021. “Rio was mental, Tokyo was physical. I feel like after both Olympics I wanted to give up for different reasons. I had to change a lot of things to get to a good cycle, and I’m just so happy with the last three years. The team that I’ve got around me, I wouldn’t have been on the start line without them.”
Johnson-Thompson had a 48-point lead after the first day of the competition thanks to a season’s-best performance in the 100m hurdles, her best height for five years in the high jump and a huge personal best in the shot put.
She had come out of the blocks fast, pulling out a season’s-best of 13.40sec in the 100m hurdles, before a monster height of 1.92m in the high jump. Thiam managed 13.56sec in the hurdles, before also making 1.92m in the high jump.
In the shot put – one of Johnson-Thompson’s weaker events – the British athlete threw a massive career best of 14.44m. But Thiam answered with a season-best throw of 15.54.
After three events, Thiam edged ahead with 3,070, but Johnson-Thompson’s barnstorming shot put – which she later said was the thing she had been most proud of in the day – meant the lead was narrowed to 50 points, with the Liverpudlian on 3,020 and American Anna Hall on 2,965 in third.
Then it was time for the final event of the day, the 200m. Thiam managed 24.46sec in her heat, giving Johnson-Thompson a target of 23.92 to go into first. She managed 23.45 to take a 48-point lead going into the second day.
On Friday morning Johnson-Thompson overcame a shaky start in the long jump, the first of the morning’s events. The 31-year-old – who has an outdoor personal best of 6.92m in the discipline – registered only 4.65m on her first jump and 6.04m on her second. But her third was a decent 6.40m. Thiam made 6.41m.
Thiam was 45 points behind Johnson-Thompson before the javelin. The British athlete, who was in the first heat, kept the pressure on with a season’s-best throw of 45.49m. Knowing she had to perform in one of her strongest events, Thiam held nothing back, throwing 54.04m and beating her season’s-best effort by more than a metre.
With just the 800m to go on Friday evening Johnson-Thompson found herself 121 points behind the Belgian. In the end it was – just – beyond her, but she leaves this stadium an Olympic medallist, having taken one of the greatest heptathletes of modern times to the wire. And after a contest in which she recorded several season bests, she felt her team had given her longevity. “I feel like as long as I am in the race, I will continue,” she said.
For Thiam, this was a night of unprecedented glory. Before these Games she had admitted to dreaming of the headline “Nafi Thiam, gold for the third time”. Tomorrow, she will wake up and read it.
