The world heptathlon champion Katarina Johnson-Thompson has admitted to uncertainty over her fitness for the Paris Games after undergoing painkilling injections in her troublesome achilles, but she is insistent this is the best she has felt before an Olympics.
Injury caused Johnson-Thompson to pull out of the European championships heptathlon at the start of June after only three events. She missed a fortnight of training and had a number of injections in her achilles, which the 31-year-old says “seems to have settled down now”.
Johnson-Thompson has competed sparingly since, but clocked her fastest 200m time for five years at the British championships, threw a season-best shot put in Loughborough and, on Saturday, posted a solid 6.54m long jump with her first effort at the London Diamond League.
“I think I’m in good shape,” she said after that recent event. “All the signs are there that I’m coming into shape. That’s all I can ask for. I’m just praying I can take that into the heptathlon. I was really happy with being able to get into the 6.50s [for the long jump] straight away because it was an event I haven’t done since Budapest [the 2023 world championships].
“Tendonopathy, or tendonitis, is an ongoing thing. I think a lot of people struggle with it. It comes and goes. It gets bad and good again so it’s something I have to keep an eye on but it’s something I’ve got on top of now. But you cannot predict a heptathlon.”
Johnson-Thompson finished 14th at her debut Olympics in 2012, before coming sixth in 2016 and failing to finish in 2020 owing to injury. “I think you have to recognise your past in order to move on to your future,” she said. “It’s a big part of me and who I am today as a person. Each Olympics has given me different mental and physical challenges. Before Tokyo [2020], I was trying to get ready post-achilles rupture. I felt under a lot of pressure in 2016 ... In 2012 I was just here to have fun.
“So I feel like I’m the most prepared I’ve been, mentally and physically, for an Olympics. I just hope I can get a performance out.”
An Olympic medal is all that eludes an athlete who has won two world titles, two Commonwealth titles and a European silver. But Johnson-Thompson says any past sense of unfulfilment has faded, regardless of what happens in Paris.
“The joy in athletics for me is having a chance,” she said. “The anticipation and buildup. A lot of the time that’s taken away by injury or pressure. So I feel like I’ve found joy in a different way of competing leading into these Olympics. I just want to be on that start line with a chance come that 800m. That’s what I’m aiming for.
“I feel like [winning the 2023 world title in] Budapest has given me a lot of peace in that I’ve come back and can do it. I am worth a medal if I’m in one piece.”
