Pain of losing my dad drives me on
...says KATARINA JOHNSON-THOMPSON
THeRe’S been sadness behind the joy for Katarina Johnson-Thompson in the past 10 months. Two gold medals tell a story of potential being fulfilled, but there has also been a painful loss.
Her father, Ricky Thompson, died on his home island in the Bahamas last November, aged 59. Despite living apart from his daughter in Liverpool since she was one, he had a good relationship with her. ‘it’s been difficult, especially winter,’ JohnsonThompson told Sportsmail.
aside from a short instagram post the day after his funeral in which Johnson-Thompson detailed his ‘infectious laugh and a heart of pure love’, it’s not a subject she’s discussed publicly since, and yet it is also a key driving force behind her attempt to pull off one of the toughest challenges in athletics this week: beating Belgium’s Nafissatou Thiam in a heptathlon.
if Johnson-Thompson succeeds against long odds by winning the title at the european Championships in Berlin, it would complete a 2018 hat-trick for a talented athlete who often underperformed on the bigger occasions, before breaking through this year with golds at the world indoors and Commonwealth Games.
That is a monumentally big ‘if’, of course. Those wins were against weaker fields, but Thiam is the world and Olympic champion, who has the third best heptathlon score of all time, 7,013 points — 322 better than Johnson-Thompson.
it’s a big gap that feels bigger still when you consider JohnsonThompson’s revelation that her preparations for Berlin have been affected by a calf injury.
Bridging that gulf is where her father comes in again. ‘What happened with my dad is why i have been so switched on in competitions,’ she said. ‘He didn’t see me win and that has actually made me want to win in front of my mum even more, if that makes sense.
‘She comes to see me in every single competition and i always feel for her when i don’t do well, or i let myself down.
‘That is why i was so happy in Birmingham for the world indoors and at the Commonwealth Games. Your family are proud of you anyway, obviously, but this is just something inside me that pushes me a bit extra.’
missed chances was something of a theme in Johnson-Thompson’s career. Great expectations have hovered over her since she became world junior champion in 2009. But she blew a medal with three fouls in the long jump when sitting second at the 2015 worlds; she faded to sixth at the Rio Olympics; and she wrecked her 2017 worlds in London with a poor high jump.
The throws have been the 25-year- old’s greatest weakness, but the head had been equally suspect in big moments, and that is why there is such excitement over what she might now achieve with the confidence of two gold medals behind her. ‘ major opportunities come once a year and you put it all on the line and if it doesn’t go well then you wait an entire year for the next chance at a major medal,’ she said.
‘i feel i am coming towards my peak opportunities in the next three or four years. i used to think Tokyo 2020 would be my main one but maybe it will be 2024. i do believe i haven’t fulfilled my potential yet.’
The strength of Thiam, who is 23, has complicated the picture. ‘She has achieved everything i want to achieve,’ Johnson-Thompson said. ‘i used to think if i was top of my game in every event, then no one could beat me.
‘But i have had to reassess my life a little bit after the 7,000 points she got last year, but i do believe i am still able to get personal bests.’
The heptathlon begins on Thursday. ‘i’m looking forward to going against her. She’s a great athlete and a really nice person but anything can happen in a heptathlon.’
From her training base in France, Johnson-Thompson’s confidence for Berlin has only been spoken in muted terms. a calf injury picked up in winning the Commonwealth Games on the Gold Coast in april put her behind ‘where i wanted to be at the start of the year’.
Now Berlin offers her a hat-tick chance. ‘i’m always going for more,’ she said. ‘i need to push on.’ Live TV coverage begins today on BBC and British Eurosport.