I won at the last Commonwealth Games on one leg!
Katarina Johnson-Thompson went through agony to grab glory on the Gold Coast in 2019. Now she’s looking to bounce back in Birmingham
For all the debate around the modern relevance of the Commonwealth, and indeed the value of a sporting gathering in its name, there is at least one prominent athlete who owes plenty to its existence.
‘To me, honestly, the Commonwealth Games is a big deal,’ says Katarina JohnsonThompson. ‘After everything else that has happened, the Games have been super important to me.’
She is thinking ahead to the Games that start in Birmingham on Thursday, but to do so she is looking back to the Gold Coast four years ago, when she won her first major outdoor title.
We all know there are no straight lines on the graph of JohnsonThompson’s career — and that, across ten years as an elite performer, she has had as many dips as peaks.
But those Commonwealth Games, contested in the April of 2018, were a key staging post in the rewriting of her story as a heptathlete. They were also indicative of how it has always been for this 29-year-old, in so much as nothing will ever be straightforward.
‘I had just won the world indoors about a month earlier but hadn’t won one outdoors,’ she says. ‘Getting over the line at the Gold Coast was a really big thing for me but, like everything else, it wasn’t the easy way. I injured my calf in the 200m at the end of the first day and managed to do the full day two on one leg. I remember thinking after day one: “I haven’t gone all this way to just pull out”. It was very taxing to put my body through that.
‘obviously, I also injured my calf in Tokyo at the olympics and I couldn’t pull myself through it, and that was just the worst feeling. It was a disaster.
‘But in the Gold Coast, I could just about manage it. It is amazing what you can put your body through. By the time I had won, I couldn’t even walk my victory lap, but getting the win, that first outdoor title, was just so huge for me.
‘People always saw me as someone who was capable of winning but who never did. To just find a way to win no matter was huge. I was in lots of pain getting the medal but I was happy as well. Even with a lower score, the confidence I took from seeing that through carried me to the European Championships, where I got a personal best and a silver. After that, I had the confidence to compete at the world championships in 2019 and won gold.
‘The Commonwealth Games were a very big deal at a time when it was important for me to believe in myself.’
That she has encountered so much misfortune since the immense highs of that period between 2018 and 2020 is, regrettably, in keeping with her trends.
The pandemic delay of the 2020 olympics robbed her of a Games in peak form and fitness, and the combination of an achilles rupture and a torn calf then killed her chance when they finally arrived.
The hidden consequence of those injuries is that she was undercooked for her world title defence this month — she was eighth — and further interruption has come from the abandonment of a new coaching partnership with Petros Kyprianou after less than half-a-year together.
once again, it puts Johnson Thompson in the position of requiring a jolt from a trip to the Commonwealth Games.
Fitness permitting, which would be a bold thing to take for granted, Britain’s most talented athlete will be favourite to retain her title as she attempts to gear up for Paris 2024, and what realistically will be her final shot at an elusive olympic medal.
‘With the world championships and the Commonwealths, it is quite daunting but exciting at the same time,’ she says. ‘on paper, it is a lot to do two heptathlons a few weeks apart. It is a lot on the body and a pretty big challenge to be honest.
‘But I have chosen to challenge myself this way. I am the defending champion and I am at that point in my career where I just want to attack every championships as if it is my last.
‘I want to have a good time when I compete because there have been too many upsets. I want to make sure there is joy in what I am doing.’
Johnson-Thompson, who turns 30 in January, admits she has ‘no idea’ what she will do when her sporting career ends, but adds the thought ‘doesn’t stress me out like it used to’.
She also finds it hard to believe we are approaching the tenth anniversary of London 2012. That was where she first became known as a teenager looking to emulate Jessica Ennis-Hill.
‘Jess was really gracious with me that entire time. She let me tag along with her and be her shadow,’ Johnson-Thompson says.
‘In front of 80,000 people — it was the biggest work experience job ever. When I did the victory lap with her after she won gold, I realised this is what you can do for a career and something I wanted.’
She has achieved all bar that olympic moment. The hope is that the 2022 Commonwealths can trigger a similar rise to the last one.