I knew I could come back... after seeing the Reds beat Barca
KATARINA JOHNSON-THOMPSON EXCLUSIVE
BRITISH heptathlete Katarina Johnson-Thompson just loves a fairytale comeback.
And two of her biggest inspirations for that are her beloved Liverpool FC and gymnast Simone Biles.
The Team GB athlete pulled off one of the most incredible returns when she won her second world title following a career-threatening injury.
The 31-year-old is one of six sporting superstars nominated for the Laureus World Comeback of the Year award, which will be handed out in Madrid tomorrow night.
Among the other nominees is Biles (far right), whose decision to walk away from the Tokyo Olympics to protect her mental health resonated heavily with JohnsonThompson, who was struggling herself at the time.
She revealed: “Simone is a big inspiration for me, with what she did in Tokyo.
“I remember being in a really tough place myself, mentally, at the time, and I was in the holding camp in
Tokyo, and to watch her and what she did for mental health, was really inspiring.
“I’m a big football fan and I research a lot of people’s stories and when I saw that the nominations were coming out, some are so inspiring and so poignant.
“It’s what I think sport is about, these types of stories, so I’m honoured to be nominated for this particular category.”
Johnson-Thompson banished memories of a career-threatening Achilles injury and the calf issue that ruined her own campaign in Tokyo by winning her second world championship last year in Budapest. As a Liverpool fan, Johnson-Thompson is no stranger to a comeback story. She was just 12-years-old when she witnessed the Miracle of Istanbul when Liverpool overcame a 3-0 half-time deficit to defeat AC Milan and win the Champions League
Final.
She credits her 2019 triumph in the World Championships in Doha to another Liverpool comeback when the Reds achieved the impossible by beating Barcelona 4-0 at Anfield in May that year to reach the Champions League
Final, having trailed 3-0 after the first leg of their semi-final.
She added: “We always have sort of fairytale endings. To see them come back in Istanbul, that just set up what sport was about for me.
"A comeback is basically what I define, where most of the world or everybody around you has written you off except you, and you have that determination to just be like, ‘No, this is my path, this is what I’m capable of, and I’m just going to wait for everybody else to figure out’.
“And you can have a little cult following of people who believe in you and people who want you to do well, but, I think it’s truly like getting over that barrier of when everyone’s written you off and you don’t give up.”
There won’t be many naysayers when Johnson-Thompson takes to the track in Paris this summer in a bid to immortalise herself with a maiden Olympic medal.
After spending five years in France with her previous coach, JohnsonThompson’s fourth Olympic Games feels like a “full circle moment”.
She said: “It feels like a little home Olympic Games, I’m not going to lie. I’m excited to hopefully see a crowd. I’ve not really seen a big crowd since 2012 for an Olympic Games.
“We’ve had Rio and then we’ve had the Covid Games in Tokyo, so, I just want it to feel like a Games.”
» The 25th Laureus World Sports Awards takes place tomorrow evening in Madrid. To find out more, and follow the ceremony, visit www.laureus.com