Nothing will stop SUPERMUM
Pavey seeks to join Tessa at nearly 48
JO PAVEY intends to reach a sixth Olympics – despite the postponement meaning she will be almost 48 come Tokyo.
Time is not on the side of the mum-of-two who is one short of the Games appearance record for a British track-and-field athlete set by javelin legend Tessa Sanderson.
Yet despite the 12-month delay caused by the pandemic, Pavey is clinging to her goal of extending her Olympic career as a long-distance runner into a 21st year.
She is uncomfortable talking about sporting ambition during this period of lockdown when her thoughts are with “our amazing NHS staff”. But her determination shines through in the novel ways she is keeping in shape whilst at home schooling the kids.
“There are ways and means,” she said, revealing how she is supplementing lonely hill running with step-ups onto a coffee table and bouncing on her kids’ trampoline. “You just have to think outside the box.”
Pavey said it was “completely right” that the Olympics had been postponed
“even though it means I’m going to be even older!”
She admitted: “I know a sixth Olympics is a big ask – not only as far as running the standard is concerned, we’ve also got some brilliantly talented young athletes.
“But I don’t want people to think I’m delusional; 2014, when I was so surprised to get 10,000m gold at the Europeans in Zurich, taught me not to put limits on things. You never know what’s possible until you try.”
Sanderson’s last Olympics was in Atlanta in 1996, with Pavey making her Games debut in Sydney in 2000.
Show jumper Nick Skelton proved that age was no barrier in Rio four years ago when he became Britain’s oldest Olympic gold medallist since 1908 at 58.
And while Tokyo’s delay might pose a challenge for Pavey in terms of time, she believes it will make for a fairer Games.
“With the lockdown restrictions currently in place it isn’t possible to have random testing,” she said. “Worldwide anti-doping would have been less stringent, it goes without saying.
“Next year should be a more level playing field.”
For all that, Nicole Sapstead, the chief executive of UK AntiDoping, has warned athletes and coaches against thinking they can cheat while the focus is elsewhere.
“There will always be a minority that seek to dope,” she said. “And whether that is now, when they think they’re off the radar, or at any other time, my message to them is very clear.
“We will continue to process intelligence, monitor whereabouts and also monitor the raft of information we have, such as the athlete biological passports.
“All of this helps us to gain a picture of what an athlete might be doing during this time.”