KJT: Kop inspired my comeback
By
KATARINA JOHNSON-THOMPSON loves a fairytale comeback.
And two of her biggest inspirations for that are her beloved Liverpool FC and gymnast Simone Biles.
The heptathlete pulled off one of the most incredible returns when she won her second world title in
Budapest last year after a careerthreatening Achilles injury.
The 31-year-old Brit 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 nominees is Biles, whose decision to walk away from the Tokyo Olympics to protect her mental health resonated heavily with KJT.
She revealed: “Simone [Biles] 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.”
As a Liverpool fan, KJT is no stranger to a comeback.
She was just 12 in 2005 when she witnessed the impossible as Liverpool came back from 3-0 down to beat AC Milan on penalties in the Champions League Final in Istanbul and credits her first worlds triumph in 2019 to another Reds comeback – the 4-0 win over Barcelona at Anfield.
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’.”