Johnson-thompson looks to two more Olympics to complete unfinished business
Heptathlon world champion Katarina Johnson-thompson is targeting at least two more Olympic Games before retirement as she feels she has unfinished business.
The 28-year-old has already featured at London 2012 and Rio in 2016, finishing 14th and sixth respectively, and has her sights set on the delayed Tokyo event this summer as well as the Paris Games three years later.
"Another two at least, counting Tokyo. Definitely until Paris 2024, that's for sure, that will be almost like a home Games," the 2019 world champion told the 22 Voices podcast, a series from the Birmingham 2022 Commonwealth Games. "It's super difficult to win an Olympic medal, I think that's why the weight behind it is always there, and you have to be ready on that day, every four years. It's important for me because I have achieved a lot of things I want to achieve, and I still don't feel like I've reached my full potential. I still don't feel like I've gotten everything I wanted out of the sport, so I think that's a huge driving force and my motivation."
Johnson-thompson almost quit athletics after disappointment at Rio, while the postponement of the 2020 Games for a year due to coronavirus also hit her hard, but she is now fully focused on Japan in July.
"When it got announced that the Olympics were postponed, it was like my whole motivation to get up and do what I normally do each day started to fade away week by week," she added. "It hit me the hardest because my dreams of Tokyo went in the bin.”