This is Stuart Weir’s feature, 12 years in the making, on the inimitable Katerina Johnson-Thompson, an amazingly iconic athlete.
KJT is an article 12 years in the making
As far as I can recall, this is the first time I have written an article on Katerina Johnson-Thompson, but it has been a well-researched article. I first spoke to her in the dining room at the 2012 London Olympics. As I recall, it was just a simple “well done.” Over the years, I have watched her in 4 Olympics, six world championships, two Commonwealth Games, and two European Championships, as well as five continental or global indoor championships,
Heptathlon is a uniquely demanding discipline or series of disciplines that puts great demands on the body. Alongside the two wins in World Championships (2019 and 2023), 2 Commonwealth titles, European indoor victories, a world indoor title, and now an Olympic silver medal, there have been near misses, withdrawals mid-competition through injuries and events when one small error spoiled a potentially perfect day.
That was ironic in real life, jumping 1.98 in the heptathlon but finishing only sixth overall, but a 1.98 in the stand-alone jump would have brought her the gold medal. In the 2015 World Championships, she was lying in 6th place but was adjudged to have had three fouls in the long jump – one of them so marginal that she remonstrated long and hard with the officials without success and finished in 28th place. Her first world title came in 2019 in Doha, a feat he repeated in Budapest in 2023. Paris was her 4th Olympics, but that silver medal was her first Olympic podium.
That victory for KJT would require her to defeat Nafi Thiam, who went into Paris seeking a third successive Olympic title to add to her own 3 World and 6 European titles, illustrating the challenge that faced the British athlete. Thiam won 6880 points to 6844. It came down to a centimeter here and a second there. In the final event, KJT ran an 800m PR – so did Thiam. It was that kind of day.
Some athletes give you a very sanitized reaction to their competition; KJT just let it all flow out: “Yeah, it was a good day, the best I have had in a long time. A couple of perfect signs and a good couple of events, so I am really pleased with what I’ve put together. I’m so, so happy with that. I’m very grateful and emotional; I’m feeling overwhelmed. I’ve got no regrets. I’m just trying to take it all in and live in the moment. It’s the ultimate relief. I was running for gold, but honestly, I had such mixed emotions that I was sort of grieving gold but also fighting for gold. Then I was celebrating silver. So many mixed emotions.
“Just to be on the podium is such an honor. Olympic cycles can be brutal, and I know that more than anyone. I’m just glad that this cycle worked out. 2016 was mental exhaustion. 2020 was physical exhaustion. So I feel like, after both Olympics, I wanted to give up for different reasons. But I’m glad I didn’t. I’m so happy with the last three years and the team around me. I wouldn’t be on the start line with them”.
Three-time Olympic Champion Nafi Thiam was a worthy winner, but KJT did everything correctly.
