Heptathlete Katarina Johnson-Thompson is preparing to unleash her deceptive power this season
There has to be more to the young woman sitting here in a hotel in Salford; more to someone who might just become the finest female athlete in the world if we agree with Daley Thompson’s long-held view that multi-eventers are the greatest of all.
In spite of her tall, elegant figure, Johnson-Thompson can squat a quite astonishing 300 kilogrammes
Katarina was disappointed to have narrowly missed the world indoor pentathlon record when she won the European gold in Prague, Czech Republic
She wants
to knock Ennis-Hill off her pedestal, right? Not just at the world
championships in Beijing this summer but the Olympics in Rio next year?
‘Of
course,’ she says. ‘But it will be the same with Jess. I want to win the gold
medal in Rio and I will not hold back. That is my dream. Hopefully I will win a
medal this year too.
That is
my more immediate goal and I intend to train hard to achieve that. I really
want that gold. I’m sure Jess does as well. But come competition day it’s just
about focusing on what you can do.’
A story
she tells about what prompted her to join her local athletics club in Liverpool
when she was 11 offers some insight into what really makes her tick.
‘At
primary school it was always me and this other girl, Lauren, who would fight
over who was the fastest every year,’ she says. ‘I was quicker but for some
reason she always got the glory leg in the relay team. That used to annoy me.
‘Then one
day during the summer holidays between year six and year seven - we were going
to different senior schools - she called me at home. She told me she had joined
Liverpool Harriers, almost like showing off. I put the phone down and said to
my mum, “I’m joining Liverpool Harriers”. I dragged my mum down to the
first training session.’
Her
mother actually encouraged her to pursue her passion for the sport after she
decided she no longer wanted to be a dancer.
‘My mum
was a dancer,’ says Johnson-Thompson. ‘She would tour the world with a group
and she had me in a dance class when I was still in a nappy. They told her to
come back when I could walk.
‘I
actually hated dancing. My mum used to have to bribe me to go by buying me
things. A year before I stopped going I was going to go for an audition with
the Royal Ballet. It turned out I was a year too young.
Because I
was tall they thought I was older. But before I had the chance to go back I
quit.
An adorable images of Katarina as a toddler, posted on social media by her proud mother Tracy
‘My mum said I needed to find a new hobby alongside my education. I played
football – at Everton – until they decided to put me in goal. I thought I was a
decent defender so I chose athletics instead.’
Her
mother says she owes her ability in the jumps to the ‘spring’ dance gave her.
‘The coordination too,’ she says. But Johnson-Thompson says her father, a 6ft
1in Bahamian her mother met while on tour, probably provided her with some good
athletic pedigree too. ‘I probably got his fast-twitch genes,’ she says with a
smile.
She was a
natural, breaking high jump records for the scissor kick when she was at
primary school and winning the high jump at English schools level too.
Lithe over the hurdles, Johnson-Thompson dominated the European indoors back in March this year
Johnson-Thompson is the British record holder for the high jump and also has the indoor long jump record
Johnson-Thompson says she is making significant progress in the throws. ‘With
only three throws in each discipline in competition it is difficult to get it
right,’ she says. ‘But I’ve thrown further in training than I’ve so far managed
in competition. About a metre more in the shot for a start.’
Technical
assistance from Goldie Sayers, the British record holder for the javelin, is
also helping, she claims. ‘My javelin is going really well,’ she says
confidently. ‘It’s actually the shot putt I really need to focus on.’
Make
those advances in the throws and she could soon be superseding Ennis-Hill’s
best performances outdoors as well as indoors. Perhaps even becoming only the
fourth woman to score more than 7000 points (Ennis-Hill’s British record is
6955 to Johnson-Thompson’s current best of 6682).
‘Not many
women have gone over 7000 points so I try to take one step at a time,’ she
says. ‘World records are one thing but it’s more about medals.’
Johnson-Thompson's main rival for glory, countrywoman Jessica Ennis Hill, plunges into an ice bath
Ennis-Hill speaks to press after competing in her first heptathlon since giving birth at the weekend
And for Johnson-Thompson it’s about doing things her way; about
keeping it simple; about making steady progress in the build up to Rio.
Interestingly, it’s about training less than her rivals.
‘I don’t
train as much as other heptathletes probably do,’ she says. ‘When I am at the
track I train really hard. I’m there for hours but then I go home and have a
rest day. But it’s how I’ve always done it. It works for me. I’m improving and
progressing.
‘I train
four days a week, once a day. I don’t have to train as much for the high jump
and long jump as much as I do for the javelin and shot. The rest of it is
fitness. Sprinting and running sessions, technical and hurdles.
‘My diet
is stricter than it was. My coach has done the science but he’s broken it down
for me in terms of how much protein I need in my diet for my weight. It’s just
a case of being sensible now.
'It’s certainly easier now that I’m living alone because when I
lived with my mum and my nan they were always buying all sorts of treats. And
if it’s there you reach out for it. Now I’m in the supermarket I don’t buy it.’
Katarina says she's a different athlete to this one congratulating Ennis-Hill on her London 2012 victory
Compatriots Johnson-Thompson (left) and Louise Hazel (right) kiss their GB team-mate in London
Now 22,
she has also changed as a competitor. Certainly compared to the athlete who
watched Ennis-Hill win gold in London. In London this summer, at the
Sainsbury’s Anniversary Games, she says she will be far more focused; more
professional.
‘It’s
very different from 2012,’ she says. ‘It’s a different mentality going into an
event now. In 2012, I was like a spectator, looking at the crowd and
watching Jess. Now I’m there to do a job.
‘I think
you have to be obsessive as an athlete. I’m not sure I was so much a couple of
years ago. Going training was like ticking a box, “done that”.
You need
a lot of focus to do heptathlon. There is always something you need to focus on
and work on. As an athlete I’m now understanding that.’
You could
say she’s flexing her muscles more.
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