Katarina Johnson-Thompson hasn't ruled out 2028 return as she admits she is 'grieving gold'

Katarina Johnson-Thompson has said she hasn't ruled out competing at the 2028 Olympics after admitting she was “grieving gold”.

The Liverpudlian said she was still celebrating after securing her first Olympic medal with heptathlon silver in Paris. She led the way for much of the two-day competition, but after the morning’s javelin throw found herself second to Nafissatou Thiam, needing to beat her Belgian rival by a margin of over eight seconds in the 800 metres.

The 31-year-old was second fastest in the final event with a personal best of 2:04.90 to finish nearly six seconds ahead of Thiam, who secured an unprecedented third Olympic heptathlon title by a mere 36 points.

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Johnson-Thompson, the reigning world heptathlon champion, said: “I’m so grateful, emotional and overwhelmed. I’m just trying to live in the moment.

“Ultimate relief as I crossed the line. I was running for a gold, but to be honest I had such mixed emotions going into it because I was sort of grieving gold, but also wanting to fight for gold but also celebrating inside.

“I had so many different emotions crossing the line. Just being on the podium is a huge honour. Olympic cycles can be brutal and I know that more than anyone, so I’m so happy this cycle has worked out.”

A maiden Olympic medal has been a long time coming for Johnson-Thompson, who finished 13th on debut at London 2012, then sixth at the Rio 2016 Games.

The 31-year-old was then forced to pull out of the Tokyo 2020 Olympics after sustaining a calf injury in the 200m.

She said: “2016 was all mental I think, it was mental exhaustion, 2021 was physical.

“I feel like after