Katarina Johnson-Thompson: ‘I still want to do it. I still love heptathlon’

“Against all the odds, I’m still here,” says Katarina Johnson-Thompson, smiling wryly as she strokes a three-inch scar that snakes down her left achilles tendon. Another mark, on her right leg, is a cruel legacy from a torn calf muscle that ripped her Olympic dream away from her in Tokyo. There have been plenty of other scars – to groin and knee, as well as head and heart – down the years. Yet despite so many painful setbacks, Britain’s most compelling athlete is back, and planning the greatest renaissance of her career.

“I have unfulfilled goals, that’s why I’m still competing,” says Johnson-Thompson, looking happy and relaxed before her first heptathlon of the season at the prestigious Götzis Hypomeeting in Austria. “That’s why I continued after an achilles rupture in 2020, which for many is a career finisher. I still want to do it. I still love the sport. I still love heptathlon. And I want to win as many medals as I can over the next couple of years.”

There have been six major senior medals in her career, including a world outdoor title in 2019, and two world indoor gold medals in 2014 and 2018. But in the shadow of the Bregenzerwald mountains, Johnson-Thompson makes it clear that she has even loftier ambitions. Asked whether they include becoming only the fifth person to break into the 7,000 points club and winning an Olympic gold medal in Paris, she is emphatic. “Yeah completely.”

“I’m happy with what I’ve achieved so far,” she says. “But I want more before I retire. I don’t want to be sitting back and retiring, and then thinking in two years: ‘Well, I could have competed for another two years.’ So I’m in the mindset where I just want to try to squeeze everything I can out of the next two years.”

Johnson-Thompson