Paralympian Jonnie Peacock insists 'the fire is back'

Jonnie Peacock insisted 'the fire is back' as he prepares to regain his Paralympic crown. The 29-year-old from Cambridge won back-to-back gold medals at London 2012 and Rio 2016, before sharing a dead-heat bronze in Tokyo with Johannes Floors. Ad So there is double motivation for the T64 sprinter, who is relishing the return of packed crowds in Paris for successive summers.

Athletics'Forever changed the sport' — Revolutionary high jumper Dick Fosbury dies, aged 7613/03/2023 AT 21:23 And Peacock, who was speaking at the launch of ParalympicsGB's new initiative Every Body Moves powered by Toyota, admitted some of his spark had deserted him in the lead up to Tokyo. «Tokyo was honestly not my best Games,» said Peacock. «My preparation was hampered with some blade issues and the lockdown made it even worse.

»From then on, it's all about re-finding that motivation. That's what it gave me. Tokyo fired me up again.

«I think it was a situation where I was just going through the motions and that's wrong. »There was definitely a lot of motivation before, but it re-sparked everything, turning the engine back on. «But the fire is back.

The last two years were all about trying to work as hard as possible and that's all it's going to be for the next 18 months.» The French capital plays host to the 2023 World Para Athletics Championships in July, the first time all of the world's leading para-athletes have convened in front of fans since the pandemic. «Tokyo was weird,» admitted Peacock. «As athletes, we will all tell you it doesn't really matter if there's a crowd there or not.

»Obviously, we're there to do our job, but you also feed off the crowd. «That adrenaline, that fire is all going to help. It's just going to be a good spirit in