‘Glad I didn’t give up’ – Johnson-Thompson’s Olympic silver joy

Four Olympic Games have brought four very different experiences for Katarina Johnson-Thompson.

It has been a rollercoaster journey through a career marked by stunning highs and desperate lows.

From the top of the world to fearing it might all be over, and back again.

Each experience led Johnson-Thompson to this moment at Paris 2024 – when silver felt almost as good as gold.

With a podium place on the sport’s biggest stage at last in reach, the 31-year-old arrived at the decisive 800m race of her fourth Games with the chance of becoming champion.

The near-certain guarantee of a medal represented – beyond any doubt – an exceptional achievement in itself, four years after a career-threatening Achilles injury and three years after being dealt another devastating injury setback in Tokyo.

Faced with the task of needing to finish 8.5 seconds ahead of arguably the greatest heptathlete of all-time, Johnson-Thompson produced a fearless performance to clock a personal best before facing an agonising wait for the official results.

Deep down, she already knew as she crouched on the track at the Stade de France. It was confirmed that Nafissatou Thiam had crossed the line with two seconds to spare, winning by only 36 points to become the first woman to win three Olympic heptathlon titles.

In truth, though, it didn’t really matter at all.

It was silver for Johnson-Thompson, who said earlier this year “it’s really hard to be a fan of me”. The magnitude of her emotional podium finish will not be lost on those who have followed the ups and downs of her career since London 2012.

“I can’t even describe the words that this week has taken,” Johnson-Thompson told BBC Sport.

“I’m just so, so happy that I’ve got an Olympic medal to add to my collection.

“It has been so hard getting back to this point so I’m just so relieved.”

Above the three-inch scar on Johnson-Thompson’s left Achilles tendon is a tattoo of a blue shell, used in the game Mario Kart to wipe out the race leader.

Johnson-Thompson had at last fulfilled her world-beating potential to become world champion in Doha in 2019, beating reigning Olympic champion Thiam by a sensational 304 points and breaking Jessica Ennis-Hill’s British record.

A year later, it all came crashing down.

An Achilles rupture on her take-off leg, so crucial to the jumping capabilities which allowed her to achieve her maiden global triumph, saw Johnson-Thompson start the Olympic year wearing a protective boot.

Remarkably, she recovered in just eight months to make the Tokyo Olympics, only to suffer further heartbreak.

In a soulless stadium absent of spectators amid the global pandemic, a calf tear sustained during the 200m left her writhing on the track in pain, bringing the cruellest end to her latest bid for an Olympic medal.

Emblematic of the resilience she has shown throughout, she picked herself up and carried on, hobbling across the finish line, but the significant blow ultimately led to a year of indifference and underperformance in 2022.

Repeated setbacks left her disheartened. Almost a bystander at the World Championships, she finished a disappointing eighth and later admitted: “Eugene was the worst of me. It was such a horrible experience.”

It took gold in front of a home crowd at the Commonwealth Games in Birmingham later that summer to reignite her desire to fight for titles, putting her on the path that would eventually lead to the moment she had long dreamed of in Paris.

Denise Lewis, Olympic heptathlon champion at Sydney 2000, said on BBC TV: “She has worked doggedly to be the best that she can be.

“Her demeanour has changed. She is more confident. She is resilient, absolutely resilient.

“She is the national record holder, a double world champion. Had she not left this arena with a medal she would have been really disappointed. It completes the set.”

Johnson-Thompson described her second global heptathlon triumph in Budapest last year as “the best day of my life” after she defended a narrow lead over favourite Anna Hall to complete a remarkable turnaround in her career.

With expectations raised, it was time for redemption on the sport’s biggest stage.

London 2012 represented a learning experience for the teenage Johnson-Thompson, who finished 13th as Ennis-Hill won gold on an unforgettable Super Saturday for Team GB, but it was sixth place in Rio that she felt marked a missed opportunity.

It even caused her to question whether she wanted to continue – long before the unfortunate events of Tokyo.

“Rio 2016 was mental exhaustion. Tokyo 2020 was physical exhaustion,” Johnson-Thompson said.

“After both of those 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 without them.”

Speaking on BBC TV, Ennis-Hill said of Johnson-Thompson: “I remember in Rio after we competed, she was almost ready to stop there. She had just had enough.

“But she kept going for two more Olympics. It’s so hard to put into words how challenging that is and how well she has done.”

In Paris, those 12 years of global championship experience were channelled into putting the record straight.

Johnson-Thompson produced a personal best in the shot put, by far one of her weakest disciplines, to remain in gold medal contention, before running the 800m of her life as she amassed the second-best score of her career in pursuit of the ultimate prize.

Wearing a beaming smile, a silver tiara on her head and with a Union Jack draped over her shoulders, the achievement of going so close to gold at all was not lost on her for a second as Thiam’s victory was confirmed.

Even this year there had been concern surrounding preparations after Johnson-Thompson withdrew from the European Championships in June with a minor leg issue, having contested only three events but already fallen behind Thiam.

That was a necessary sacrifice to make as she went after the one prize she desperately desired.

“I’m very grateful and emotional. I’m feeling overwhelmed. I’ve got no regrets,” Johnson-Thompson said on Friday evening.

“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 to be honest 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 honour. Olympic cycles can be brutal, and I know that more than anyone.”