Olympic star Katarina Johnson-Thompson admits ‘I wish I’d listened to my physique’ after harm
Standing at the starting line of the 200m during the Olympics in Tokyo, TeamGB heptathlete and reigning world champion Katarina Johnson-Thompson was worried about her condition.
She says: “I had it in my head that something was not right.”
A few seconds later, as she came round a bend in the race, the star suddenly pulled up in pain, grabbing her right leg.
Despite bravely hobbling over the line and finishing the race, Katarina’s Games were over.
She says: “The thing that stopped me finishing the Olympics in 2021 was my right calf. It got injured in two places.”
Now she’s teamed up with the High Street retailer Holland & Barrett for a quirky campaign where the chain is specifically sponsoring the star’s calf.
It’s to raise awareness of the dangers of not listening to your body, with 45 per cent of Brits only paying attention when something goes wrong.
Katarina says: “Throughout my career I’ve had many different injuries, and I feel like a lot of them would have been preventable if I’d just listened to my body a little bit more.”
“I had the belief that you should push through, push your body to the limits. But being able to finish healthy is more important than doing something and setting yourself back. I feel like I’m a lot more balanced these days.”
Her injury in Tokyo proved to be more than a physical setback
She explains: “It wasn’t the best situation to be in and that took its toll on me in the coming years mentally.
“It was really hard as athlete to be injured, not to be able to do the basic training that you need…so mentally and physically it’s a lot of stress.”
Since then, Katarina has got into a better routine, like making sure she doesn’t skip proper warm-ups.
She also adds: “When I was younger I used to go the track and then tick the box off and think I’ve trained and then I’d go home and I’d just try and relax.
“I wouldn’t stretch at night. I feel like stretching is so important to make the next day a lot easier and I’ve got into that routine of forcing myself to do it, pairing it with something like calling a friend.
“It’s prehab over rehab now. I feel like that will make me mentally strong on the start line.”
Katarina, who bounced back to win a silver medal in the heptathlon at the 2024 Paris Olympics, has learned to become more body confident too.
She says: “I got thrust into the world stage when I was 19 at the 2012 Olympics and I definitely wasn’t too body confident at the time. The clothes that we have to wear as athletes are quite skimpy. It was a stressful event for me to be put out there in front of so many eyes.”
But, she adds: “It kind of fixed me being in an Olympic village, where’s there’s so many body types…I learned to love with what I’ve got. I never liked my height so much when I was younger and (I’ve) got big feet and stuff, but as you get older you mellow out a little bit.”
Today Katarina trains six days a week with technical sessions on each of her seven, gruelling heptathlon events as well as doing sprint, jump sessions and physio. She also has hour-long sessions in a hyperbaric oxygen chamber joking that: “It’s the only bit of peace and quiet I get.”
When it comes to nutrition she says: “For breakfast I have some protein pancakes and some fruit yoghurt and coffee. For lunch I tend to go for an egg and then for dinner some sort of meat, veg and carb. I do like lasagne.”
Now she’s encouraging others to listen to their bodies more and take advantage of one of Holland & Barrett’s 300,000 free Wellness Check-ins.
She adds: “The biggest shift is that I actually listen to my body. My calf tells me when something is not right and I do not ignore it anymore.”
Get a free Wellness Check-In at a Holland & Barrett store near you or visit their website.
