Katarina Johnson-Thompson will face an uphill battle to win the gold medal in the heptathlon after falling behind her rival Nafissatou Thiam of Belgium on the second day with just one event left to complete.
On Friday evening, only the 800m remained in the seven-event competition, and Johnson-Thompson was 121 points behind the Belgian, who achieved her season’s best in the javelin throw and catapulted herself to the top after six events. The Swiss Annik Kaelin showed grit and came third after a strong long jump and a decent javelin throw in the morning session.
To win gold, Johnson-Thompson – who regained her world title in Budapest last year – would have to build a clear lead in the final race and finish eight seconds ahead of Thiam.
Thiam, who won gold in both Tokyo and Rio, was 45 points behind Johnson-Thompson in the javelin. Johnson-Thompson, competing in the first group, had kept the pressure on the Belgian with a season’s best of 44.64m, which earned her 757 points. Her second throw was a mistake, but she improved her distance again in the third, also achieving a 2024 best of 45.49m.
Knowing she had to perform at her best in one of her strongest disciplines, Thiam did not let herself be held back. She threw a massive 54.04m, beating her season’s best by more than a meter. Her second throw was a foul and her third reached 52.56m. But that did not matter: her first throw had already put her ahead of her rival.
Johnson-Thompson, 31, put in a courageous performance on the second day of the heptathlon after she got off to a rocky start in the long jump, the first event of the morning.
Johnson-Thompson – who has a personal best in the event of 6.92m outdoors – only managed 4.65m on her first jump. She managed 6.04m on her second jump, recording the score with a frown. But her third jump was a decent 6.40m. Thiam managed 6.41m – slightly narrowing the 48-point difference between the two to 45 points.
Johnson-Thompson had started the day with a 48-point lead, with Thiam in second place on 4,007 and younger American challenger Anna Hall in third on 3,956. The British athlete looked relaxed and confident on the opening day of the heptathlon and almost seemed to be enjoying herself, posting season-bests in the high jump and 100m hurdles and a huge personal best in the shot put.
At the end of the first day, she said: “It was a good day, a very good day, one of the best I’ve had in a long time… There were some really good signs and some good events. I’m really, really happy with it.”
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However, she stressed that her 48-point lead on day two “doesn’t really mean anything.” She added: “I’m happy I was able to put together some solid events and work on my weaknesses. Tomorrow is a new day – it’s not over yet.”
Her path to these games was not smooth – she had to withdraw from the European Championships in Rome at the beginning of June after three competitions.
If she takes silver, it would be a huge achievement for an experienced athlete who has won two world titles, two Commonwealth titles and a silver medal at the European Championships but has never fulfilled her Olympic potential. She finished 14th at her first Games in 2012, finished sixth in 2016 and was unable to finish the 2020 Tokyo Olympics due to injury.
If Thiam wins gold at the third Games in a row, it will cement her position as one of the greatest athletes of modern times.
