Culture

How Katarina Johnson-Thompson used tech to prep for the delayed Olympics

When an athlete’s whole training cycle is geared towards peaking at one specific starting line, how do they deal with it being pushed back a year?

In an alternate timeline, Katarina Johnson-Thompson would currently be gearing up for her world heptathlon title defence. Tokyo 2020, consigned to the record books, would be a speck in the rearview mirror. A new four-year training cycle, meticulously prepared using data gathered from the track and performance labs, would already be entering the quarter-way mark ahead of the 2024 Olympics.

But Covid-19 happened. In March 2020, the Olympics were postponed. Nearing the apex of their four-year training journey, athletes were forced to pause and face the agony of turning back. With the Games rescheduled for this July, their peak performance would have to be delayed a year. “It was super difficult,” says Johnson-Thompson, 28. “When we didn’t know if the Games were going to happen, it was tough finding motivation to train. Once we had the new date, it was easier to reset, adjust and think, ‘OK, it’s one more year.’”

Athletes around the world are currently approaching that same summit, 12 months later. But whereas their last climb was gradual – if still gruelling – this path to Tokyo has been steep, winding and unpredictable. Lockdowns and closed performance centres have forced athletes to find a creative streak: from canoeists practising their strokes in backyard pools, to pole vaulters taping tins of baked beans to the end of broom sticks for added weight.

Johnson-Thompson, from Liverpool but based in Montpellier, France, also had to think on her feet. Like many in the era of working from home, Zoom became essential. “It was hard – France went into lockdown first. That’s when I came back to Liverpool and had a lot of remote sessions through Zoom, over the phone with my coach.”

Technology has filled the gaps left by cancelled schedules and limited travel: from apps which simulate competition, to the likes of Supersapiens which monitors glucose levels, to Prevayl clothing which collects athlete biotech data through fabric electrodes. In the absence of in-person physios, Johnson-Thompson has relied on the Flow massage gun to aid recovery. “With access to usual recovery facilities limited, we’ve noticed a big increase in demand,” says Flow Sports Technology’s James Beattie. “Recovery tools are crucial for the strange situation athletes have found themselves in.”

Delaying “peak” performance can have huge ramifications. “Elite athletes always run a fine line in being injury-free – they're pushing their bodies so hard,” explains Jeff Ross, of Harris & Ross Physiotherapy. “When you're on a four-year cycle, it’s just brutal to have the Olympics pushed back a year. I know some athletes who have backed off their training altogether. If you perform at your maximum every day, you’ll break. But physically, you don’t want to have peaked last year – it’s a fine balance.”

Johnson-Thompson would have been going to the Games last summer, riding the tailwind of her 2019 World Championships victory in Doha. The year-long delay may have slowed momentum, but it doesn’t necessarily spell disaster. For athletes approaching their prime – such as Johnson-Thompson – the enforced break provided a much needed breather. “I’ve been going since I was 12 years old – it was the first year I had nothing to aim for,” she says. “I had a mental break during the first lockdown, then was able to compete over the summer and return to France and train.”

With seven events to master, the heptathlon is an all-round discipline. Johnson-Thompson’s strengths lie in her speed and jumping ability – her leap at Rio 2016 would have seen her win individual high jump gold – with the throwing events typically her weaker point. The pandemic, therefore, provided an opportunity for an under-the-hood look at what could be fine-tuned, which deficiencies could be corrected, how the machine could be recalibrated with the aim of Olympic gold. “We saw it as the chance to get some extra work in, and work on events we wouldn’t normally have had the time for,” Johnson-Thompson adds. “Since September, my training has been in full flow.”

The road to Tokyo has been long, challenging and – at times – off the beaten track. But with the starting line belatedly in sight, athletes can finally aim for Olympic glory. Now back at their physical peak, the intensity of gym and track sessions will finally begin tapering off as athletes aim to arrive in Japan as fresh as possible. “The pandemic has changed the type of athlete I am,” beams Johnson-Thompson. Does one year later equal one year better? “I’m better at being able to adapt and do things for the love of it, not just for a goal at the end of it. But, ultimately, it’s the same goal – it’s just a different path.”

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This article was originally published by WIRED UK