Katarina Johnson-Thompson

Katarina Mary Johnson-Thompson (born 9 January 1993) is an English heptathlete. She won the gold medal at the 2019 World Championships and broke the British record with a score of 6,981 points, which ranks her at No. 6 on the all-time heptathlon lists.[1] She also holds the British record of 5,000 points for the women's pentathlon and won gold in that event at the 2015 and 2019 European Indoor Championships, as well as the 2018 World Indoor Championships. In the long jump, she was the 2012 World Junior Champion and the 2014 World Indoor silver medalist. She also holds the British high jump records with 1.98 m outdoors (2016) and 1.97 m indoors (2015).

Katarina Johnson-Thompson
Johnson-Thompson in March 2018
Personal information
Nickname(s)KJT
Born (1993-01-09) 9 January 1993
Liverpool, England
Height1.83 m (6 ft 0 in)
Weight68 kg (150 lb)
Sport
SportAthletics
Event(s)Heptathlon, pentathlon, high jump
ClubLiverpool Harriers
Achievements and titles
Personal best(s)Heptathlon 6,981
Pentathlon 5,000
High jump 1.98 m

Johnson-Thompson's heptathlon results include finishing 14th at the 2012 London Olympics, fifth at the 2013 World Championships, sixth at the 2016 Rio Olympics, and fifth at the 2017 World Championships. She won the gold medal in the heptathlon at the 2018 Commonwealth Games before winning the silver medal at the 2018 European Championships with a personal best score of 6,759 points, which moved her into the world all-time Top 25.

Early life

Katarina Mary Johnson-Thompson was born in the Liverpool suburb of Woolton on 9 January 1993,[2] the daughter of Tracey Johnson and Ricardo Thompson (died November 2017).[3] Her mother is a former dancer from Liverpool, while her father was a Bahamian man from Nassau.[4] She spent the first year of her life in Nassau with her father after her parents separated and then joined her mother in the town of Halewood near Liverpool,[5] where she attended St Mark's Catholic Primary School and became interested in athletics.[6] She later returned to Woolton, where she attended St Julie's Catholic High School and became close friends with future actress Jodie Comer,[7] and went on to study sports science at Liverpool John Moores University.[8][9]

Career

Youth career

Johnson-Thompson represents Liverpool Harriers and was formerly coached by Mike Holmes.[2] Her development was in part funded by the Wells Sports Foundation set up by Barrie Wells, which gave her access to the foundation's patron, Jessica Ennis (now Dame Jessica Ennis-Hill).

At the 2009 World Youth Championships in Athletics in Brixen, Italy, she won the gold medal in the heptathlon.[9] She missed most of the 2010 athletics season suffering from patellar tendinopathy, also known as jumper's knee.[10][11]

Johnson-Thompson broke Jessica Ennis' British junior record at the Multistars competition held in Desenzano del Garda, Italy in May 2012.[12] Her score of 6007 points was enough to take third position at the event behind Sofía Ifadídou of Greece and French athlete Blandine Maisonnier.[13] The score also meant she had surpassed the 'B' qualifying standard for the 2012 Olympics, however it fell short of the 6,150 points 'A' standard.[12] In June 2012 Johnson-Thompson achieved the 'A' qualifying standard for the 2012 Olympics by scoring a new personal best of 6,248 points at the TNT – Fortuna Meeting held in the Sletiště Stadium, Kladno, Czech Republic. At the meeting she set six new personal bests across the seven events to beat her previous best score by 241 points.[14]

At the 2012 World Junior Championships in Athletics held in Barcelona, Johnson-Thompson chose not to compete in the full heptathlon competition to save herself for the Olympics; instead she took part in the long jump—winning a gold medal with a jump of 6.81 metres—and the 100 metres hurdles.[15]

In early April 2012, alongside Tiffany Porter and Yamilé Aldama, she was nominated for "European Athlete of the Month" for March.[16]

London Olympics and first World Championships

Johnson-Thompson competed for Great Britain at the 2012 Summer Olympics in the women's heptathlon alongside compatriots Jessica Ennis and Louise Hazel at the Olympic Stadium on 3–4 August 2012. She finished in 13th place with a score of 6267.[17]

In September, Johnson-Thompson was nominated for the "European Athletics Rising Star award".[18] In October, she won the "Lillian Board Memorial Award" (for junior women) at the 2012 British Athletics Writers' Association Awards.[19]

In the 2013 IAAF World Championships heptathlon, Johnson-Thompson finished in 5th place. After a first day which left her in 5th place, with a PB in the 200 m, she had an excellent second day with PB's in the Long Jump, Javelin and the 800 m. However, she admitted afterwards that she wished she had set her target of finishing in the Top 8 with more ambition, having finished just 28 points away from bronze medallist Dafne Schippers.[20][21]

First World Indoor and European medals

On 11 July 2014, Johnson-Thompson set a new long jump personal best of 6.92 m at the Glasgow Diamond League meeting, taking her to number 2 on the British all-time list for the event.[22] Johnson-Thompson won gold at the 2014 edition of the prestigious heptathlon Hypo-Meeting in Götzis[23] with a world leading personal best score of 6682 but missed the Commonwealth Games and the European Championships after suffering a foot injury.[24]

Johnson-Thompson set a new British high jump record with a height of 1.97 metres at the British Indoor Championships in Sheffield on 14 February 2015,[25] surpassing her previous record of 1.96 metres set on 8 February 2014.[26] Prior to Johnson-Thompson, Debbie Marti's 1.95-metre jump had held the record since 1997.

On 21 February 2015, Johnson-Thompson set a new indoor British long jump record with a distance of 6.93 m at the Birmingham Indoor Grand Prix.[27]

In August 2015, Johnson-Thompson finished in 28th place in the heptathlon at the 2015 World Championships in Beijing after three foul jumps in the long jump. She had been lying in second place to Jessica Ennis-Hill after the first day of events.[28]

Johnson-Thompson competed at the 2016 Hypo-Meeting in May of that year, her first major competition since undergoing knee surgery in the autumn of 2015: she finished the competition in sixth with a score of 6,304 points, securing her place at the 2016 Summer Olympics by beating the qualifying standard of 6,200 points.[29]

She missed out on a medal at the Games, taking sixth in the heptathlon, although her performance in the heptathlon high jump of 1.98 m set a new British high jump record, and would have been good enough to take gold in the stand-alone Olympic high jump competition.[30]

In September 2016, UK Athletics confirmed that Johnson-Thompson had split with coach Mike Holmes, having been trained by him since 2008.[31]

She subsequently moved to Montpellier, France, to be coached by a team led by Bertrand Valcin, joining a training group including Olympic decathlon medalist Kevin Mayer and double European heptathlon champion Antoinette Nana Djimou.[32]

On 5–6 August 2017, Johnson-Thompson competed in the heptathlon at the 2017 World Championships in Athletics held in London. After moving to Montpellier, she was expected to land a podium position but was not able to surpass the 1.86 barrier in the heptathlon's high jump, with a successful jump at 1.80 m, which gave her 978 points. In a post heptathlon Day 1 interview, she stated: "High jump is one of my best events, I lost 200 points in just one event so that's massive. I'm massively disappointed but I'm trying to move on. In Day 2, long jump is one of my good events so hopefully I can do well there".[33] Johnson-Thompson finished in 5th place with 6558 points. She also competed in the single high jump event, finishing fifth with a Season's Best jump at 1.95 m.

World and Commonwealth titles

Johnson-Thompson won the 2018 World indoor pentathlon title and the 2018 Commonwealth Games heptathlon titles,[34] before going on to win a silver medal behind World and Olympic champion Nafi Thiam in the heptathlon at the 2018 European Championships, recording a personal best score of 6759 points,[35] to move into the world all-time Top 25.

In May 2019, at the 45th Hypomeeting in Götzis, Johnson-Thompson recorded a new personal best of 6,813 in the Heptathlon, taking her up to 18th on the world all-time list.[36]

She won the heptathlon 2019 World Athletics Championships in Doha, Qatar with a British record of 6981 points.[37]

Personal life

Johnson-Thompson moved to Montpellier in 2016, and currently splits her time between Montpellier and her home city of Liverpool. She is a lifelong fan of local team Liverpool F.C.[38] She has been in a relationship with fellow athlete Andrew Pozzi since 2018.[39]

Statistics

Personal bests
Outdoor personal bests
Event Record Points Date Meeting Venue Notes
100 metres hurdles 13.09 s 1111 2 October 2019 2019 World Athletics Championships Doha, Qatar
High jump 1.98 m 1211 12 August 2016 2016 Olympic Games Rio de Janeiro, Brazil NR
Shot put 13.86 m 785 2 October 2019 2019 World Athletics Championships Doha, Qatar
200 metres 22.79 s 1100 28 May 2016 Hypo-Meeting Götzis, Austria
Long jump 6.92 m 1145 11 July 2014 Glasgow Grand Prix Glasgow, United Kingdom
Javelin 43.93 m 743 3 October 2019 2019 World Athletics Championships Doha, Qatar
800 metres 2:07.26 1005 3 October 2019 2019 World Athletics Championships Doha, Qatar
Heptathlon 6981 pts PB Total: 7100 3 October 2019 2019 World Athletics Championships Doha, Qatar NR
Indoor personal bests
Event Record Points Date Meeting Venue Notes
60 metres 7.50 s – 18 January 2014 Northern U17/U20/Senior Championships Sheffield, United Kingdom
60 metres hurdles 8.18 s 1088 6 March 2015 European Indoor Championships Prague, Czech Republic
High jump 1.97 m 1198 14 February 2015 British Indoor Championships Sheffield, United Kingdom NRi
Shot put 13.15 m 737 1 March 2019 European Indoor Championships Glasgow, United Kingdom
Long jump 6.93 m 1149 21 February 2015 Birmingham Grand Prix Birmingham, United Kingdom NRi
800 metres 2:12.78 924 6 March 2015 European Indoor Championships Prague, Czech Republic
Pentathlon 5000 pts PB Total: 5096 6 March 2015 European Indoor Championships Prague, Czech Republic NRi
  • All information from Power of 10.[40]

Seasonal bests

International competitions
Katarina Johnson-Thompson competes in the Long Jump event at the Anniversary Games in London, July 2016
YearCompetitionVenuePositionEventNotes
Representing  Great Britain and  England
2009 World Youth Championships Brixen, Italy 1st Heptathlon 5750 pts[40]
European Junior Championships Novi Sad, Serbia 8th Heptathlon 5375 pts
2011 European Junior Championships Tallinn, Estonia 6th Heptathlon 5787 pts
2012 World Junior Championships Barcelona, Spain 1st Long jump 6.81 m
Olympic Games London, United Kingdom 14th Heptathlon 6267 pts
2013 European U23 Championships Tampere, Finland 1st Heptathlon 6215 pts
World Championships Moscow, Russia 5th Heptathlon 6449 pts
2014 World Indoor Championships Sopot, Poland 2nd Long jump 6.81 m
2015 European Indoor Championships Prague, Czech Republic 1st Pentathlon 5000 pts
World Championships Beijing, China 28th Heptathlon 5039 pts
11th Long jump 6.63 m
2016 Olympic Games Rio de Janeiro, Brazil 6th Heptathlon 6523 pts
2017 World Championships London, United Kingdom 5th High jump 1.95 m
5th Heptathlon 6558 pts
2018 World Indoor Championships Birmingham, United Kingdom 1st Pentathlon 4750 pts
Commonwealth Games Gold Coast, Australia 1st Heptathlon 6255 pts
European Championships Berlin, Germany 2nd Heptathlon 6759 pts
2019 European Indoor Championships Glasgow, United Kingdom 1st Pentathlon 4983 pts
World Championships Doha, Qatar 1st Heptathlon 6981 pts NR

Detailed heptathlon scores
Competition 100 m hurdles High jump Shot put 200 metres Long jump Javelin 800 metres Heptathlon[41] Notes
2012 Olympic Games 13.48 1.89 m 11.32 m 23.73 6.19 m 38.37 m 2:10.76 6267 pts NJR
2013 World Championships 13.49 1.83 m 11.52 m 23.37 6.56 m 40.86 m 2:07.64 (PB) 6449 pts
2015 World Championships 13.37 1.89 m 12.47 m 23.08 (PB) – 39.52 m 2:50.73 5039 pts
2016 Olympic Games 13.48 1.98 m (PB) 11.68 m 23.25 6.51 m 36.36 m 2:10.47 6523 pts
2017 World Championships 13.33 1.80 m 12.47 m 22.86 6.56 m 41.72 m 2:08.10 6558 pts
2018 Commonwealth Games 13.54 1.87 m 11.54 m 23.56 6.50 m 40.46 m 2:21.24 6255 pts
2018 European Championships 13.34 1.91 m 13.09 m 22.88 6.68 m 42.16 m 2:09.84 6759 pts
2019 World Championships 13.09 (PB) 1.95 m 13.86 m (PB) 23.08 6.77 m 43.93 m (PB) 2:07.27 (PB) 6981 pts NR

National titles

See also

References
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