Who is Katarina Johnson-Thompson? The British heptathlete is eye Sports Personality of the Year award
KATARINA JOHNSON-THOMPSON is looking to end 2019 with another award to her name as she vies for the BBC Sports Personality of the Year title. She added a further two gold medals to her collection this, while also swapping stadiums for a kitchen by taking part in the Celebrity Bake Off. What is Katarina Johnson-Thompson’s […]
KATARINA JOHNSON-THOMPSON is looking to end 2019 with another award to her name as she vies for the BBC Sports Personality of the Year title.
She added a further two gold medals to her collection this, while also swapping stadiums for a kitchen by taking part in the Celebrity Bake Off.
What is Katarina Johnson-Thompson’s background?
Her parents are called Tracey and Ricardo, with her dad coming from the Bahamas.
She grew up in Liverpool and attended Catholic High School.
Some of her early funding came from the Wells Athletic Foundation.
But KJT has lived in Montpellier, France which has helped to take her from young prospect to global stardom.
Tell me about Kat’s career in a nutshell
Ever since Kat became European Under-23 heptathlon champion five years ago the Liverpudlian was expected to inherit the multi-eventing throne of Jessica Ennis-Hill.
But she has often been eclipsed by Olympic and world champion Nafi Thiam.
In Beijing in 2008, and then London and Rio poor Kat suffered Olympic heartache that less robust characters would not have recovered.
She again suffered heartbreak in Beijing after posting three fouls in the long jump and finishing back in 28th.
And she failed to medal at the World Athletics Champs in London in 2017.
But she has finally come up with a complete performance, having relocated to France to change her coaching set-up in 2017.
Has Kat won any gold medals?
Katarina Johnson-Thompson finally tasted glory on the global stage with victory in the pentathlon at the 2018 World Indoor Championships in Birmingham.
The horrors of recent global campaigns were forgotten as she came out on top over five disciplines.
Admittedly she was up against a moderate field but 25-year-old Kat still lapped up an immense victory.
She had previously won gold at the European Indoor Championships in 2015 in the pentathlon with a British record of 5000 points.
KJT then added to her gold haul with a win in the heptathlon at the Gold Coast Commonwealth Games 2018 in Australia.
She kicked off 2019 with gold after defending her European Indoor Championships title in the pentathlon in Glasgow, Scotland.
And she added her first world title, by beating the likes of Nafissatou Thiam and Verena Preiner to win gold in the heptathlon in Doha in October.
Katarina completed that with a score of 6981 points to set a new national record – beating Jessica Ennis-Hill’s personal best by 36 points.
What about her other results?
Kat was 15th at London 2012 and then fifth at the 2013 World Championships.
In the long jump she was the 2012 World Junior champion and the 2014 World Indoor silver medallist.
She also holds both British high jump records, outdoor with a height of 1.98m at the 2016 Olympic Games, indoor with a height of 1.97m at the 2015 British Indoor Athletics Championships.
Kat is also the British indoor long jump record holder with a distance of 6.93m, finishing sixth in the 2016 Olympic Games and fifth in the 2017 World Championships.
KJT also picked up silver in the European Championships in Berlin last year – and will be among the favourites to claim gold in the World Championships in September and Olympics in Tokyo next summer.