Katarina Johnson-Thompson: One step at a time 

This isn’t the first time Katarina Johnson-Thompson has found herself on the comeback trail - not even close. But while the setbacks have often followed a similar pattern, her response to them has changed immeasurably over the years.

This Saturday (21 May) sees her line up in the long jump field for the Birmingham Diamond League. It is one step in her recuperation from the injury - and heartbreak - she suffered at Tokyo 2020 where her Olympic dreams were shattered when she pulled up with a calf injury midway through the 200m portion of the heptathlon competition.

Even her being in Tokyo was a mini-miracle. The 2019 World Champion had suffered a ruptured Achilles tendon at the end of 2020 that had left her preparations for the Olympic Games in tatters.

But while the picture of her refusing the offer of a wheelchair to hobble across the Tokyo 2020 finish line, disappointment etched across her face, will live long in the memory, her resilience today sees her once again smiling and looking to the future with positivity.

When pressure and injury take their toll

“This year, for sure, is about me enjoying it and getting back into it. Hopefully the performances will follow,” KJT, as she is better-known in Britain, said in a recent interview with Athletics Weekly.

It can be immensely hard to pull yourself up by the boot straps after such a devastating end to an Olympic Games. However, for someone for whom this heartbreak was not the first, experience has shown her that a positive mindset is essential to get back on the medal trail.

At the Beijing 2015 World Athletics Championships, riddled with self-doubt and saddled with the pressure of the occasion, KJT fouled all three of her long jump attempts, making her dreams of a medal impossible.

Then in the lead up to Rio 2016, she had to undergo knee surgery, which once again left her unable to perform at her best in the Games, eventually finishing the competition in sixth.

"I don't think I had those transitional years. I just got thrown into the deep end and I think 2015 and 2016 in particular were those two years where I just couldn't handle it," she explained in a pre-Tokyo 2020 interview with the BBC where she spoke about the pressures of being hailed as the heir-apparent to Britain’s London 2012 heptathlon gold medallist Jessica Ennis-Hill.

They were moments that could have broken the now 29-year-old. But a change of coach - and mindset - set her on the way to glory.

Making changes - inside and out

In November 2016, Johnson-Thompson flew out to Montpellier, France where she began training with a new coach, Jean-Yves Cochand.

He revolutionsed her technique but - most importantly - caused her to completely change her way of thinking about competition.

It helped that her training partner at the time, Kevin Mayer, had experienced his own version of her Beijing 2015 nightmare and bounced back just months later to break the decathlon world record.

"My training partner Kevin Meyer, a French decathlete, has a really, really strong mindset too. He came to Berlin for the European Championships in 2018 as the world champion, but did three fouls in the long jump, she told the BBC.

"He came to the cameras, shrugged and said: 'It's sport. I wanted to give my best performance on the day and that meant that these things happen.'

"Two months later he went out and broke the decathlon world record and it is forgotten about.”

Under the tutelage of Cochand, Johnson-Thompson went from strength to strength, arriving at the World Championships in Doha in 2019 in top shape - both mentally and physically.

"I was ready to go and I was ready to lose as well,” she explained.

What followed was a scintillating display of athleticism in which she beat Belgium’s Olympic champion Nafissatou Thiam to gold in Doha and made herself a favourite for Tokyo 2020 in the lead-up to the Games.

On the comeback trail - one step at a time

It’s now nine months since those Games in Tokyo and the devastating end to Johnson-Thompson’s Olympic dreams. But on the flip side of the coin, it’s only two years until the next Olympics in Paris.

Johnson-Thompson is once again on the comeback trail, but this time with experience and self-knowledge on her side.

In Birmingham, she will have a new coach in her corner; Petros Kyprianou​​ has replaced Cochand after the latter took up more responsibilities with the French national setup.

In March, she took her first step back to the elite stage, finishing sixth in the pentathlon at the World Indoor Athletics Championships in Belgrade. This summer, provided all goes well, she will have the opportunity to fight to defend her world title in Oregon. And in two years' time, the ultimate dream - the Olympic Games Paris 2024.

Whatever happens in between, KJT will approach those challenges with a mindset forged out of maturity.

As she told Athletics Weekly: “Everything can be a learning curve – it’s just that the more experience you have, the more equipped you are to deal with it. That’s probably one of the reasons why I chose to do it [the World Indoors] as well. In the past I definitely would have reacted differently but I’m completely chilled and focused on summer.”