Double Olympic champion Jade Jones: Anxiety drove Tokyo 2020 upset
Nine months after her shock exit from Tokyo 2020, the two-time gold medallist opened up about her experience being "wrapped up" in anxiety and why she’s staying in the fight for gold at Paris 2024.
Taekwondo
Two-time Olympic taekwondo champion Jade Jones has revealed anxiety caused by lockdown kept her mentally out of the fight at Tokyo 2020.
The reigning world champion arrived in Japan the favourite to take a third consecutive Olympic gold but hopes of making history were dashed when Jones was beaten in her first bout by Refugee Team athlete Kimia Alizadeh.
The Team GB athlete’s early departure was one of the highest profile upsets at the Games.
Speaking in an interview with BBC Sports Wales, the 29-year-old shared that she had been suffering from anxiety in the build-up to Tokyo:
“I haven’t really spoken about it because it’s not the kind of thing I do. But I was struggling with a lot of anxiety in lockdown.
“I didn’t realise how much the lockdown affected me,” Jones said. “I was petrified to go near my family, thinking I was going to pass on this deadly thing – like everybody was. I was over-thinking everything. That’s where it started.”
For the taekwondo star not having that normal connection with her family began to take its toll and her anxiety grew worse and worse: “I got proper wrapped up into it,” Jones added.
And without them by her side at the Games because of the health protocols in place she admitted it impacted her performance:
“What normally helps is my family being there to cheer me on – something to fight for almost.
“It was a totally different thing to what I was used to in Tokyo. It was dead. Because we were the first on as well it didn’t even feel like an Olympics. It just felt strange. So, I just struggled to get into that zone mentally.”
Jones, now, is in a much better place thanks to the help of her support network, including teammate and Tokyo 2020 bronze medallist Bianca Walkden.
The athlete from Flint recently returned to competition for the first time since her defeat and did so in some style, picking up the -57kg gold in the WT President’s Cup in Albania back in February.
The result comes off the back of the three-time European champion’s new perspective which involves shedding expectation and just trying her best.
And Jones believes her best is still enough.
With Paris 2024 ever approaching the two-time champion said that she said had every faith that she could bring home a third Olympic title:
“I genuinely believe I can still get that gold medal,” Jones continued “But it’s just that realisation that it’s tough. I could go again and lose my first fight again. So, it’s about being realistic that it might not be a fairy-tale ending – but I’m going to give it my best.”