After two days and seven events, only seconds could separate them. Katarina Johnson-Thompson ran the 800m of her life – the only problem was she pushed the greatest heptathlete of all time into doing so as well. Nafi Thiam completed a historic hat-trick of Olympic titles in the heptathlon, collapsing across the line after chasing Johnson-Thompson down at the last. Thiam won gold by 36 points, or around two seconds.
Earlier, it was a medal in Paris at last for Dina Asher-Smith and Daryll Neita in the women’s 4x100m relay as Team GB won silver. But did they allow an Olympic gold to slip through their grasp in a rain-soaked Stade de France?
For Johnson-Thompson, the joy of a long-awaited first Olympics medal came with the anguish of finishing so close to gold. She had managed to put the injuries and heartbreak behind her to revive the Olympic dream that began at London 2012 and appeared out of reach when she ruptured her achilles in 2019. The 31-year-old was not going to give up the fight with one event to go, but the comeback in the 800m proved just beyond her.
Johnson-Thompson had to beat Thiam’s time in the 800m by roughly eight seconds to overhaul the Belgian’s lead in the standings, a near-impossible deficit. Although JohnsonThompson set a new personal best of 2:04:90, Thiam managed to keep the Liverpudlian within the required margin to defend her title. The 29-year-old knew she had been pushed all the way, though. Thiam, too, set a personal best of 2:10:62 to secure a final tally of 6880.
The precariousness of her lead and the challenge JohnsonThompson presented Thiam was evident on the opening lap. The Belgian stumbled when the runner behind her, Hungary’s Xenia Krizsan, clipped her heels. Thiam almost went down but managed to recover her stride. If she had fallen, then gold would have been Johnson-Thompson’s; instead, she was tightly marked throughout.
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